


-^^rv^ 










c»_ * 















^/ ^ "^ 




"X ^'^:^^'> .^<-^iA co^c;^.^-o 



'^o^ 








.^ .,. 











/ -*^fe''' \/^ *:aVa^ '^^ ^^ *^f^'. -%. J" .:; 






%.*' 















Digitized by the Internet Arciiive 
in 2011 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/manualofancientm02tayl 



MANUAL 



ANCIENT AND MODERN HISTORY; 



COMPRISING 

I. ANCIENT HISTORY, 

CONTAINING THE POLITICAL HISTOEY, GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION, AND SOCIAL STATE 

OF THE PRINCIPAL NATIONS OF ANTIQUITY, CAREFULLY REVISED 

FROM THE ANCIENT WRITERS. 



11. MODERN HISTOEY, 



CONTAINING THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE PRINCIPAL EUROPEAN NATIONS, THEIR 

POLITICAL HISTORY, AND THE CHANGES IN THEIR SOCIAL CONDITION, 

WITH A HISTORY OF THE COLONIES FOUNDED BY EUROPEANS. 

■"^ . 

BY W. C. TAYLOR, LL.D., M.R.A.S., 

OF TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN. 



REVISED, WITH A CHAPTER ON THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

BY C. S. HENRY, D.D., 

PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY AND HISTORY IN THE UNITERSITT 
OF THE CITY OF HEW YORK. 



NEW YORK: 

D. APPLETON & CO., 200 BROADWAY- 

PHILADELPHIA: 
GBOEGE S. APPLETON, 148 CHESNUT ST. 

MDCCCXLV. 









Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1844, 

Bt D. APPLETON & COMPANY, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Conrt of the TTnited States, for the Southern District 
of New York. 



Gi« 
Mrs. Hennen Jennings 
'-' April 26, 19S3 



PREFACE. 



In bringing out an American edition of this work, the publishers 
were desirous not only to furnish a valuable work for general readers, 
but also to make it in point of size and price as well adapted to the 
wants of public instruction as they believed it to be in intrinsic merit. 
In complying with their request to revise the work with this view, the 
present editor has made a few slight curtailments — principally in the 
first part of the volume of Ancient History — which could be made with- 
out suppressing or in any way distorting or impairing any material fact 
or statement. 

In the English edition, all that is to be found relating to the history 
of the United States amounts to two or three pages, interspersed in the 
history of England. In the place of these meager notices, the present 
editor has appended to the volume of Modern History a distinct and 
special chapter, giving to the history of the United States its proportion- 
ate place in general history, and to which it is certainly entitled in a 
work designed for public instruction in this country. He trusts that 
this sketch will be found to contain a fair and clear view of the leading 
events of our history. 

In the preface to the third American edition of Guizot's History of 
European Civilization, the present editor took occasion to offer some 
remarks upon the study of history as a part of the course of studies 
pursued in our higher institutions : in which he attempted to answer the 
extremely difficult question, " How best to employ the very limited time 
allotted to history in the usual course of public instruction ?" On the 
one hand, it is obvious that a thorough knowledge of history (which it 
is the work of years to gain) can never be acquired in the time allowed ; 



IV PREFACE. 

and on the other hand, it is far more difficult to make a successful be- 
ginning, to lay a good foundation in history, than in the other studies 
included in the usual public coujrse. This it is which makes the most 
useful employment of the little time allowed so perplexing a problem. 

The conclusion to which the editor arrived was, that in the impos- 
sibility of communicating a thorough knowledge of history in this time, 
thus much should be attempted : 1. The study of some judicious work 
of general history ; 2. The study of some good specimen of the phi- 
losophy of history, as it is called, or the method of generalizing and 
reflecting upon the facts of history ; and 3. The thorough investigation 
of some small portion of special history. The editor recommended the 
work of Guizot, referred to above, as a good specimen of philosophical 
reflection upon kSstory ; and he knows no work on general history better 
adapted to the purpose of public instruction than the present. 

C. S. H. 

New YoAk, December 11, 1844. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The use of history is not to load the memory with facts, but to store 
the mind with principles — to collect from the experience of past ages 
rules for our conduct as individuals and as members of society. Every 
historical work, therefore, professes to give only a selection of events ; 
and the writer's choice is determined by the nature of his history : the 
general historian directs attention to the occurrences that have changed 
the general aspect of society, the revolutions of states and empires, the 
causes that led to them, and the consequences by which they were fol- 
lowed. The special historian confines his attention to one class of 
facts, specified in the title of his work-: thus the ecclesiastical historian 
writes only of the affairs of the church ; the military historian confines 
his narrative to wars and battles ; and the commercial historian devotes 
his attention exclusively to trade. 

But even general histories may, in some degree, be regarded as 
special ; their object may be called " political," that is, they profess to 
describe the destinies of nations, both in their external relations with 
foreign states, and in their internal affairs. Under the first head are 
comprised wars, treaties of peace or alliance, and commercial inter- 
course ; under the second, governments, institutions, and manners. 
Such a history must, to a certain extent, be a history of civilization ; 
for it will describe the progress of social improvement, and the prog- 
ress of the human mind. These essential parts of civilization must 
not be confounded ; for we shall have more than once occasion to 
remark, that the social system, or, in other words, the relations between 
the different parts of society, may display great wisdom and justice, 
while men, in their individual capacity, continue the slaves of ignorance 
and superstition. 

A distinction is usually made between the narrative and the philoso- 



▼1 INTRODUCTION. 

phy of history : in the former are included the actions of kings and 
rulers, the accounts of wars and treaties, the rise and fall of empires ; 
in the latter are comprehended descriptions of the political and religious 
institutions, the organization of society, the amount of knowledge, the 
state of industiy and the arts, the morals, the habits, and the prevailing 
prejudices in any age or nation ; and the facts thus ascertained by phi- 
losophy, are shown to be the causes of the events detailed in the nar- 
rative. It is possible to go back a step further, and to trace the origin 
of these institutions and manners in the succession of opinions, and 
gradual development of the human intellect. But unassisted reason 
can go no further ; the law fixed by Providence for the succession of 
opinions and development of mind, can only be known to its omniscient 
Author, but that such a law exists, is proved to us by the fulfilment of 
prophecy, by the frequent instances of unconscious agents working out 
the great designs of God. 

It is proposed in the following pages to unite the philosophy with 
the narrative of history, to combine events with their causes, and direct 
occasionally the attention of the student to the progress of civilization, 
both in its effect on society and on individuals. Sacred history — the 
account of the direct operations of the Divine agency on his chosen 
servants and chosen people — is necessarily excluded from a political 
history ; but the general course of Providence displayed in the moral 
. government of his creatures is an essential element of our plan : it is, 
in fact, the principle of unity that binds together its several parts. 

The necessary companions of history are chronology and geography ; 
they determine the time when, and the place where, each event oc- 
"curred. The difficulties of chronology arise both from the imperfection 
of records, and from varieties in the mode of computation : the former 
can not be remedied ; but, to prevent the mistakes which rnay arise 
from this 'cause, uncertain dates have been marked with an asterisk: 
the sedbnd source of confusion is removed by using throughout solar 
years for a measure of time, and the birth of Christ as an era from 
which to reckon. 

Instead of constructing a general system of ancient geography, it 
has seemed better to prefix a geographical outline of the history of 
each separate country, and to combine with it some account of the na- 
ture of the soil, and its most remarkable animal and vegetable produc- 
tions. There is no doubt that the position, climate, and fertility of a 
country, have a powerful influence over the character, condition, and 
destiny of its inhabitants, and ought not to be omitted in the considera- 
tion of their history. 



INtaODUCTION. ^'toi 

Tiie arrangement of this work is both chronological and geographi- 
cal ; the history of each country is given separately, but the states are 
arranged in the order of their attaining a commanding influence in the 
world. To this there are two exceptions — Egypt, which is placed 
'first, on' accbunt of its being the earliest organized government of 
which we have any authentic record ; and India, which is placed last, 
because it exercised no marked influence over the most remarkable 
nations of ancient times. 

The history of Greece in this volume has a less orderly appearance 
than in most similar works, because it contains not merely the histories 
of Athens and Sparta, to which most writers confine their attention, 
but also those of the minor states, the islands and the colonies. A 
chapter has been added on the colonial policy of the Greeks — a subject 
of great importance in itself, and peculiarly interesting to a commer- 
cial country. 

To the Roman history there is prefixed a brief account of the 
ancient inhabitants of Italy before the era usually assigned for the 
foundation of Rome. In the earlier period of the republic, notice is 
taken of the reasonable doubts that have been raised respecting the 
authenticity of the common narrative ; but care has been taken to avoid 
an excess of skepticism, which is at least as bad as an excess of 
credulity. 

In the chapter on India, attention has been directed to the ancient 
routes of trade between that country and eastern Europe : many of 
these subsist to the present day ; projects have been formed for reopen- 
ing others ; some account of them consequently appears . necessary, 
for illustrating both ancient commerce and modern policy. 

In a general summary, restricted within narrow limits, it is scarcely 
possible to avoid dryness of details ; notes have therefore been added, 
consisting for the most part of illustrations and anecdotes, that may 
serve both to relieve the mind, and to place important traits of charac- 
ter, national and individual, in a clearer light. 

It has been deemed advisable to take some notice of the mythology, 
as well as the real history, of nations ; for though mythic traditions 
may in many or in most instances have had no foundation, yet they 
should not be wholly neglected by the historian, for they had a share 
in forming, and they help to illustrate, the character of the nation by 
which they were once believed. At the same time, care has been 
taken to separate these traditions from the authenticated narrative, and 
to discriminate between those that have, and those that have not, some 
probable foundation in fact. 



VUl INTEODUCTION. 

Political reflections and moral inferences from the narrative have, in 
general, been avoided : the instructive lessons of history are, for the 
most part, found on the surface, and may best be collected by the stu- 
dents themselves. It is not quite fair to prejudge questions for the 
mind ; the chief business of those who write for the young should be 
to make them think, not to think for them. 

The author has to acknowledge his great obligations to the works 
of Professor Heeren, whose volumes on the Politics, Intercourse, and 
Trade of Ancient Nations, should form part of every historical library; 
he has also borrowed very copiously from the valuable essays that have 
appeared in the Memoirs of the French Academy of Inscriptions ; his 
particular obligations in the several chapters need not be specified, 
most of them being mentioned in the notes. 

The design of this introduction is merely to explain the plan of the 
work ; some few suggestions, however, may be added on the mode 
of using it. Students should compare the geographical chapters with 
maps, and fix in their minds the most characteristic natural features of 
the country whose history they are about to commence. One division 
should be thoroughly mastered before another is begun ; and when the 
whole is gone through, it will be found a most useful exercise to 
synchronize the events in the history of one country with the events in 
the history of another ; for instance, to trace the condition of the Ro- 
man republic at the time of the battle of Arbela. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



ANCIENT HISTORY. 



Chapter I. — Egypt. 

PAGE. 

Sect. I. Geographical Outline 1 

II. Political and Social Condition of the Egyptians 2 

ni. History of Egypt from the earliest Period to the Accession of Psam- 

metichus 5 

rV. History of Egypt from the Reign of Psammetichus to its subjugation 

by Cambyses - 9 

V. Egyptian Manufactures and Commerce 11 

Chapter II. — The Ethiopians. 

Sect. I. Geographical Outline and Natural History 13 

II. History of the Ethiopians .• 14 

III. Arts, Commerce, and Manufactures of Meroe 15 

Chapter III. — Babylonia and .Assyria. 

Sect. I. Geographical Outline and Natural History 17 

II. Political and Social Condition of the Assyrians and Babylonians 18 

III. History of the Assyrians and Babylonians 19 

rV. Description of Nineveh and Babylon 23 

V. Commerce and Manufactures of the Babylonians 25 

Chapter IV. — Western ^sia. 

Sect. I. Asia Minor. — Geographical Outline 27 

II. Ancient History of Asia Minor 28 

III. Syria. — Geographical Outline 29 

rV. Social and Political Condition of the Syrians and Phoenicians 30 

V. History of the Syrians and Phoenicians 31 

VI. Phoenician Colonies and Foreign Possessions , . . .32 

VII. Phoenician Manufactures and Commerce 33 

Chapter V. — Palestine. 

Sect. I. Geographical Outline 36 

II. History of Palestine 36 

III. The Conquest of Canaan by Joshua 39 

rV. History of Israel under the Judges > 40 



X TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

PASE, 

Sect. V. History of the United Kingdom of Israel 42 

VI. The Revolt of the Ten Tribes.— The Kingdom of Israel 47 

VII. The Kingdom of Judah 51 

Chapter VI. — The Empire of the Medes and Persians. 

Sect. I. Geographical Outline 58 

II. Sources and Extent of our Knowledge respecting the Ancient 

Persians 59 

III. Social and Political Condition of Ancient Persia 60 

IV. History of the Medes and Persians under the Kaianian Dynasty 62 

V. History of the Persians under the Hytaspid Dynasty 64 

Chapter VII. — Phcenician Colonies in Northern Africa. 

Sect. I. Geographical Outline of Northern Africa 68 

II. Social and Polilical Condition of Carthage 69 

HI. History of Carthage from the Foundation of the City to the Com- 
mencement of the Syracusan Wars 70 

IV. History of Carthage during the Sicilian Wars 73 

V. From the Commencement of the Roman Wars to the Destruction of 

Carthage 76 

VI. Navigation, Trade, and Commerce of Carthage 79 

Chapter VIII. — The Foundation of the Grecian States. 

Sect. I. Geographical Outline of Hellas 81 

II. Geographical Outline of the Peloponnesus 83 

III. The Grecian Islands in the iEgean and Mediterranean Seas 85 

IV. The Ionian Islands 85 

V. The Social and Political Condition of Greece 86 

VI. Traditional History of Greece from the earliest Ages to the Com- 
mencement of the Trojan War 89 

VII. From the Trojan War to the Colonization of Asia Minor 92 

Chapter IX. — History of the Grecian States and Colonies before the 
Persian War. 

Sect. I. Topography of Sparta 95 

II. Legislation of Lycurgus, and the Messenian Wars 95 

III. Topography of Athens 97 

IV. History of Athens to the Beginning of the Persian War .99 

V. Historical Notices of the Minor States of Greece previous to the 

Persian War 102 

VI. History of the principal Grecian Islands 103 

VII. History of the Greek Colonies in Asia Minor 104 

Vln. History of the Greek Colonies on the Euxine Sea, Coast of Thrace, 

Macedon, &c 106 

Chapter 'K.— History of Greece from the Persian Wars to the 
Accession of Alexander the Great. 

Sect. I. The First Persian "War 108 

n. The Second Persian War 110 

in. The First Peloponnesian War 113 

IV. The Second Peloponnesian War 118 

V. Tyrannical Rule of Sparta. — Third Peloponnesian War 121 

VI. The Second Sacred War. — Destruction of Grecian Freedom 128 

Chapter XI. — The Macedonian Kingdom and Empire. 

Sect. I. Geographical Outline of Macedon. 131 

n. History of the Macedonian Monarchy 132 

ITT , Dissolution of the Macedonian Empire 138 



TABLE or CONTENTS. XI 

• Chapter Xll.— History of the States %at arose from the Dismemberment" 
of the Macedonian Empire. 

PAGE. 

Sect. I. History of Macedon and Greece from the Battle of Ipsus to the 

Roman Conquest . • •. J45 

II. History of the Kingdom of Syria under the Seleucidse. ..i 153 

III. History of Esypt under the Ptolemies 158 

IV. History *f the Minor Kingdoms in Western Asia 162 

V. History of Bactria and Parthia • 166 

VI. History of Idumea, and its Capital Petra loo 

VII. History of the Jews from their Return out of the Babylonish Cap- 
tivity to the Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus 171 

Chapter XIH. — History of Ancient Italy. 

Sect. I. Geographical Outline |83 

II. Historical Notices of the early Inhabitants of Italy 187 

in. The Greek Colonies in Italy 190 

Chapter XIV.— History of Sicily. 

Sect. I. Geographical Outline • • • • • • • 193 

II. Historical Notices of the eafly Inhabitants of bicily 1^0 

III. The History of Syracuse 19' 

Chapter XV. — History of the Roman Republic. 

Sect. I. Traditions respecting the Origin of the Romans 200 

II. From the Foundation of Rome to the Abolition of Royalty 201 

III. From the Establishment of the Roman Republic to the Burning of 

the City by the Gauls 206 

IV. From the Rebuilding of the City to the First Punic War 215 

V. From the Commencement of the Punic Wars to the Beginning of the 

Civil Dissensions under the Gracchi 218 

VI. From the Beginning of the Civil Dissensions under the Gracchi to 

the Downfall of the Republic 228 

VII. The Establishment of the Roman Empire 237 

Chapter XVI.— Geographical and Political Condition of the Roman Empire. 

Sect. I. European Countries. — Spain 243 

n. Transalpine Gaul 243 

HI. Britain f* 

IV. Northern Provinces of the Empire ^4& 

V. Asiatic and African Provinces • 247 

VI. The Principal Nations on the Frontiers of the Empire 248 

VII. Topography of the City of Rome. . , 251 

Chapter XVU.— History of the Roman Empire. 

Sect. I. The Reigns of the Family of the Caesars.. . i • 256 

II. From the Extinction of the Julian to that of the first Flavian 

Family • 265 

nl. From the Extinction of the first Flavian Family to the last of the 

Antonines • ^''■ 

rV. Foreign Commerce of the Romans in the Age of the Anto- 
nines • • • • 2' 8 

V. From the Extinction of the Antonines to the Establishment of 

Military Despotism •. "80 

VI. From the Murder of Alexander Severus to the Captivity of Valerian 

and the Usurpation of the Thirty Tyrants 285 



Xll TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

Sect. VII. From the Captivity of Valerian to the Resignation of Dioclesian. . .289 
VIII. From the Resignation of Dioclesian to the Death of Constantine 

tlie Great 295 

IX. From the Death of Constantine to the Reunion of the Empire 

under Theodosius the Great 301 

X. Overthrow of the Western Empire 312 

Chapter XVin. — India. • 
Early History 318 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



MODERN HISTORY 



Chapter I. — Consequences of the Fall of the Western Empire. 

FAOE. 

Sect. I. The Gothic Kingdom of Italy 327 

II. The Reign of Justinian 329 

III. The Establishment of the Civil Law 334 

IV. History of the Silk Trade. — Introduction of the Silkworm into 

Europe 337 

V. The Monarchy of the Franks, under the Merovingian Dynasty 341 

VI. The Lombard Monarchy 346 

VII. The Anglo-Saxons , 349 

Chapter II. — The Rise and Establishment of the Saracenic Power. 

Sect. I. Political and Social Condition of the East at the Coming of Mohammed . 352 

II. State of Arabia at the Coming of Mohammed 355 

ni. The Preaching of Mohammed 357 

IV. Early Progress of the Saracens 361 

Chapter III. — Restoration of the Western Empire. 

Sect. I. The Life of Charlemagne .- 369 

II. Decline and Fall of the Carlovingian Dynasty 375 

III. The Foundation of the Germanic Empire. 382 

IV. State of the East from the Establishment to the Overthrow of the 

Khaliphate 387 

Chapter IV. — Growth of the Fapal .Power. 

Sect. I. The Origin of the Papacy 390 

n. The early Development of the Political System of the Papacy 394 

III. The Struggle for Supremacy between the Popes and Emperors 398 

rV. Revival of the Papal Power 401 

v. Pontificate of Gregory VII 406 

VI. The War of Investitures 412 

Vn. The Crusades 416 

VIII. The Crusade against the Albigenses 421 

IX. Consequences of the Crusades 427 

X. Formation and Constitutional History of the Spanish Monarchy 430 

XI. Survey of the Constitution of Aragon 434 

XII. State of Western Europe at the Commencement of the Fourteenth 

Century 437 

Xm. Pontificate of Boniface VIII 442 

XrV. State of England and the Northern Kingdoms at the Commence- 

ment of the Fourteenth Century • • • • •448 

XV. Revolutions in the East in Consequence of the Mongolian Invasion... 450 



XIV TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

Chapter V. — The Revival of Literature. — The Progress of Civili- 
zatio)i and Invention. 

FAOG. 

Sect. I. Decline of the Papal Power. — The Great Schism of the West 453 

II. First Revival of Literature, and Inventions in Science 469 

III. Progress of Commerce 472 

IV. Revolutions of Germany, France, and Spain 479 

V. The State of England and the Northern Kingdoms in the Fourteenth 

and Fifteenth Centuries 483 

VI. Rise and Progress of the Ottomaa Empire 486 

Chapter VI. — The Reformation, and Commencement of the States- 
System in Europe. 

Sect. I. Progress of Maritime Discovery 490 

II. Origin of the Reformation 495 

III. History of the Negotiations and Wars respecting Italy 500 

IV. The History of Burgundy under the Princes of the House of Valois. . .502 

V. The History of Burgundy (continued) 505 

VI. The History of Burgundy (concluded) 507 

VII. The Age of Charles V 512 

VIU. The Age of Elizabeth 524 

IX. The Age of Gustavus Adolphus 536 

X. Administration of the Cardinals Richelieu and Mazarine 540 

XI.. Formation of the States-System in the Northern Kingdoms of Europe. .546 

XII. Progress of the Turkish Power in Europe 549 

Chapter VII. — The Augustan Ages of England and France, 

Sect. I. State of the Continental Kingdoms after the Peace of Westphalia 553 

II. History of England under the Commonwealth 556 

III. History of England, from the Restoration to the Revolution ; and 

Rise of the Power of Louis XIV 564 

IV. General History of Europe, from the League of Augsburg to the 

Formation of the Grand Alliance 578 

V. The War of the Spanish Succession 583 

VI. Peter the Great of Russia.— Charles XII. of Sweden 590 

Chapter VIII. — Growth of the Mercantile aud Colonial System. 

Sect. L' Establishment of the Hanoverian Succession in England 599 

n. The Colonial Struggle between France and Great Britain 609 

m. The Seven Years' War 613 

Chapter IX. — The Age of Revolutions. 

Sect. I. Change in the Relations of the Catholic Powers to the Holy See. — 

Dismemberment of Poland 626 

n. History of England, from the Peace of Paris to the Commencement 

of the American War 630 

m. The American War 634 

rV. The British Empire in India 637 

V. History of Europe, from the End of the American War to the Com- 

mencement of the French Revolution. ► 639 

VI. The French Revolution 642 

Chapter X. — The French Empire. 

Sect. I. Renewal of the War between England and France • 655 

II. Progress of Napoleon's Power 659 

m. The French Invasion of Spain .* 663 

rV. The Russian War , . .673 

V,. History of Europe, from the Dethronement of Napoleon to the 
Ui . . . ,; Conclusion of the Treaty of Vienna. 678 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. XV 

Chapter XI. — History of the Peace. 

PAGE. 

Sect. I. State of Europe at the Close of the War 682 

II. History of Europe during the Reign of George IV 684 

III. History of Europe during the Reign of William IV 692 

Chapter XII. — History of Colonization.. 

Sect. I. The Establishment of the Spaniards in Mexico 706 

II. The Establishment of the Spaniards in Peru 716 

ni. The Portuguese Colonies in South America 719 

IV. Tbe English in America 725 

V. Colonization of the West Indies 726 

VI. The Portuguese in India 728 

VII. The Spaniards in the East Indies 730 

VIII. The Dutch in the East Indies , 730 

IX. The Danes in the East Indies 732 

X. The French in the East Indies .- 732 

XI. The English in India 733 

Chapter XIII. — History of China 742 

Chapter XIV. — History of the Jews 747 

Chapter XV. — History of the United States. 

Sect. I. Colonial History 752 

II. Revolutionary History 759 

III. Constitutional History 767 

Tables of Contemporary Dynasties 786 

Genealogical Table of the Bourbons 796 

Genealogical Table of the Royal Family of England 797 



^ 



THE 



STUDENT'S MANUAL 

OF 

ANCIENT HISTORY. 



CHAPTER I. 
EGYPT. 

Section 1. — Geographical Outline. 

Egypt is tlie country in which we first find a government and polit- 
ical institutions established. Civilization everywhere seems to have 
commenced in the formation of agricultural associations, on the banks 
of rivers ; and the Nile invites men to tillage more forcibly than any 
other. Egypt itself has been called, from the earliest antiquity, " the 
Gift of the Nile," and its annual inundations have had a vast influence 
over the lives and customs, the religion and science, indeed, the entire 
social existence of the people. It appears that civilization advanced 
northward along the valley of the river : and we shall therefore com- 
mence our examination of the land, at the southern frontier of Egypt. 

The Nile enters Egypt near the city of Syene, below the cataracts, 
and flows through a narrow valley, about nine miles in breadth, to 
Chem'mis, where the valley begins to widen. At Cercasorus, sixty 
miles from its mouth, the stream divides, and encloses a triangular 
piece of country, called the Delta. The narrow valley from Syene to 
Chem'mis was called Upper Egypt ; the wider valley. Middle Egypt ; 
and the Delta, Lower Egypt. 

Rain seldom falls in Lower Egypt, almost never in the upper 
regions : the fertility of the country, therefore, depends on the annual 
overflowings of the river. These inundations are caused by the heavy 
rains, that fall in Upper Ethiopia, from May to September. The rivers 
of that country pour their waters into the Nile, which begins to rise 
about the middle of June. Early in August, the river overflows its 
banks, giving the vaEey of the Nile the appearance of an inland sea. 
Toward the beginning of October, the waters begin to subside, and, by 
the end of the month, are confined to the proper channel of the river. 
The fertility of Egypt extends as far as this inundation reaches, oi can 
be continued by artificial means. 

1 



2 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

The eastern side of the valley of the Nile is a mountainous range 
of country, extending to the Red sea, suited, in some districts, for pas- 
turage, but unfit for agriculture ; abounding, however, in those rich 
quarries of marble and building stone, that formed the inexhaustible 
magazines for the architectural wonders of Egypt. 

On the western side of the Nile, the valley is bounded by a stony 
ridge covered with sand, which slopes on its remote side, into the 
Great Desert. This ridge protects the valley from the sands of the 
desert, which would otherwise desolate the whole country. 

Upper Egypt contains far the most numerous and interesting monu- 
ments. Near the cataracts, are the islands of Philse and Elephantine, 
containing the proudest edifices of antiquity ; lower down, the city of 
Apollo ; then Thebes, filling" the whole valley on both sides of the 
Nile with enormous temples, more like mountains than human edifices, 
colossal statues, sphinxes, and obelisks, with the Catacombs, in the 
mountains on the western bank of the river ; and lastly, Dendera, with 
the celebrated Zodiac sculptured on its mighty temple. 

Middle Egypt is a wider valley. It contains the lake Moeris, an 
immense reservoir, partly natural, partly artificial, and affording such 
facilities for regulating the irrigation of the country, that this was the 
most fertile district of Egypt. The labyrinth, so renowned in antiquity, 
was near Arsinoe. Below Arsinoe was Memphis, the capital of Middle 
Egypt. This was the city of the Pharaohs who received the family 
of Israel. There are now but slight remains of its temples and 
palaces : the neighboring mountains are, however, filled with catacombs 
similar to those of Upper Egypt. But the most remarkable monuments 
of tliis district are the Pyramids. 

Lower Egypt, or the Delta, possesses, from the extension of the 
river, a greater quantity of fertile land than the other districts. It was 
covered with flourishing cities, as Sais, Naucratis, and Alexandria, 
which last, situated on the western frontier of the Lybian desert, still 
retains the naine, and proves by its extensive trade the wisdom of its 
great founder. 

The more civilized portion of the Egyptians dwelt in the rich plains 
of the valley, and attained a perfection in the arts of social life, that 
but for the irresistible evidence of the monuments, would scarcely be 
credited. It was the great object of the sacerdotal and royal policy, 
to keep this population stationary, to direct their attention to agricul- 
ture, commerce, and manufactures, and to prevent them from adopting 
the nomad life of the pastoral and plundering tribes on their north- 
eastern frontiers : and hence we find it recorded, that " every shepherd 
was an abomination to the Egyptians." 

Section II. — Polillcal and Social Condilion of the Egyptians. 

It appears that the Egyptians were a brown race of people, and 
that the higher castes of priests and warriors were fairer than the other 
classes. It has been conjectured that the Egyptians derived their 
system of civilization from the Hindus : but it is difficult to conceive 
how this could be. 

Local circumstances produced marked differences in the habits and 



EGYPT. 3 

manners of the people. In the mountainous eastern districts and in 
the fens of the Delta, where agriculture was impossible, the inhabitants 
led a pastoral life. On the Nile and along the coast, were tribes of 
fishermen. In the rich plains, dwelt the more civilized part of the 
nation. The institution of castes existed among them. The priests 
and warriors were the most honored ; next, the agriculturists, mer- 
chants, mariners, and artisans ; the lowest caste was that of shep- 
herds. 

The migrations of the priestly caste from their native regions in the 
south, were not simultaneous ; they formed settlements at different 
times, in the most fertile portions of the valley. The central point of 
the colony was always a temple, round which cities were gradually 
formed. These settlements afterward led to the division of the country 
into names, a name given by the Egyptians to a city, its environs and 
dependant villages. There was a religious (as originally a political) 
distinction between these nomes : each city had its own presiding 
deity, and the animals regarded as sacred in one nome were not 
respected in another. The history of these petty states is unknown ; 
but they were finally absorbed in the dominion of Thebes and Mem- 
phis. 

The nations bordering on the Egyptians were, for the most part, 
barbarous and wandering tribes, whose avarice was roused by the 
increasing opulence of the valley of the Nile. The Hyk''sos, or 
shepherd-kings, as they were called, came from Arabia, and, after many 
predatory incursions, made themselves masters of Lower and Middle 
Egypt. 

Egypt became united under one sovereign, after the expulsion of the 
Hyk''sos : and the divisions of the people into castes, and of the country 
into nomes, were permanently fixed. The priestly caste was subdi- 
vided into families, each devoted and restricted to a separate temple 
and a particular God. Over each of these sacerdotal subdivisions a 
high-priest presided, whose office was hereditary ; and the high-priests 
of metropolitan temples enjoyed authority almost equal to that of kings. 
And their influence was greatly strengthened by their monopoly of 
every branch of scientific loiowledge. They were not only priests, 
but also judges, soothsayers, physicians, architects, and sculptors. 

The warrior-caste ranked next to that of the priests : the royal 
family belonged to it. Certain nomes were assigned to the support of 
this caste, most of which were in Lower Egypt, where the country 
was most exposed to attack. 

The Egyptians were the earliest nation that organized a regular 
army, and thus laid the foundation of the whole system of ancient 
warfare. A brief account of their military aflfairs will therefore illus- 
trate, not only their history, but that of the great Asiatic monarchies, 
and of the Greeks, during the heroic ages. 

The most important division of an Egyptian army was the body 
of war-chariots, used instead of cavalry. These chariots were mounted 
on two wheels, and made, especially the wheels, with great care. 
They were hung low ; open behind, so that the warrior could easily 
step in and out ; and without seat. They were drawn by two horses, 
and generally contained two warriors, one of whom managed the steeds 



4 ANCIEifT HISTORY. 

while the other fought. Nations were distinguished from each other 
by the shape of their chariots. 

Great attention was paid to the breeding and training of horses, in 
Egypt. The harness and housings of the horses were richly deco- 
rated ; and fixed to the chariots, on the outside, was a quiver and bow- 
case, decorated also with extraordinary taste and skill. The bow was 
the national weapon, employed both by infantry and cavalry. No 
nation of antiquity paid so much attention to archery as the Egyptians ; 
their arrows were drawn to the ear ; and their bows were more pow- 
erful, and their arrows better aimed, than those of other nations. The 
children of the warrior-caste were trained from earliest infancy to the 
practice of archery. 

The arms of the Egyptian heavy-armed infantry were a spear, a 
dagger, a short sword, a helmet, and a shield. Pole-axes and battle- 
axes were occasionally used. Coats-of-mail were used only by the 
principal officers, and some remarkable warriors, like Goliath, the 
champion of the Philistines. The light troops were armed with 
swords, battleaxes, maces, and clubs. 

The system of discipline and drill was very complete. Every bat- 
talion had its standard, with some symbol or sacred object represented 
on it, usually the cognizance of the nome or tribe. The soldiers were 
levied by conscription, drilled to the sound of the trumpet, and taught 
to march in measured time. 

Cavalry, in the earlier period, were not employed as a military body, 
but used as skirmishers, vedettes, and expresses, rather than as war- 
riors. The Egyptians generally treated their captives with great 
cruelty, putting them to death, or reducing them to slavery. 

The religion and government of Egypt were intimately blended : 
there Avere prescribed forms and ceremonies for every important action, 
which even kings dared not neglect. This gave the priests paramount 
control over public affairs and domestic life. The religion of the 
priests seems to have been more refined than the gross idolatry of the 
lower classes : one general idea, however, pervades the entire system 
— the importance of agriculture to a state. Hence, the great influence 
of astronomy in their theology, as determining the times and seasons 
for agricultural operations ; hence, also, the deification of the produc- 
tive powers of nature. Never were a people more dependant on 
priestly astrologers than the Egyptians : the stars were consulted for 
every imdertaking, private or public, and the priests alone had the right 
to consult them and deliver their oracles. The belief in a future state 
influenced every portion of Egyptian life : but the nature of the creed 
is difficult to be explained. In fact, there were two inconsistent creeds, 
the belief in transmigration of souls, confined to the priestly caste ; 
and the belief that the soul will continue as long as the body endures 
— whence the practice of so carefully embalming, and of hewing sep- 
ulchres in the solid rock. The latter was the popular opinion ; hence, 
the importance of the rites of burial, and the dread of the trial after 
death, when a tribunal, under priestly direction, determined whether 
the body should be placed in the tomb, or left to natural decay. 

The relative position of the lower castes varied at different times ; 
but all trades and professions were hereditary. It was probably sup- 



EGYPT. O 

posed that this exclusive dedication of families to separate employments 
would insure perfection in the arts ; and, certainly, the progress of the 
Egyptians, especially in architecture, surpasses that of any other 
nation. 

Gymnastic exercises and music were the favorite amusements of 
the ancient Egyptians. At their meals, they used chairs and tables not 
imlike our own. Women were treated more respectfully than in other 
countries of the East. Great respect was paid to age and rank. 

The principal trees of Egypt were the sycamore, the fig, the pome- 
granate, the peach, the locust-tree, and the vine. Great care was taken 
of the vines. Wine was used in great quantities, by the nobles and 
wealthy merchants. Of esculent vegetables growing wild, the most 
remarkable were the lotus, a kind of lily, and the papynis ; the leaves 
of the latter, dried and prepared, were used for writing upon. The 
cultivated vegetables were corn and pulse, cotton, melons, cucumbers, 
onions, &c. 

The domestic animals of the Egyptians were the same as those of 
most civilized countries. The cat was held in particular honor. The 
animals of the mountain and desert were the wild ox, the goat and 
sheep, and the antelope. They seem to have obtained camels from 
some foreign country. Among the amphibious animals of the Nile, 
the crocodile and the hippopotamus deserve to be noticed, the skin of 
the latter being regarded as the best covering for shields. Wild and 
tame fowl abounded ; the eggs of geese and other poultry were hatched 
in ovens heated to the requisite temperature, a process still used by the 
modern Copts. 

Section III. — History of Egypt from the earliest period to the Accession 
of Psammetichus. 

FROM B. C. 1900 TO B. C. 650. 

Egypt was originally composed of several small states, of which the 
first were founded in Upper Egypt. Though Thebes was the most 
ancient of the powerful states, Memphis is that of which we have the 
earliest accounts. It was the metropolis of a powerful kingdom when 
it was visited by the patriarch Abraham, and already the centre of a 
flourishing corn-trade. The court of the reigning Pharaoh was reg- 
ularly organized : the jealousy of foreigners, especially the heads of 
pastoral tribes, was not yet apparent, for Abraham was received with 
great hospitality. 

In the interval between the departure of Abraham from Egypt and 
the sale of Joseph to Potiphar, the Hyk'sos and other wandering tribes 
had began to make incursiofls intg the valley of the Nile, and to ravage 
its fruitful fields. The policy which induced the Pharaoh who then 
occupied the throne to grant the land of Goshen to the colony of the 
Israelites, was equally creditable to his sagacity and generosity ; it was 
a pasturage and frontier province, forming the eastern barrier of Egypt 
toward Syria and Palestine, the countries from which invasion was 
most dreaded. By assigning this district to Jacob and his family, it 
was covered in a short time by a numerous, brave, and industrious 
people, giving additional security and resources to the comitry. 



6 ANCIENT HISTORY, 

After the death of Joseph, but at what distance of time there is no 
evidence to determine, a change of d}Tiasty took place in Egypt. This 
was probably the event described by profane writers as the conquest 
of Egypt by the Ilyk'sos, and consequently the Pharaoh who so cruelly 
tyrannized over the Israelites was not a native Egyptian, but an intru- 
sive foreigner. The motive assigned for oppressing the Israelites was, 
" this people are more and mightier than we" — which could hardly be 
true of the whole Egyptian nation, but might very probably be of a race 
of conquerors. One of the tasks which this cruel despot imposed on 
the Israelites, was the building of "treasure cities." Among the cruel- 
ties inflicted on them, their being employed in the manufacture of 
brick is particularly mentioned : under the burning sun of Egj-pt, the 
process of wetting, tempering, and Avorking the clay previous to its 
being moulded, was so painful and unwholesome that it was usually the 
work of slaves and captives. But when the Pharaoh found that the 
Israelites still continued to " multiply and wax very mighty," he had 
recourse to the harbarous expedient of extermination, and ordered that 
all the male children should be destroyed. Moses was saved from the 
general slaughter and educated at the Egyptian court ; after which, 
though the fact is not expressly stated, the cruel edict appears to have 
fallen into disuse. Moses never forgot his parentage and nation ; prob- 
ably the courtiers of Pharaoh failed not to remind liim that he belonged 
to a degraded caste. 

Having been compelled to quit Egypt for having slain one of the op- 
pressors, Moses sought shelter in the land of Midian, where Jehovah 
appeared to him, and commanded him to achieve the deliverance of 
His chosen people, investing him with the miraculous powers neces- 
sary for so difficult an object. The reigning Pharaoh refused to part 
with so valuable a race of slaves, and his obstinacy was punished with 
ten dreadful plagues. The smiting of the first-born was the consmn- 
mation of these fearful judgments : Pharaoh and his subjects hasted 
to send the Israelites away, and they quitted the land of Egypt. Av- 
arice induced the Pharaoh to pursue them with a mighty army ; but 
God opened a passage for the Israelites through the Red sea, while 
the Egyptian host, attempting to pursue them, were overwhelmed with 
the returning waters. 

This calamity i^b. c. 1491) greatly weakened the power of the 
Hyk'sos, already menaced by the increasing strength of the Theban 
monarchy. Previous to this, we have scarcely any probable account 
of the names and ages of the Egyptian kings, except that Menes ap- 
pears to have been the founder of the monarchy, and Osirtesen I. the 
Pharaoh who received Joseph. But henceforth we are able to deter- 
mine with probability some general epochs by comparing the evidence 
of the monuments with that of the historians. To this period belong 
the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties of Manetho, the founders of 
the most important monuments of Upper Eg'j'pt. In the reign of Am'e- 
noph I., the Thebans extended their conquests to the south, and seized 
on part of Nubia. Crude brick arches were constructed at this period 
(b. c. 1540) and glass Avas soon after brought into use. Under the 
fourth king of this dynasty, Thntmosis, or Thothmes III., the children ' 
of Israel departed from Egypt, and the Theban monarch succeeded in 



EGYPT. 7 

expelling the Hyk'sos — greatly weakened by the destruction of their 
best warriors in the Red sea — from the greater part of the country, 
and shutting them up in their fortresses. Their great stronghold was 
taken by his son and successor, Thoth^mes IV. ; and the shepherd- 
kings surrendered on condition of being allowed to withdraw into Syria. 
The intimate connexion between these two events — the Exodus of the 
Israelites, and the expxdsion of the Hyk'sos — have led to their being 
confounded together. The next remarkable monarch was Am'enoph 
III., who reigned conjointly with his brother; but, soon becoming 
weary of divided empire, he expelled his partner. The dethroned 
brother was probably the Dan^aus* of the Greeks, who, leaving Egypt 
with his partisans, settled in Ar'gos, of which he became king (b. c. 
1430). The pretended vocal statue of Mem'non was erected in honor 
of Am^enoph ; and in his reign the building of the great temples seems 
to have been commenced. He annexed the greater part of Nubia to 
his dominions. Among his successors the name of Ram'eses is the 
most distinguished. It was borne by four sovereigns ; two in the 
eighteenth, and two in the nineteenth dynasty. The first was expelled 
by his brother, and is by some identified with Dan-'aus : the second, 
called Mi-Am'mon, " he who loves Am'mon," was the founder of the 
palace of Medinet Abu at Thebes ; and from the sculptures on its 
walls, he appears to have been a warrior and conqueror. , 

Am'enoph IV. was the last of the eighteenth dynasty. In his un- 
fortunate reign the Hykfsos renewed their invasions ; and the king, 
confiding his son, a child of five years old, to the care of a friend, fled 
into Ethiopia, where he remained thirteen years an exile. During this 
period the Hyk'sos were guilty of the most wanton excesses ; for " they 
not only set fire to the cities and villages, but committed every kind of 
sacrilege, and destroyed the images of the gods, and roasted and fed 
upon those sacred animals that were worshipped ; and having com- 
pelled the priests and prophets to kill and sacrifice them, they cast 
them naked out of the country."! Amen'ophis at length, aided by an. 
Ethiopian army, and supported by his gallant son, expelled the shep- 
herd-kings, and restored the prosperity of his country. 

Ram'eses the Great, called also Sethos or Sesos'tris,| is the most 
celebrated of the Egyptian monarchs. The conquests attributed to him 
are so mighty, that he has been by some regarded as merely a sym- 
bolical being ; but from the evidence of the monuments, he appears to 
be undoubtedly an historical personage. It is indeed doubtful whether 
the Ram'eses who founded Medmet Abu, or the son of Am^'enoph, be 
the great conqueror who carried his arms into Bac'tria in the east, and 
Thrace in the west, and before whose throne captives from the frozen 
Cau^casus mingled with the sable tribes from the extreme south of 
Ethiopia : but the existence of this conqueror, his daring hunts of the 
lion in the desert while a youth, his aid in the expulsion of the Hyk''sos, 
his extensive conquests, and the vast treasures he collected from the 
vanquished nations, are satisfactorily proved by the sculptured liistory 
of his exploits on the walls of the buildings he erected or enlarged. 

* Others assign Dan'aus to a later period. 

f Manetho, as quoted by Josephus. 

J Wilkinsoa identifies Ram'eses II. with Sesos'tris. 



8 ANCIENT HISTORY, 

Having subdued the mountainous districts east of Egypt, and part of 
the Arabian peninsula, he fitted out a fleet of war-galleys to scour the 
Indian seas. The naval engagements sculptured on the walls of Me- 
dinet Abii and Kamac fully support the accoimt of these expeditions 
given by the historians, and show that they were extended to the 
Avestern coast of Hindost'an. Ethiopia was subdued, and compelled to 
pay a tribute of ebony, gold, and elephants' teeth. The battle, the vic- 
tory, the ollering of the booty and tribute, are represented on the mon- 
uments at Kalabshe, in Lower Nubia. His campaigns in Asia and 
Europe were equally remarkable. Northward he subdued Syria, An- 
atolia, and part of Thrace ; eastward he is said to have advanced as far 
as Bac^tria and India. There can, however, be no doubt of his ex- 
ploits in the neighborhood of Assy'ria and the Euphrates ; for they are 
represented on the sculptures of the building called the tomb of Osy- 
man'dyas, but which should rather be called the temple-palace of King 
Ram'eses. 

It is singular that no record of such a conqueror should be found in 
the Scriptures ; for he must have subdued the land of Canaan and 
Syria, coimtries which were always coveted by the rulers of Egypt. 
Mr. Milman very plausibly argues that the conquests of Sesos^tris took 
place while the Israelites were wandering in the desert, and that this 
providential arrangement was intended to facilitate the conquest of the 
promised land. There can, however, be no doubt that some king of 
Eg}^pt performed many of the exploits attributed to Sesos^tris, though it 
is very difficult to ascertain the exact period in which he flourished. 

The successors of Sesos''tris seem to have sunk into the usual in- 
dolence of oriental monarchs. Their history, for nearly three hundred 
years, presents little more than a catalogue of names, until we come to 
Sesouchis, the Shishak of the Holy Scriptures, who was the first mon- 
arch of the twenty-second dynasty. In the fifth year of the reign of 
Rehoboam, the foolish and wicked son of Solomon (b. c. 970), Shishak 
made war against Palestine, and pillaged Jerusalem. His army con- 
sisted of twelve hundred chariots, sixty thousand horsemen, and an in- 
numerable body of infantry, consisting not only of Egyptians, but also 
of Libyans, Ethiopians, and Troglody'tes. His empire consequently 
extended beyond the bounds of Egypt, and included a large portion of 
southern and western Africa. 

In the next century the Egyptian monarchy declined rapidly, and the 
country was subjugated by Sab'aco, a foreign conqueror from Ethiopia. 
The history of the Ethiopian dynasty will be found in the next chapter. 

After some time, a priest named Sethos usurped the government, 
contrary to all precedent. He not only neglected the caste of warriors, 
but deprived them of their privileges and lands ; at which they were so 
incensed, that they refused to bear arms in his defence. Sennach^erib, 
king of Assyria, prepared to invade Egypt with a very powerful army, 
and advanced to Pelusium (b. c. 713). Sethos, deserted by the milita- 
ry caste, armed the laborers and artificers, and with this undisciplined 
host marched to meet the invader. A pestilence in the Assyrian camp 
saved Egypt from ruin, and Sennach'erib returned to meet fresh mis- 
fortunes at Jerusalem. When Sethos died, twelve princes, or heads 
of nomes, shared the kingdom among them ; but soon quarreUing about 



EGYPT. V 

the limits of their respective principalities, they engaged in mutual war, 
and drove one of their number, Psammet^ichus, prince of Sais, into 
exile. Psammet^ichus levied an army of Greek and Carian mercen- 
aries, most of whom appear to have been pirates ; and having overcome 
all his rivals, once more united all Egypt into a single monarchy, of 
which Mem'phis ranked as the capital, though Sais was usually the 
seat of government. The intercourse with the nations in the eastern 
Mediterranean was greatly extended during the reign of Psammet''- 
ichus : many Greeks settled in the Egyptian seaports ; and a new 
caste of interpreters and brokers was formed to facilitate conraierce. 
But the patronage of foreigners, and the preference that Psammet^'ichus 
showed for the mercenaries to whom he owed his crown, so disgusted 
the caste of warriors, that the whole body emigrated from their country, 
and setttled in Ethiopia (b. c. 650). 

Section IV. — History of Egypt from the Reign of Psamnietichus to its 
Subjugation by Cambyses. 

FROM B.C. 650 TO B.C. 525. 

The accession of Psammef'ichus was followed by a complete revo- 
lution in the ancient policy of Egypt ; foreign auxiliaries performed 
the duties of the warrior caste ; plans of permanent conquests in Syria 
succeeded to the predatory expeditions of the ancient Pharaohs ; and 
the political influence of the priesthood rapidly declined, as new 
opinions were imported from abroad, and new institutions rendered 
necessary by increasing commerce. For several reigns, the great 
object of Egyptian policy was to obtain possession of the commercial 
cities of Syria and Phoenicia. Psammefichus led the way by laying 
siege to Azotus, a frontier town of Syria — persevering in successive 
attacks for twenty-nine years, until he accomplished his object. 

Nechus, called in Scripture Pharaoh-Necho, succeeded his father 
Psammefichus (b.c. 616), and became a powerful prince, both by land 
and sea. He built fleets in the Mediterranean and the Red seas, 
and attempted to unite them by cutting a canal across the isthmus of 
Suez ; an enterprise subsequently completed by Darius Hystaspes.* 
The increasing strength of the Medes and Babylonians, who had over- 
thrown the ancient empire of Assyria, justly alarmed Necho. He led 
an army against the king of Assyria, directing his march toward the 
Euphrates, but was checked by the interference of Josiah, king of 
Judah, who tried to prevent him from besieging Car^'chemish or Circe- 
sium, but was defeated and slain. f Necho, having reached the 
Euphrates, captured the important city of Car''chemish, or Circesium, 
which he garrisoned. On his return to Egypt he became master of 
Jerusalem, led its monarch, Jehoahaz, away captive, and placed 
Jehoiakim upon the throne. 

The Chaldean dynasty in Bab^ylon rose into power on the ruins of 

* The navigation of the northern part of the Red sea is so very dangerous 
that this canal was never of much use. Vessels usually stopped at My'os Hor'- 
mos, now Cosseir, whence there was a good caravan-road to the Nile. 

t 2 Chron. xxxv. 21. 



10 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

the Assyrian empire. Nebucliadnez'zar, its mightiest monarch, resolred 
on the conquest of western Asia ; and one of his earliest efforts was 
the expulsion of the Egyptians from Car'chemish. Necho tried to 
check the progress of this formidable opponent ; but he was defeated 
with great slaughter, and stripped of all his possessions in Syria and 
Judca, to the very walls of Pelusium. Jeremiah's prophetic descrip- 
tion of this important battle has all the minute accuracy of history.* 

During his wars in Syria, Necho did not neglect the improvement 
of navigation. A Phoenician fleet, equipped at his expense, sailed 
down the Red sea, passed the straits of. Bab-el-Man'deb, and, coasting 
the African continent, discovered the passage round the Cape of Good 
Hope, two thousand years before the rediscovery of it by Diaz and 
Vasco "de Gama. The expedition returned to Egypt through the 
Atlantic ocean, the straits of Gibraltar, and the Mediterranean, after 
an absence of three years. 

During the reign of Psam'mis, the son of Necho, a remarkable cir- 
cumstance occurred (b.c. 600), tending to prove the ancient connexion 
between the institutions of Greece and Egypt, which has been denied 
by the modern historians of the German school. An embassy was 
sent from the city of E'lis to obtain directions for the management of 
the Olympic games ; and the regulations suggested by the Egj'ptian 
priests were implicitly obeyed. 

A'pries, the Pharaoh-Hoph'ra of Scripture, immediately after his 
accession (b.c. 594), attacked the Phoenician states, and conquered 
Sidon. He entered into a close alliance with Zedekiah, king of Judah, 
promising to aid him in his revolt against Nebuchadnez^zar. A'pries, 
in fulfilment of his engagement, led an army into Judea, and Nebuchad- 
nez^zar, on receiving intelligence of his approach, broke up the siege 
of Jerusalem, and hastened to meet him : but the Egyptians were 
afraid to encounter the Babylonian forces, and retired, without striking 
a blow, to their own country, leaving their allies to bear the brunt of 
Nebuchadnez'zar's vengeance. For tliis act of perfidy, God, by the 
mouth of his prophet Ezekiel,t denounced severe vengeance on the 
Egyptians and their sovereign. Not less distinct is the prophecy of 
Jeremiah : " Behold, I will give Pharaoh-Hoph'ra, king of Egypt, into 
the hands of his enemies, and into the hand of them that seek liis life ; 
as I gave Zedekiah, king of Judah, into the hand of Nebuchadnez^zar, 
his enemy, and that sought his life."| 

The accomplishment followed close upon the latter prediction. A 
Grecian colony, established at Cyrene, being strengthened by fresh 
bodies of their countrymen, under their third king, Bat^tus the Happy, 
attacked the neighboring Libyans, and seized their land. An'dican, 
one of the dispossessed princes, applied for aid to Pharaoh-Hoph'ra, 
who sent a large army to his relief. The Egyptians were routed with 
great slaughter by the Cyreneans ; and the fugitives, to excuse their 
defeat, averred that they had been designedly betrayed by their mon- 
arch. This calumny was the pretext for a universal revolt. After a 
long civil war, of wlaich Nebuchadnez'zar took advantage to devastate 
Lower Eg)7)t, A'pries was dethroned by Am'asis, and strangled in 
prison (b.c. 569). 

• Jeremiah xlvi. 1-10. f Ezekiel xxix. 8-15. J Jeremiah xliv. 30. 



EGYPT. 11 

The usurper was a man of mean birth, but his great abilities enabled 
Kim to overcome the Egyptian prejudice of caste, especially as he had 
the wisdom to conciliate the affection of the priesthood. Following 
the policy of his predecessors, he tried to establish his supremacy in 
western Asia, on the decline of the Babylonian power, and entered 
into close alliance with Croe'sus against Cy'rus. He was defeated, 
and compellled to become tributary to the conqueror. On the death of 
Cyrus, he attempted to assert his independence, and thus provoked the 
rage of Camby'ses, that monarch's successor. At the very moment 
when the Persian invaders were approaching, Am''asis quarrelled with 
Phanes, the commander of the Greek mercenaries, and his ally, Poly^- 
crates, the king of Samos, both of whom tendered their aid to 
Camby^ses. But before the evil hour of the Persian invasion arrived, 
Am'asis died (b.c. 525), bequeathing to his son Psammen^itus a king- 
dom torn by internal dissensions, and menaced by a formidable enemy. 

Scarcely had Psammen'itus ascended the throne, when Camby'ses 
appeared on the frontiers of Egypt, and laid siege to Pelusium. This 
important garrison v^^as taken, after a very weak resistance ; and the 
Persians advanced into the open country. Psammen'itus led an army, 
chiefly composed of mercenaries, against them ; but was so completely 
overthrown, that he was no longer able to save his capital. Camby'ses, 
provoked by the murder of one of his ambassadors, put to death the 
chief of the Egyptian nobles, and reduced their wives and children to 
slavery. He was at first inclined to spare the life of the unfortunate 
king ; but subsequently learning that he had incautiously expressed a 
desire for revenge, the cruel conqueror condemned him to drink 
poison. 

Camby^ses was the deadly enemy of the religion and the priestly 
caste of the Egyptians : he slew their sacred animals, destroyed their 
idols, scourged their priests as slaves, and pillaged their temples. 

The Egyptians, instigated by the heads of the sacerdotal caste, 
frequently rebelled against the Persians, but were never able to estab- 
lish their independence ; these insurrections were pimished with the 
most relentless severity, and thus the awful prophecy of Ezekiel was 
fulfilled to the letter.* , 

Section V. — Egyptian Manufactures and Commerce. 

The monuments show us that the progress of the Egyptians in the 
mechanical arts was much greater than had been usually supposed, and 
that an accurate examination of their machinery might suggest useful 
hints for the present day. 

Weaving was an important branch of industry, the cotton and flax 
being indigenous. It is uncertain whether silk was used. The stuffs 
were woven in large manufactories, under the superintendence of the 
priests, who had a monopoly of all the cloths used for sacred purposes, 
especially for the mummies. These stuffs were generally died in the 
wool, and many of them embroidered with thread of gold and silver 
wire ; some of them are striped, others stained or flowered, and the 

* Ezek. XXX. 13-19. 



12 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

colors of all exhibit those da,zzling hues of the East, which we are 
unable to rival in Europe. 

The manufactures in metal rank next in importance. Iron appears 
to have been but little known : nearly all the implements not made of 
gold or silver, were, it would seem, either copper or brass. The 
workmanship of the Egyptians, both in metal and wood, was superior 
to that of any other ancient nation. The forms of their couches, 
harps, &c., the elegance of the spindles and work-baskets of the 
ladies, inspire a high idea of the refinement of their domestic life. 

Egypt produced excellent clay for pottery, and earthen ware was 
used, not only for domestic purposes, but for preserving the mummies 
of the sacred animals. Their vases, in the indescribable variety and 
beauty of their shapes, rival the choicest specimens of Grecian or 
Etruscan art. 

Ship-building did not become common in Egypt, until its rulers 
became masters of the Phoenician forests ; but they manufactured 
vessels of burden for navigating the Nile. 

The Thebaid was the central point of trade between southern Asia 
and the western regions, and between Ethiopia and northern Africa. 
Besides the advantages of its position, the most ancient and productive 
gold mines in the world were in its neighborhood. From Ethiopia 
and the Negro countries were brought gold, ivory, ebony, skins, and 
slaves ; from Arabia, incense, and from India, spices ; and these were 
sold to the Greek and Phoenician merchants. The native commodities 
exported were principally corn and cloths : the corn-trade must have 
been particularly valuable, for Egypt was regarded as the granary of 
the adjacent coimtries. 



THE ETHIOPIANS. 13 



CHAPTER II. 
THE ETHIOPIANS. 

Section I. — Geographical Outline. Natural History. 

The eastern districts above the Nile, now called Nubia and Sennaar, 
have been possessed from a remote age by two different races, the 
Ethiopian and the Arabian, which are even now but partially blended. 
The country is full of historical monuments, chiefly erected on the banks 
of the Nile. There were, in these countries above Egypt, all the grada- 
tions from the complete savage to the hunting and fishing tribes, and 
from them to the wandering herdsman and shepherd ; but there was 
also a civilized Ethiopian people, dwelling in cities, possessing a gov- 
ernment and laws, acquainted vnth the use of hieroglyphics, the fame 
of whose progress in knowledge and the social arts had, in the earliest 
ages, spread over a considerable portion of the earth. 

The Nile, before its confluence with the Astab'oras (Mugrum), runs 
through a very irregular valley formed by two chains of hills, which 
sometimes retire back, and sometimes advance to the very margin of 
the river. The soil of this valley was once as fertile as the richest 
part of Egypt, and where protected, it still continues so ; but the hills 
on both sides are bordered by sandy deserts, against which they afford 
but a scanty protection. The Nubian valley below the junction of the 
Nile and the Astab^oras appears to have been sometimes subject to the 
Ethiopians of Meroe, and sometimes to the Egyptians. The naAdga- 
tion of the Nile is here impeded by the windings of the river, and by 
the intervention of cataracts and rapids ; so that intercourse is more 
generally maintained by caravans than by boats. At the southern ex- 
tremity of the valley, the river spreads itself, and encloses a number of 
fertile islands. Along the whole course of the Nubian valley is a suc- 
cession of stupendous monuments, rivalling those of Thebes in beauty, 
and exceeding them in sublimity. 

The productions of the Ethiopian and Nubian valleys do not differ 
materially from those of Egypt. The island of Meroe, as it was called 
from being nearly surrounded with rivers, possessed an abundance of 
camels, which, as we have seen, were little used in Egypt ; but the 
ivory, ebony, and spices, which the Ethiopians sent down the river, 
were probably procured by trafiic with the interior of Africa. Meroe 
had better harbors for Indian commerce than Egypt : not only were 
her ports on the Red sea superior, but the caravan-routes to them were 
shorter, and the dangerous part of the navigation of that sea was wholly 
avoided. 

The wild tracts in the neighborhood of Meroe are tenanted by an- 
imals whose chase afforded employment to the ancient, as it does now 



14 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

to the modern hunting tribes ; especially that singular creature the 
giraffe, or canielopard, so recently known in Europe. The elephant is 
found in Abyssinia, not far from the southern confines of the state of 
Meroe. 

Section IT. — History of the Ethiopians. 

The early history of Meroe is involved in impenetrable obscurity. 
Its monuments bear eAddent marks of being the models for the wondrous 
edifices of Egypt ; but, shut out from all intercourse with civilized na- 
tions by the intervention of the Egyptians, it is only when they were 
invaded, or became invaders, that we can trace the history of the Ethi- 
opians. It has been already mentioned that several of the Egyptian 
monarchs carried their arms into Ethiopia, and became for a time mas- 
ters of the country. In the eleventh century before the Christian era, 
the Assyrian heroine Semir^amis is reported to have attempted its con- 
quest ; but there is some doubt of the truth of this, as indeed of many 
other exploits attributed to this wonderful queen. But we have certain 
information of the Ethiopians being a powerful nation (b. c. 971) when 
they assisted Shishak in his war against Judaea " with very many 
chariots and horsemen." Sixteen years after this, we have an account 
of Judi3ea being again invaded by an army of a million Ethiopians, un- 
accompanied by any Egyptian force.* From the Scriptme narrative, 
it appears that the Ethiopians had made considerable progress in the 
art of war, and were masters of the navigation of the Red sea, and 
at least a part of the Arabian peninsula. The kingdom must have been 
also in a very flourishing condition, when it was able to bear the cost 
of so vast and. distant an expedition. 

The Ethiopian power gradually increased imtil its monarchs were 
enabled to conquer Egypt, where three of them reigned in succession, 
Sab'bakon, Sev^echus, and Tar'akus, the Tirhakah of Scripture. f 
Sev'echus, called So in Scripture, was so powerful a monarch, that 
Hoshea, king of Israel, revolted against the Assyrians, relying on his 
assistance ; \ but was not supported by his ally. This, indeed, was the 
immediate cause of the captivity of the Ten Tribes ; for " in the ninth 
year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel 
away into Assyria," as a punishment for unsuccessful rebellion. Tir- 
hakah was a more warlike prince : he led an army against Sennach'- 
erib, king of Assyria,^ then besieging Jerusalem ; and the Egyptian 
traditions, preserved in the age of Herod'otus, give an accurate account 
of the providential interposition by which the pride of the Assyrians 
was humbled. 

In the reign of Psanunet'ichus, the entire warrior-caste of the Eg}'p- 
tians migrated to Ethiopia, and were located at the extreme southern 
frontier of the kingdom. These colonists instructed the Ethiopians in 
the recent improvements made in the art of war, and prepared them for 
resisting the formidable invasion of Camby'ses. 

• 2 Chron. xiv. 8-13. ' 

t Mr. Hawkins, in his recent -work on Meroe, identifies Tirhakah -with the priest 
Sethos, on what we deem very insufficient grounds. 

,. J 2 Kings, xvii. 4. § 2 Kings, xix. 9. 



THE ETHIOPIANS. 15 

Scarcely had the Persian dynasty been established in Egypt, when 
Camby'ses set out to invade Ethiopia, without preparing any store of 
provisions, apparently ignorant of the deserts through which it was 
necessary for him to pass. Before he had gone over a fifth part of the 
route from Thebes, the want of provisions was felt ; yet he madly de- 
termined to proceed. The soldiers fed on grass, as long as any could 
be found ; but at length, when they reached the deserts, so dreadful 
was the famine, that they were obliged to cast lots, that one out of 
every ten might be eaten by his comrades. 

It is said that the king of Ethiopia was always elected from the 
priestly caste ; and there was a strange custom for the electors, when 
weary of their sovereign, to send him a courier with orders to die. 
Ergam'enes was the first monarch who ventured to resist this absurd 
custom : he lived in the reign of the second Ptol'emy, and was instruct- 
ed in Grecian philosophy. So far from yielding, he marched against 
the fortress of the priests, massacred most of them, and instituted a 
new religion. 

Queens frequently ruled in Ethiopia : one named Candace made war 
on Augus'tus Cse'sar about twenty years before the birth of Christ, and 
though defeated by the superior discipline of the Romans, obtained 
peace on very favorable conditions. During the reign of another of the 
same name, we find that the Jewish religion was prevalent in Meroe, 
probably in consequence of the change made by Ergam'enes ; for the 
queen's confidential adviser went to worship at Jerusalem, and on his 
return (a. d. 53) was converted by St. Philip,* and became the means 
of introducing Christianity into Ethiopia. 

These are the principal historical facts that can now be ascertained 
respecting the ancient and once powerful state of Meroe, which has now 
sunk into the general mass of African barbarism. 

Section III. — Arts, Commerce, and Manufactures of Meroe. 

The pyramids of Meroe, though inferior in size to those of Middle 
Egypt, are said to surpass them in architectural beauty, and the sep- 
ulchres evince the greatest purity of taste. But the most important 
and striking proof of the progress of the Ethiopians in the art of build- 
ing, is their knowledge and employment of the arch. Mr. Hoskins has 
stated that these pyramids are of superior antiquity to those of Eg5rpt. 

The Ethiopian vases depicted on the monuments, though not richly 
ornamented, display a taste and elegance of form that has never been 
surpassed. In sculpture and coloring, the edifices of Meroe, though 
not so profusely adorned, rival the choicest specimens of Egyptian art. 

We have already noticed the favorable position of Meroe for com- 
mercial intercourse with India and the interior of Africa : it was the 
entrepot of trade between the north and south, between the east and 
west, while its fertile soil enabled the Ethiopians to purchase foreign 
luxuries with native productions. It does not appear that fabrics were 
woven in Meroe so extensively as in Egypt ; but the manufactures of 
metal must have been at least as flourishing. But Meroe owed its 
greatness less to the produce of its soil or its factories, than to its po- 

*Acts vii. 33. 



•16 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

sition on the intersection of the leading caravan-routes of ancient com- 
merce. The great changes in these lines of trade, the devastations of 
successive conquerors and revolutions, the fanaticism of the Sar'acens, 
and the destruction of the fertile soil by the encroachments of the 
moving sands from the desert, are causes sufficient for the ruin of such 
a powerful empire. Its decline, however, was probably accelerated by 
the pressure of the nomad hordes, who took advantage of its weakness 
to plunder its defenceless citizens. 



BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA. 17 



CHAPTER III. 

BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA. 

Section I. — Geographical Outline. — Natural History. 

Babylonia, or Chaldee^'a, was situated between two great rivers, the 
Euphrates on the west, and the Tigris on the east. The bed of the 
Tigris is much lower than that of the Euphrates, its channel much 
deeper, and the banks so precipitous, that it very rarely overflows 
them. 

Babylonia was properly the country on the lower Euphrates : north 
of it were the extensive plains of Mesopotamia, and beyond these, the 
mountainous districts of Armenia, supposed by many writers to have 
been the first habitation of the posterity of Noah, after the Flood. 

Beyond the Tigris was the region properly called Assyr^ia, a table- 
land, bounded on the north and east by chains of mountains, which 
have afforded shelter to plundering nomad tribes from the remotest 
antiquity. The soil, though not so rich as that of Babylonia, was 
generally fruitful. But almost ever since the fall of the Assyrian 
empire, the country has been devastated by wars between powerful 
monarchies and nations ; and it is now little better than a wilderness, 
save that some patches of land are cultivated in the neighborhood of 
the few inconsiderable towns within its precincts. 

Babylonia, in the neighborhood of the Euphrates, rivalled the fertil- 
ity of the valley of the Nile : the soil was so peculiarly suited for 
corn, that the husbandman's returns were sometimes three hundred 
fold, and rarely less than two hundred fold. The rich oily grains of 
the paii'icum and ses'amum were produced in luxuriant abundance ; the 
fig-tree, the olive, and the vine, were wholly wanting ; but there were 
large groves of palm-trees on the banks of the river. From the palms 
they obtained not only fruit, but wine, sugar, and molasses, as the 
Arabs do at the present time. Dwarf cypress-trees were scattered 
over the plains ; but these were a poor substitute for other species of 
wood. To this deficiency of timber must be attributed the neglect of 
the river navigation, and the abandonment of the commerce of the 
Indian seas, by the Babylonians. 

Stone and marble were even more rare in this country than wood, 
but the clay was well adapted for the manufacture of bricks. These, 
whether dried in the sun, or burnt in kilns, became so hard and 
diurable, that now, after the lapse of so many centuries, the remains of 
ancient walls preserve the bricks uninjured by their long exposure to 
the atmosphere, and retaining the impression of the inscriptions in the 
arrow-headed character as perfectly as if they had only just been 

2 



18 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

t 

manufactured. Naphtha and bitumen, or earthy oil and pitch, were 
produced in great abundance above Bab^ylon, near the modern town of 
Hit : these served as substitutes for mortar or cement ; and so lasting 
were they, that the layers of rushes and palm-leaves laid between the 
courses of bricks as a binding material, are found at this day in the 
ruins of Bab'ylon, as perfect as if a year had not elapsed since they 
were put together. 

Section II. — Political and Social Condition of the Assyrians and 
Babylonians. 

Despotism, in its most severe form, was established in the Assyrian 
monarchy, and in those by which it was succeeded. The king's will 
was the law ; no code existed to restrict his judgments ; and even 
ancient customs were set aside at his pleasure. He was the head of 
the church as well as the state, and claimed divine worship. His 
palace was crowded with as many wives and concubines as he chose 
to collect, and these were placed under the guardianship of eunuchs, 
an unfortunate race, first brought into use in Assyr'ia. 

It is impossible to determine whether the priests, usually called 
Chaldeans, were a caste or an order ; but it is most probable that, like 
the Egj^tians, the Jews, and the Persians, the Babylonians had an 
hereditary priesthood. Their religion was the kind of idolatry usually 
called Sabian ; that is, they worshipped the sun, the moon, and the 
starry host. In a later age, they added to this the worship of deified 
mortals, whom they supposed to be in some way connected with the 
celestial luminaries, just as Eastern monarchs of the present day call 
themselves " brothers of the sun and moon." Their supreme deity 
was named Baal, or Bell, which signifies Lord : the mixture of the 
astronomical with the historical character of the idol has rendered the 
Asspian mythology complicated and obscure ; and the double character 
of their deities generally, has brought confusion not only into mythol- 
ogy, but history ; for many of the fabulous legends respecting Nmus 
and Semir^amis are manifestly imperfect astronomical theories. Cru- 
elty' and obscenity were the most marked attributes of the Babylonian 
and Ass>Tian idolatry ; human Adctims were sacrificed, and prostitution 
was enjoined as a religious duty. It had also much of the absurdity that 
belongs to the Brahminism of the present day ; monstrous combinations 
of forms were attributed to the gods ; their idols had many heads, and 
jumbled the limbs of men and the members of animals together; 
these had probably at first a symbolic meaning, which the priests pre- 
served by tradition, but which was carefully concealed from the vulgar 
herd. 

The condition of women was more degraded in Bab'ylon than in any 
other Eastern coimtry. No man had a right to dispose of his daugh- 
ters in marriage ; when girls attained mature age, they were exposed 
for sale in the public markets, and delivered to the highest bidder. The 
money thus obtained for beauty was applied to portioning ugliness. 
Debauchery and gross sensuality were the natural results of such a 
system, and these evils were aggravated by the habitual intoxication 
of every class of society. This dissolute people were as superstitious as 



BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA. 19 

t.hey«were depraved, and were the slaves of the Chaldean priests and 
jugglers. 

The Babylonians had made considerable progress in the mechanical 
arts, and in mathematical science : their astronomical knovvrledge was 
very extensive, but it was so disfigured by astrological absurdities as to 
be nearly useless. The arts of weaving and working in metal were 
practised in Babylon ; the naphtha and petroleum furnished excellent 
fuel for furnaces ; and the accounts given of their skill in metal- 
founding show that they had made many ingenious contrivances, which 
supplied their natural wants of stone and wood. 

The Babylonian language belongs to that class called Semific, of 
which the Hebrew, Arabic, and Syriac, are branches. They possessed 
an alphabetic character, and wrote on bricks and earthen cylinders. It 
is not certain that they possessed books, their country producing no 
materials from which paper could be manufactured. 

Section III. — History of the Assyrians and Babylonians. 
FROM B.C. 2204 TO B.C. 538. 

Assyrian history, according to Grecian authorities, particularly 
Ctesias and Diodorus, is nothing more than traditions of the heroes and 
heroines, who, at some early period, founded a kingdom in the coun- 
tries bordering on the Euphrates — traditions without any chronological 
data, and in the ordinary style of Eastern exaggeration. The Assyrian 
history contained in the Holy Scriptnres is that of a distinct nation of 
conquerors that founded an empire. This history is however confined 
to incidental notices of the wars between the Assyrians and the Isra- 
elites and Jews. Herod'otus briefly touches on the Assyrian empire ; 
but his narrative, so far as it goes, confirms the narrative given in the 
Old Testament. We shall endeavor to deduce from all these sources 
the most authentic account of the Assyrian monarchy. 

The miraculous interruption of the building of Babel led to the aban- 
donment of that spot by the followers of Nim'rod, who appears to have 
been the first nomad chief that founded a permanent monarchy. He 
was the Ninus of profane history — a warrior, a conqueror, the builder 
of cities, and the founder of an empire. Tradition has based a long 
romance on these few facts, which it is not necessary to detail. The 
Assyrian empire appears to have been founded b. c. 1237, andNin'eveh 
was its metropolis. Ninus chose for his principal queen Semir'amis, 
the wife of one of his officers, to whose prudent counsels he is said to 
have been indebted for many of his victories. 

On the death of Ninus, Semir'amis assumed the administration of 
the empire as regent. She is said to have founded the city of Bab'y- 
lon ; but this is clearly erroneous. The additions, however, that she 
made to the city, and the stupendous edifices with which she adorned 
it, in some degree justified the tradition. Her wars were waged in the 
most remote countries ; she is said to have conquered Egypt, and 
invaded Ethiopia, on one side, and to have attacked India, on the other. 
Semir'amis was succeeded by her son Nin'yas, who gave himself up 
to indolence and debauchery, keeping himself secluded in his palace, 
and intrusting the entire care of the administration to his ministers. 



20 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

His successors for several generations followed his base example ;• and 
the Assyrian monarchy gradually decayed. 

Leaving the traditions respecting Ninus and Semir^amis, in which 
a few historical facts are quite obscured under a cloud of fables and 
astronomical allegories, we come to the portion of Assyrian history 
founded on the authentic records of the Old Testament. The Assyr- 
ians began to extend their empire westward beyond the Euphrates in 
the reign of Pul (b. c. 771). He approached the confines of the king- 
dom of Israel, then ruled by the usurper Men'ahem, and inspired so 
much terror, that his forbearance was purchased by a thousand talents 
of silver.* 

Tiglath-pul-as'sur succeeded to the throne (b. c. 747), and prepared 
to pursue the plans of conquest that Pul had sketched. He conquered 
the kingdom of Israel, and transplanted a great number of the inhabi- 
tants to the remote parts of his empire. f Invited by A^haz, king of 
Judah, he made war against the ancient kingdom of Syria, stormed its 
celebrated metropolis, Damas'cus, and removed the vanquished people 
beyond the Euphrates. 

Shalman-as'sur was the next monarch (b. c. 728). He invaded the 
kingdom of Israel, took Samaria after a siege of three years, and led 
the greater part of the ten tribes into captivity, supplying their place 
with colonies from other states. After the conquest of Israel, Shal- 
man-as'sur invaded Phoenicia, and subdued all the principal cities ex- 
cept Tyre. 

San-her'ib, or Sennach'erib, was the next monarch. He led an army 
against Hezekfah, king of Judah (b. c. 724), and also attacked Egypt. 
His impious blasphemies against the God of the Jews were punished 
by the miraculous destruction of Ms army ; and he returned home mor- 
tified and disgraced. A conspiracy was formed against him, and he 
was slain by his own sons. 

Assar-had'don-pul, the Esarhad'don of Scripture, and Sardanapalus 
of profane history, was the third son of San-her'ib, and was chosen his 
successor, in preference to the parricides, Adram-mel'ek and Shar- 
ez^er. The accounts given of this prince are so very inconsistent, that 
many have supposed that there were two of the name ; but it is more 
probable that he was in the early part of his reign an active conqueror, 
and that he subsequently sunk into sensuality and sloth. He conquered 
the kingdom of Judah, and made some impression on Egypt ; but, re- 
turning to Nin'eveh, he became the slave of intemperance, and thus 
disgusted the hardy warriors whom he had so often led to victory. 
The satraps of Media and Babylonia revolting, besieged Sardanapalus 
in his capital ; and he, finding himself deserted by his subjects, and 
unable to protract his defence, made a huge pile, on which he placed 
his wives and his treasures ; then setting it on fire, he threw himself 
into the midst of the flames (b. c. 717). Thus ended the Assyrian 
monarchy ; and the supremacy of central and western Asia was trans- 
ferred to the Babylonians. 

The Kasdim, or Chaldeans, a northern nomad tribe from the mount- 
ain-chains of Tau'rus and the Cau'casus, appear to have been em- 

• 2 Kings XV. 19. t 2 Kings xv. 29. 



BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA. 21 

ployed as mercenaries by the Assyrian monarchs, and to have been 
stationed in Babylonia. As is not unusual in the East, these soldiers 
revolted against their masters, and prepared to carve out an empire for 
themselves. That they were a conquering horde which settled in the 
country, is proved by the express testimony of Isaiah. " Behold the 
land of the Chaldeans [Kasdim] ; this people was not, until the Assyr- 
ian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness : they set up the 
towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof."* The chronology 
of the Babylonian Chaldeans commences with the reign of Nabonas'- 
sar (e.g. 747), a remarkable era in history, because the introduction 
of the Egyptian solar year, during the reign of that prince, first sup- 
plied the Chaldeans Avith an accurate mode of measuring time. There 
is nothing worthy of note in the history of Nabonas'sar, and his twelve 
immediate successors. During their reigns, indeed. Babylonia appears 
again to have become dependant upon Assyr'ia, and not to have re- 
covered its freedom until the general insurrection against Sardana- 
palus. 

Nabopolas'sar, or Nebo-pul-as'sar, became king of Bab'ylon soon 
after the overthrow of the Assyrian empire (b. c. 627). Pharaoh- 
Necho took advantage of the distracted state of central Asia to extend 
his dominions to the Euphrates. He gained possession of Car'chemish 
(Circesium), and induced the governors of Coele-Syria and Phoenicia to 
revolt against Nabopolas'sar. In the reduction of these provinces, the 
Babylonian monarch was greatly assisted by his son, Nebuchadnez'zar, 
or Nebo-kal-as'sar, who subsequently raised the empire to the summit 
of its greatness. Nebuchadnez'zar obtained a brilliant victory over 
Pharaoh-Necho, at Car'chemish (b. c. 604) ; and was about to follow 
up his success by invading Egypt, when he was recalled to Bab'ylon 
in consequence of his father's death. 

Nitoc'ris was probably the queen of Nebuchadnez'zar. She seems 
to have acted as regent while the king was employed in foreign wars, 
and her name is associated with the splendid buildings erected in 
Babylon in this reign. 

Before invading Egypt, Nebuchadnez^zar had conquered the kingdom 
of Judah, and brought several of its princes to Bab'ylon as captives or 
hostages. Among these was the prophet Daniel.f Soon afterward the 
Scythians, probably some Tartar horde, invaded the Assyrian provinces, 
and the Jews embraced this opportimity of asserting their independence. 
Nebuchadnez'zar was then besieging in conjunction with Cyax'ares the 
Mede ; but having taken and destroyed this ancient rival of Bab^ylon, 
he marched against Jerusalem with a resistless force. The holy city 
was taken and plundered, its monarch slain, his son sent prisoner to 
Bab'ylon, and a new king appointed as deputy to the conqueror. The 
Jews again revolted, relying on the promised aid of the Egyptians, but 
were once more subdued, and treated with barbarous cruelty. Their 
city Avas laid desolate, their lands wasted, and the bulk of the nation 
led into captivity. The conqueror then proceeded into Phoenicia, which 
he completely subdued ; whence he advanced to Egypt, and plundered 
the lower valley of the Nile. It was after his return from this expedi- 
tion, that Nebuchadnez'zar erected the golden image in the plains of 
* Isaiah xxiii. 13. fDaniel ii. 1, &c. 



23 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

Dura.* Toward the close of his reign, the impiety of Nebuchadnez'zar 
was punished by a fit of lunacy ; during which " he was driven from 
men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew 
of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers, and his naila 
like birds' claws."t 

£vil-Merodach succeeded, and after a short reign was murdered by 
his sister's husband, Neriglis'sar. But the young prince Belshaz'zar, 
was saved from the conspirators. He continued several years in ob- 
scurity, but did not profit by the stem lessons of adversity. At this 
time the power of the Medes had reached a formidable height, and the 
Babylonians summoned the kings of western Asia to aid in preventing 
its further extension. The Medes were commanded by Cyax'ares and 
his nephew Cy'rus. After a fierce engagement, the Babylonians were 
totally defeated, and their sovereign slain. 

Labosoar'chad succeeded his father Neriglis'sar (b. c. 555); but on 
account of his tyranny was dethroned, after a reign of only a few 
months, and the legitimate line restored in the person of Nebo-an-dal, 
called also Nabonadius and Labynetus, who took the surname of Bel- 
shaz'zar, that is, the " mighty prince of Bel." As he was a youth, the 
regency was intrusted to Queen Nitoc'ris. She completed the works 
which Nebuchadnez'zar had commenced, and is said to have connected 
the eastern and western banks of the Euphrates both by a bridge and a 
tunnel. To complete the last work, it was necessary to turn the river 
for a time into a new channel ; and for this purpose a lake and canal 
were constructed to the north of Bab'ylon. When Belshaz'zar assumed 
the reins of government, he deserted the prudent line of policy by 
which Nitoc'ris had delayed the fate of the tottering empire ; not only 
abandoning himself to licentious pleasures, but provoking the hostility 
of the warlike Medes. Cyax'ares, the " Darawe'sh" (Dari'us), that is, 
king of the Medes, accompanied by his nephew Cy'rus, invaded Bab- 
ylonia, and soon laid siege to the metropolis. Confiding in the strength 
of the walls, Belshaz'zar laughed his enemies to scorn ; and while the 
enemy was still before the walls, gave a great feast in honor of his ex- 
pected success. Cy'rus, on the same evening, sent a detachment to 
open the canal leading to the lake that had been dug by Nitoc'ris, or- 
dering his soldiers, as soon as the water should be drawn from the bed 
of the 'river, to enter the city through the deserted channel. 

Meantime the revelry of the feast was disturbed by the supernatural 
handwriting interpreted by Daniel,^ announcing the impending de- 
struction of the empire. Guided by the lights that gleamed from the 
chambers of revelry, the Medes penetrated into the veiy heart of the 
city, and attacked the guards before the palace. The guests within, 
startled by the clash of arms, flung the gates open to ascertain the cause 
of the tumult, and thus gave admission to the enemy. Belshaz'zar, in 
this hour of despair, behaved in a manner worthy of his illustrious de- 
scent : he drew his sword, and at the head of a few friends attempted 
to drive back the enemy ; but, " flushed with success, and drunk with 
gore, whole multitudes poured in :" he fell in his own hall ; and with 
him fell the empire of Bab'ylon (b. c. 538). 

♦ Daniel iii. Ij &c. f Daniel iv. 33. { Daniel v. 1, &c. 



BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA. 23 

Section IV. — Description of Nineveh and Babylon. 

The city of Nin'eveh, probably so named from Ninus, its founder, 
stood on the east bank of the Tigris, nearly three hundred miles north 
of Bab'ylon. Like all the ancient cities of Asia, it was of a rectangular 
form, and retained the traces of the nomad encampment in which it 
originated. It was of enormous dimensions, being fifteen miles in 
length, nine in breadth, and forty-eight in circumference. Nor will 
this great extent seem incredible, when we reflect that the houses were 
not built in continuous streets, but stood apart, as the tents formerly 
did, each surrounded by gardens, parks, and farms, whose size varied 
according to the rank and wealth of the respective proprietors. Nin'- 
eveh, in short, was less a city, according to the modern European no- 
tions, than a collection of villages, hamlets, and noblemen's seats, en- 
closed within one wall as a common defence. The fortifications, ac- 
cording to the historians, were constructed on a stupendous scale. The 
walls were two hundred feet in height, and so wide that three chariots 
might drive on them abreast, and they were further secured by fifteen 
hundred lofty towers. After the destruction of the city by the Medes, 
Nin'eveh appears to have long remained desolate ; several villages 
were subsequently erected from, its ruins, the largest of which pre- 
served the name of the ancient metropolis. It is now a desert waste : 
even the wild vegetation that usually veils the ruins of fallen greatness 
has disappeared, and desolation is spread over the entire landscape. 

Bab'ylon stood in a plain, and was perfectly square ; the river 
Euphrates ran through the centre of the town, and also supplied water 
to the ditches, which were dug in front of the walls. The streets 
were perfectly straight, and crossed each other at right angles. 

On the western bank of the river, stood the tower of Belus, which 
was probably built on the foundations of Babel. When completed by 
Nebuchadnez'zar, each of the sides of the city was about fifteen miles 
in length, and consequently the whole circumference was sixty miles. 
The eastern division was the most recent : it was built by the Kasdim, 
or Chaldeans ; and there Nebuchadnez'zar erected the great palace 
whose circuit was equal to that of a moderate-sized city. Like the 
generality of steppe regions, the country between the Tigris and 
Euphrates produced neither stone nor wood fit for building ; but the 
vicinity of Bab'ylon furnished an inexhaustible supply of clay, which, 
dried in the sun or burnt in kilns, became so firm and durable, that the 
remains of ancient walls, which have been thrown down for centuries, 
have withstood the action of the atmosphere to the present day ; and, 
as may be seen by the specimens in the British Museum, retain the 
arrow-headed inscriptions with which they were impressed. Nature 
also provided a plentiful supply of naphtha or bitumen, which served 
instead of lime. Layers of rushes and palm-leaves were laid between 
the strata of brick; and the traveller Niebuhr found specimens of 
these in the ruins of Bab'ylon, so perfect that it might have been sup- 
posed that they had not been placed together longer than a few months. 

The walls of Bab'ylon were made of brick, cemented by bitumen, 
eighty-seven feet thick, and more than three hundred high ; they were 



24 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

surrounded by a deep ditch, and pierced by a hundred gales, all made 
of solid brass. Towers were erected for the defence of the gates and 
the corners of the walls, except where a morass protected the walls, 
and prevented the approach of an enemy. Wide, straight streets, or 
rather roads, from each of the gates, crossed each other at right angles, 
which, with the four half-streets that fronted to the walls, divided the 
city into six hundred and seventy-six squares, each of four furlongs and 
a half on each side, or two miles and a quarter in circumference. 
These squares were, in fact, separate villages, and many of them were 
wholly untenanted, being used as parks or pleasure-grounds by the king 
and his nobles. 

A bridge passed over the Euphrates between the two palaces on the 
opposite banks, which, we are assured, were further connected by 
means of a tunnel. The length of the bridge was about a furlong, but 
its breadth only thirty feet ; a long causeway on both sides of the river 
made the bridge appear of much greater extent than it really was. 

The temple of Belus was the most wondrous structiure of the city. 
It was at its foundation a furlong in length, and about the same in 
breadth : its height is said to have exceeded six hundred feet, which is 
more than that of the Egyptian pyramids. It was built in eight stories, 
gradually diminishing in size as they ascended. Instead of stairs, 
there was a sloping terrace on the outside, sufficiently wide for car- 
riages and beasts of burden to ascend. Nebuchadnez'zar made great 
additions to this tower, and surrounded it with smaller edifices, enclosed 
by a wall somewhat more than two miles in circumference. The whole 
was sacred to Bel or Belus, whose temple was adorned with idols of 
gold, and all the wealth that the Babylonians had acquired by the 
plunder of the East. Next to the temple was the old palace, strongly 
fortified ; and on the opposite side of the river was the new palace, 
whose enclosures and pleasure-grounds covered a space of eight miles 
round. Within its precincts were the celebrated hanging gardens, 
consisting of terraces one above another, raised upon pillars higher 
than the walls of the city, well floored with cement and lead, and 
covered with earth, in which the most beautiful trees and shrubs were 
planted. 

From the lime of its conquest, Bab''ylon gradually declined. Alex- 
ander the Great designed Bab^ylon to be the capital of his empire, and 
was preparing to restore its ancient splendor when he was prematurely 
cut off. Thenceforward, its decay was rapid ; and it is now a vast 
heap of ruins, tenanted only by the beasts and birds that love to haunt 
solitary places. Thus literally has the prediction of the prophet been 
fulfilled : " Bab'ylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chal- 
dees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomor- 
rah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from gen- 
eration to generation : but wild beasts of the desert shall lie there ; 
and ostriches shall fill their houses, and the daughters of the owl shall 
dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. And the howlers [jackals] 
shall cry in their desolate houses, and wild hounds in their pleasant 
palaces." * 

* Is&iah xiii. 19-22. (Gesenius's Translation.) 



BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA. 25 

Section V. — Commefce and Manufactures of the Babylonians. 

Weaving of cotton, woollen stuffs, and carpels, were the principal 
manufactures established in Bab'ylon ; and the cotton robes called 
sindonfis, probably a species of muslins, were so highly esteemed for 
their delicacy of texture and brilliancy of color, that they were appro- 
priated to royal use. We read in the book of Joshua, that a " Baby- 
lonish garment" formed part of the sacrilegious spoil which A'chan hid 
in his tent after the conquest of Jer'icho. Articles of luxury, such as 
perfumed waters, carved walking-canes, engraved stones, and seal 
rings, were made in the city ; and the art of cutting precious stones 
was carried to a perfection not exceeded by our modern lapidaries, as 
is manifest from the collection of Babylonian gems in the British 
Museum. 

The Babylonians had an extensive commerce eastward with Persia 
and northern India, whence they obtained gold, precious stones, rich 
dye-stuffs, and the best hounds. From Kandahar and Kashmir they 
procured fine wool, and the shawls which are still so highly valued. 
Emeralds, jaspers, and other precious stones, procured from the desert 
of Bac'tria, the modern Gobi, were brought in great abundance to 
Bab'ylon, and thence transmitted to western Asia and Europe. Cochi- 
neal, or rather the Indian lac, was imported in considerable quantities ; 
indeed, the Greeks confess that they derived their knowledge of the 
insect which produces this dye from the Babylonians. Gold and gold- 
dust were also obtained from northern India, but more as articles of 
tribute than of commerce. It is uncertain whether any commerce was 
opened with China before the latter ages of the Persian empire ; but 
the Babylonians had certainly intercourse with Tibet and the countries 
round the Hindu Kush. 

It was chiefly through their commercial allies, the Phoenicians, that 
the Babylonians had any trade in the Indian seas, though Isaiah plainly 
states that they had a navy of their own ; for he mentions " the Chal- 
deans, whose cry [exultation] is in their ships." * The trade by sea 
was between the mouths of the Tigris and Euphrates, and the western 
coasts of India and the island of Ceylon. From these countries they 
imported timber of various kinds, sugar-canes, spices, cinnamon, and 
pearls. This trade was completely destroyed by the Persians, through 
fear of the pirates who infested those seas, and who, by a sudden dash 
up the great rivers, like the Normans and Danes of Europe, might sur- 
prise and plunder the chief cities of the empire. To prevent this 
misfortune, they blocked up the Tigris with immense dams, which 
effectually put an end to all navigation on the river, and to the inter- 
course between Bab'ylon and southern India. 

At a very early period the Babylonians formed commercial estab- 
lishments on the Bahrein islands in the Persian gulf, whence 
they obtained large quantities of the finest pearls. Pearl-oysters are 
found on almost all the coasts in this gulf, but the most considerable 
bank is that which extends along the western coast, from the Bahrein 
islands, nearly as far as Cape Dsiulfar. The pearls are both white and 
yellow, they are also as hard as rock, and are therefore preferred to 

* Isaiah xlii. 14. 



26 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

the pearls of Ceylon, which shiver to pieces when struck with a ham- 
mer. The cotton plantations on these islands were very extensive, and 
the staple of the cotton wool they produced was remarkable for its 
length and fineness, surpassing in this respect the cotton of India. 
From these islands the Babylonians, and after them the Phoenicians, 
obtained the best timber for ship-building, probably some species of the 
Indian teak-wood, which continues to be highly valued for this purpose. 
They also imported various kinds of ornamental timber, used in the 
manufacture of walking-canes and inlaid work, for which the Babylo- 
nians were deservedly celebrated. 



WESTERN ASIA. 



27 



CHAPTER IV. 
WESTERN ASIA: 

INCLUDING 

ASIA MINOR, SYRIA, AND PALESTINE. 

Section I. — Asia Minor. — Geographical Outline. 

Asia Minor is a term not used by 'classical writers : it was invented 
in the middle ages, to describe the peninsula between the iEgean, 
the Black sea, the Caspian, and the Levant, which by more recent 
authors is called Anatolia. It included a great number of petty states, 
whose boundaries varied at different periods. In the northern part of 
the peninsula, beginning from the western side, the chief countries 
were My'sia, Bithyn'ia, Paphlagonia, and Pon'tus. In the centre, 
Lyd'ia, Phry'gia, Galatia, Lycaonia, Isauria, Cappadocia, and Armenia. 
In the south were Caria, Ly'cia, Pisid'ia, Pamphy'lia, and Cilic'ia. 

The western part of My'sia, on the seacoast, was called Lesser 
Phry'gia, or Troas. It was celebrated for the Trojan plains and the 
city of Troy, immortalized by Homer. 

Bithyn'ia, Paphlagonia, and Pon'tus, skirt the Black sea, and were 
studded with Greek colonies during the flourishing age of Grecian 
commerce. The Halys and San'garis, the principal rivers of Asia 
Minor, fall into the Black sea. 

The entire west coast of Asia Minor was colonized by the Greeks, 
whose commercial cities in Ionia, ^olia, and Caria, were the most 
flourishing free states of antiquity, before they were conquered by the 
Persians. 

Lyd'ia, called also Mseonia, besides the Greek cities on its coasts, 
contained the celebrated metropolis Sar'dis, which stood on the banks 
of the Pactolus, at the foot of Mount Tmolus. It was the capital of 
the Lydian kingdom, and, after its conquest by the Persians, was re- 
garded as one of the chief cities of their empire. 

The boundaries of Phry'gia were almost constantly varying ; its 
chief cities were Gor'dium and Celce'nae in ancient times ; but many 
others were erected when the Macedonians became masters of the 
country ; of which the chief were Apamea, Laodicea, and Colosse. 

Galatia received its name from a body of Gauls who entered that 
country in the third century before the Christian era. Isauria and Ly- 
caonia were intersected by the chain of Mount Taurus. Cappadocia 
lay between the Halys and Euphrates : its chief town was Maz'acft. 
Armenia was the name of the mountainous districts bordering on the 
Caspian sea : its chief rivers were the Cy'rus and Arax'es, both of 



«s-l 



28 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

considerable magnitude. For a long time it was without cities ; but at 
length Tigranes, one of its monarchs, erected Tigranocer'ta. 

Caria was chiefly remarkable for the Greek colonies on the coast, 
Lyc'ia, Pisidia, and Pam'phylia, were mountainous districts. Cilicia 
bordered upon Syria, from which it was separated by Mount Am'anus : 
its chief cities were Tar'sus and Anchiale, both founded by Sardana- 
palus. 

Section II. — Ancient History of Asia Minor. 

The three kingdoms of Asia Minor that best deserve notice were the 
Trojan, the Phrygian, and the Lydian. The history of Troy consists 
of mere traditions preserved by the Greek epic and dramatic poets ; its 
chronology is very uncertain, and the entire narrative very doubtful. 
Troy is said to have been originally founded by Dar'danus, a native of 
Samothrace (about b. c. 1400). To him succeeded Erichthonius, cel- 
ebrated for his splendid herds of horses ; Tros, who named the city 
Troy ; Plus, who changed the name to Plium ; Laom'edon, during 
whose reign the city was sacked by Her'cules ; and Podar'kes, who 
was also called Priam. Alexander, or Paris, the son of Priam, being 
sent as ambassador into southern Greece, carried off Helen, the wife 
of Menelaiis, king of Sparta. The Grecian kings espoused the cause 
of the injured husband, and with their united forces warred against 
Troy. The city was taken after a siege that lasted ten years, and was 
pillaged and burned by the conquerors. 

Phrygian history is also composed of obscure traditions ; but that 
the Phrygians were originally a very powerful people, appears from the 
great diffusion of their national worship throughout Europe, The in- 
vestigations of modern travellers have brought to light new proofs of the 
greatness of the Phrygians in their tombs and temples excavated from 
the sohd rock. Their chief deity was Cybele, who seems to have been 
a personification of the prolific powers of the earth : her priests were 
named Coryban'tes ; celebrated for their frantic dances, in which they 
beat and cut themselves. Most of the Phrygian kings were named 
either Midas or Gor'dius ; but the order of their succession can not be 
ascertaihed. Gor'dius I., the founder of the city Gor'dium, was origi- 
nally a peasant ; when raised to the throne, he consecrated liis cart to 
the gods. The beam was fastened to the yoke by a complicated knot ; 
and a traditional oracle declared, that whoever untied the knot should 
be king of Asia. When this was told to Alexander the Great, he cut 
it through with liis sword. In the reign of Midas V., Phrygia became 
a province of the Lydian empire. 

The Lydians, called also Maeonians, were a branch of the Carians, 
Three djTiasties reigned over them successively. That of the Aty'adae 
terminated (b. c. 1232) in the person of Om'phale, who was said to be 
the wife of Hercules. The race of the Heraclidae terminated with 
Candaiiles, who was murdered at the instigation of his queen, by Gy'- 
ges, a Lydian nobleman (b. c. 727), Gy'ges founded the dynasty of the 
Merm'nadae, under whose sway Lyd'ia rose to great power. During 
the reign of Ar'dys, the second of the dynasty, Asia Minor was de- 



SYEIA. 29 

vastated by hordes of northern barbarians, called Cimmerians, who had 
been expelled from their original seats by the Scythians. Their rav- 
ages were continued for about half a century : but they were finally 
driven out by Alyat'tes, the grandson of Ar'dys. Encouraged by his 
success against the Cimmerians, Alyat'tes endeavored to check the 
growing power of the Medes, and for six years waged war against 
Cyax'ares. The contest was at length about to be decided by a great 
battle, when a total eclipse of the sun so terrified both armies in the midst 
of the fight, that they separated in consternation (b. c. 601). This re- 
markable eclipse was predicted by Thales of Miletus, and is the first 
recorded to have been calculated by astronomers. 

Croe'sus, the son and successor of Alyat'tes, subdued all the Grecian 
states in Asia Minor, and extended his empire on the eastern side to 
the river Halys. The magnificence of his court at Sardis attracted 
visiters from different countries ; but Croe'sus was more anxious to en- 
tertain philosophers and men of learning from Greece. The illustrious 
Solon was once his guest, and with honorable freedom refused to de- 
clare Crce'sus perfectly happy until he knew the termination of his 
career. The Lydian monarch was deeply offended ; but ere long he 
had reason to admire the wisdom of the Athenian sage. Seduced by 
the pretended oracles of Delphi, he waged war against the rising Per- 
sian empire ; but was defeated by Cy'rus, and taken prisoner. Being 
sentenced to death by the barbarous victor, he exclaimed, when placed 
on the funeral pile, " O Solon, Solon !" Cy'rus asked the meaning of 
this invocation ; and was so struck by the impressive example of the 
philosopher's wisdom, that he not only spared the life of Croe'sus, but 
made him his friend and counsellor (b. c. 549). 

Lydia, and the rest of Asia Minor, remained subject to the Persian 
empire until the time of Alexander the Great. 

Section III. — Syria. — Geographical Outline. 

The name of Syria was loosely given by the Greeks, as that of 
A''ram was by the Hebrews, not only to the country now called by that 
name, but also to Mesopotamia and part of Asia Minor ; but it is prop- 
erly restricted to the region between Mount Am'anus on the north, 
the Euphrates on the east, Arabia on the south, and Phoenicia on the 
west. It has been variously divided, but the most convenient division 
is into three unequal portions — Syria Proper, which includes the prov- 
inces of Commagene, Seleiicis, and Ccele-Syria ; Phoenicia and the 
country of the Philistines ; and Palestine, of which we shall treat in a 
separate chapter. 

The principal city of Commagene was Samosata on the Euphrates : 
there were several trading towns of minor importance, all in the vicin- 
ity. Seleiicis was adorned with many splendid cities during the reigns 
of the successors of Alexander, of which the most remarkable were 
Antioch and Seleucia. It contained also Hierap'olis, dedicated to the 
Syrian goddess Beroea, the modern Aleppo, and Heliop'ohs (Baal'bec), 
whose magnificent ruins still attract admiration. Coele-Syria, or Hol- 
low Syria, was so called because it lies between two parallel chains 
of moimtains, Lib'anus and Antilib'anus : it contained Damascus, the 



30 ANCIENT HISTORY, 

ancient metropolis of Syria, which existed as a city in the days of 
Abraham, Ab'ila, and Laodicea. The Syrian desert adjoins this divis- 
ion, in the midst of which is a fertile oasis, on which the city of Tad- 
mor, or Palniy'ra, was founded by Solomon. Its ruins rival those of 
Baalbec in magnitude and beauty. Southeast of this was Thap'sacus, 
opposite to which the Euphrates was fordable. 

Phoenicia, or Phoenfce, skirted the eastern coasts of the Mediterra- 
nean, but its boimdaries were almost perpetually varying. It contained 
Sidon, the most ancient commercial city in the world ; Tyre, commonly 
called " the daughter of Sidon ;" Ar'adus, also an insular city ; Trip'- 
olis, so called because it was colonized by the three preceding cities 
conjointly : Byb'lus and Bery'tus, the modern Beiroot, which is still a 
good harbor. 

Tyre was originally a Sidonian colony, but rose rapidly above the 
parent state, and became a flourishing commercial city. After its cap- 
ture by Alexander the Great, Tyre gradually declined, less in conse- 
quence of the conqueror's vengeance than of the founding of Alexan- 
dria in Egj'^pt, which soon became the seat of the commerce that had 
previously centred in Tyre. 

Section IV. — Social and Political Condition of the Syrians and 
Phanicians. 

Syria contained but one large river, the Oron^tes, a turbid and rapid 
stream, whose navigation is impeded by rapids, and whose waters can 
not be used for domestic purposes. But there are several minor rivers 
in the neighborhood of Damascus, which, as well as their tributary 
streams, are remarkable for their limpid waters and abundance of fish. 
The soil is generally better suited to pasturage than agriculture. Two 
large valleys of mineral salt added greatly to the natural wealth of the 
country ; and the moimtains of Leb^anon supplied abundance of excel- 
lent timber both for house and ship-building. Syria was consequently 
partly suited to a nomad, and partly to a commercial people ; and this 
mixture of the two opposite characters, with scarcely any trace of the 
intermediate agricultural class, led to many revolutions in the Syrian 
government ; the cities were more or less republican, while the rural 
districts %vere subject to petty despots. The Syrian religion appears 
to have been elern^ntary ; that is, the objects of worship were the 
personifications of some powers of nature : their most celebrated 
deity, Astar^'te, or the Syrian goddess, represented both the moon and 
the prolific power of the earth, and was worshipped with the same 
licentious ceremonies as the Babylonian Mylit^ta. 

The Phcenicians, like the Syrians, belonged to the great Aramean, 
or Semitic family of nations. Their narrow and short line of coast, 
indented with excellent bays and harbors, was covered with lofty and 
wooded mountains, that jut out into the sea, and form bold promonto- 
ries. Several islands stud the coast, on which cities and commercial 
establishments were founded, as well as on the mairdand. Each of 
these cities was an independent state ; but they were generally united 
by a federative league, under the presidency of Sidon, and afterward 



SYRIA. 31 

of Tyre. The religion of the PhcEnicians appears to have been more 
sanguinary than that of most other nations. Tham'muz, or Adonis, 
was worshipped with very licentious rites, which were supposed to 
have a mystic signification. 

Section V. — History of the Syrians and Phoenicians. 

Syria was divided into a number of petty states, most of which 
were subdued by the Jewish king, David (b. c. 1044). Toward the 
close of Solomon's reign, Rezon, who had been originally a slave, 
threw off the yoke, and founded the Syrian kingdom of Damascus. 
Ben-hadad, the most powerful of his successors, waged a long and 
sanguinary war against the kingdom of Israel, during the reigns of 
Ahab and Jehoram. He was finally murdered by Hazael, one of his 
servants (b. c. 884), who usurped the vacant throne. Hazael was a 
warlike prince ; he gained several brilliant victories over the forces of 
Israel and Judah, compelling the monarchs of both to resign several 
important provinces, and pay him tribute. He also made himself mas- 
ter of E'lath on the Red sea, and greatly increased the commercial 
prosperity of his dominions. But these advantages were lost under 
the reign of his inglorious son, Ben-hadad II. 

The Syrians recovered some of their power under Rezin ; toward 
the close of his reign, he entered into alliance with Pekah, king of 
Israel, against A.''haz, king of Judah. The Syrians and Israelites 
gained so many advantages, that A''haz sought the protection of Tig- 
lath-pileser, king of Assyria, who marched against Damascus, cap- 
tured the city, dragged the inhabitants away captive, and put an end to 
the kingdom (b. c. 740). 

It has been already mentioned that most of the Phcenician cities 
were independent states. Tyre is, however, the only one whose his- 
tory can be satisfactorily traced. Its first sovereign was Ab^ical (about 
b. c. 1050), who was contemporary with David. His son and succes- 
sor, Hiram, was united by the strictest bonds of friendship to the great 
Jewish king, and also to his son Solomon. During the reign of Hiram, 
Tyre acquired the supremacy of Phoenicia, and became the most flour- 
ishing emporium of commerce in the ancient world. 

The most remarkable successors of Hiram were Ethbaal I., the 
father of the wicked Jez^ebel, wife of Ahab, in whose reign some im- 
portant colonies were planted in Africa ; and Pygmalion, whose murder 
of Sichae'us led to the foundation of Carthage (about b. c. 900). Dfdo, 
the wife of Sichae'us, aided by numerous Tyrians, escaped by sea with 
her husband's treasures, and sought a new country on the northern 
shores of Africa. Here she erected the city of Carthage, which soon 
rivalled Tyre itself in commercial prosperity. 

The Tyrians exercised their supremacy over the surrounding cities 
with so much cruelty, that the Phoenicians applied for protection to the 
Assyrians, and afterward to the Babylonians. The Assyrians, unable 
to cope with the Tyrians by sea, retired, leaving the city uninjured. 
But Nebuchadnez^zar so exhausted Tyre by a constant blockade, that 
it was almost wholly abandoned by its inhabitants, who erected the city 



33 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

of New Tyre upon a neighboring island. Soon after this event, a 
change was made in the form of government ; annual magistrates, 
called Shophctim, or, according to the Greek orthography, Suffetes, 
being chosen instead of kings. After Cyrus had conquered Babylon, 
the Phoenician cities submitted of their ow^n accord (b. c. 538) ; but 
though they became dependancies of the Persian empire, they were 
permitted to retain their native governments. Tyre again became sub- 
ject to kings, and supplied the strength of the Persian naval power. 
It was taken by Alexander the Great (b. c. 332), and from that time it 
sunk into hopeless decay. 

Section VI. — Phcenician Colonics and Foreign Possessions. 

The system of colonization in commercial states has been always 
the greatest aid to the progress of civilization : colonies are founded 
by trading nations for the purpose of securing a lucrative commerce, 
by establishing a market for the manufactured produce of the parent 
state, and a carrying-trade for its merchants and seamen. Such colo- 
nies, unlike the military establishments of despotic states, require to be 
placed under the guidance of persons advanced in political knowledge, 
who know how to vary the institutions derived from the government at 
home, so as to suit the altered circumstances of their position and for- 
eign relations : hence civil liberty has always advanced more rapidly 
in commercial colonies than in the states from which they were 
derived, and the science of legislation has attained greater perfection 
than in more ancient establishments. 

In commercial states, the distinction between the citizen and the 
soldier is very strongly marked ; and most commercial states, in ancient 
and modern times employed foreign mercenaries. The prophet Eze- 
kiel, whose account of Tyre is the most perfect record of its ancient 
condition, enumerates the countries that supplied the Tyrian armies 
and navies with warriors.* 

The Phcenician colonies proceeded from east to west along the 
coasts of the Mediterranean, occupying the principal islands. Cy^prus, 
called in Scripture Kittim, or Chittim, was not only a colony but a 
province of the Tyrians, and vestiges of their establishments on the 
island still exist. From Cyprus they extended their settlements to 
Crete and some of the islands in the Archipelago. Thence they pro- 
ceeded to Africa, Sicily, and Sardinia, spreading their cities unequally 
along the coasts, and very rarely attempting the conquest of the inte- 
rior. Their establishments in Sicily and Sardinia, indeed, appear to 
have been only naval stations for the vessels employed in the trade 
with western Europe, especially with Spain, which was the Mexico or 
Peru of the ancient world. The -Spanish peninsula, called in Scrip- 
ture Tar'shish, from the city Tartes'sus, was the country with wliich 
the Tyrians had the most lucrative trade ; and the colonies they estab- 
lished there soon became independent states. It would seem that the 
Tyrians were by no means anxious to retain supremacy over their col- 
onies, wisely preferring a close alliance, cemented by common descent, 

• Ezekiel xxvii. 8-11. 



SYRIA. 33 

language, and religion, to a hollow dependance. Colonies were also 
planted beyond the straits of Gibraltar, or, as they were called by the 
ancients, the Pillars of Hercules. Trade was extended to the British 
islands and the coasts of the North sea, which must have led to the 
establishment of colonies and naval stations along the western and 
northern coasts of Spain. 

The colonies in northern Africa, Leptis, Carthage, Utica, &c., 
attained greater splendor than any of the other Phoenician cities, and 
rivalled Tyre itself in wealth and magnificence. It is exceedingly 
probable that they had also settlements in western Africa, and that they 
had even reached the island of Madeira, But to prevent any interfer- 
ence with their lucrative commerce, they designedly cast a veil of 
mystery over their intercourse with the western regions, of which the 
Greek poets took advantage to embellish their narratives of fictitious 
voyages and travels with the most fanciful inventions. 

It is known that the Phoenicians preceded the Greeks in forming 
commercial establishments along the coast of Asia Minor and the shores 
of the Black sea ; but we have no account of the mode in which they 
were deprived of these possessions by the Greeks. It is probable that 
the Phoenicians resigned this branch of commerce to attend more 
closely to their lucrative trade with the western regions. 

In the eastern seas they had establishments on the Persian and Ara- 
bian gulfs ; but their settlements on the latter were probably not made 
until David had conquered their commercial rivals, the Edomites, or 
Idumeans. From that time they paid great attention to their southern 
trade, and seem to have become close allies of the Egyptians. 

Section VII. — Phcenician Manufactures and Commerce. 

The textile fabrics of the Sidonians, and the purple cloths of the 
Tyrians, were celebrated from the earliest antiquity. 

The Tyrian purple was not a single color, but was a generic name 
for all the shades of purple and scarlet. The dye was obtained from 
a shell-fish found in great abundance on the shores of the Mediterra- 
nean. Vegetable dyes of great beauty and variety were also used ; 
tha dyeing was always performed in the raw materials ; and the Phoe- 
nicians alone understood the art of producing shot colors by using 
threads of different tints. Glass was very anciently manufactured both 
at Sidon and Sarepta : tradition, indeed, ascribes the invention of glass 
to the Phoenicians ; but the Egyptians seem to have a claim at least as 
good to the discovery. Carvings in wood and ivory, manufactures of 
jewelry and toys, complete all that has been recorded of the products 
of Tyrian industry ; and it seems probable that their commerce con- 
sisted more in the interchange of foreign commodities than in the ex- 
port of their own wrought goods. 

The land-trade of the Phoenicians may be divided into three great 
branches : the Arabian, which included the Egyptian and that with the 
Indian seas ; the Babylonian, to which is referred the commerce with 
central Asia and north India ; and the Armenian, including the overland 
trade with Scythia and the Caucasian coimtries. 

From Yem'en, called Arabia the Happy, the southern division of the 

3 



^ 



34 ANCIENT HISTORY, 

Arabian peninsula, caravans brought through the desert frankincense', 
myrrh, cassia, gold, and precious stones, the gold being probably 
obtained from the opposite shores of Africa, But before the Phoeni- 
cians had a port on the Red sea, they obtained, through Arabia, the 
produce of southern India and Africa, more especially cinnamon^ ivory, 
and ebony. This trade is fully described by Ezekiel,* by whom the 
traffic in the Persian gidf is also noticed. f 

The Arabian trade appears to have been principally carried on by 
caravans. The northern x^rabs, especially the princes of Kedar and the 
Midianites, were in ancient times great travelling merchants : and the 
kingdom of Edom, or IdumeEa, in the north of the Arabian peninsula, 
attained a very high degree of commercial prosperity. On the seacoast 
the Idumeans possessed the ports of E'lath and E'zion-geber (Ak'aba) ; 
in the interior, they had for their metropolis Petra, whose magnificent 
remains have been but recently discovered. So permanent and almost 
immutable is the aspect of civilization in Asia, that the commercial 
caravans of the present day scarcely differ in any particular from those 
which were used in the flourishing days of TjTe. The merchants trav- 
elled in bands organized like an army, having their goods on the backs 
of camels, the only animals which can endure the fatigues and priva- 
tions of the desert. They were escorted by armed forces, sometimes 
suppUed from home, but more frequently consisting of one marauding 
tribe, hired at a large price, to save the caravan from the exactions and 
attacks of the rest. The greater part of the Phoenician trade with 
Egypt was overland, at least so long as the seat of government was at 
Thebes in Upper Egypt : when Mem'phis rose into power, an entire 
quarter of the city was assigned to the Phoenician merchants, and the 
trade by sea to the mouths of the Nile grew into importance. The 
first branch of the eastern Phoenician trade was with Judsea and Syria 
Proper.| The dependance of the Phoenicians on Palestine for grain 
fully explains the cause of their close alliance with the Jewish king- 
dom in the reigns of David and Solomon. 

But the most important branch of eastern trade was that through 
Bab'ylon with the interior of Asia. A great part of the route lay 
through the Syrian desert ; and to facilitate the passage of the caravans, 
two of the most remarkable cities of the ancient world, Baal'bec and 
Palmy'ra, were founded. They were both built by Solomon : " he 
founded," says the Scripture, " Baalath (Baal'bec) and Tadmor (Pal- 
my'ra) in the desert."^ They were erected by that wise monarch to 
procure for his subjects a share in this lucrative traffic ; but this object 
was frustrated by the subsequent revolt of the ten tribes, and the wars 
between Israel a:nd Judah. 

The northern land-trade of the Phoenicians is described by no an- 
cient writer but the prophet Ezekiel : " Javan [Ionia, and the Greek 
colonies]. Tubal, and Meshech [ihe countries around the Black and 
north Caspian seas], they were thy merchants : they traded the persons 
of men and vessels of brass in thy markets. They of the house of To- 
gar'mah [Armenia and Cappadocia], traded in thy fairs with horses and 
horsemen and mules. "|| 

• Ezekiel xxvii. 19-23. f lb. xxvii. 15. 

f Ezekjea xxvii, 17, 18. § 1 Kings ix. 18. || Ezekiel xxvii. 13, 14. 



(^ 



9 



SYEIA. 35 

But the Mediterranean sea was the great high road of Phcenician 
commerce : it probably commenced with piracy ; for in the infancy of 
Grecian civilization, we find frequent mention of the kidnapping prac- 
tised by corsairs from Tyre and Sidon. But when Greece advanced 
in power, and Athens and Corinth had fleets of their own, the Greeks 
became the rivals and political enemies of the Phoenicians, purchasing 
from them only such articles as could not be procured from their own 
colonies in Asia Minor. Spain was the richest country of the ancient 
world in the precious metals. The Phcenician colonies enslaved the 
natives, and compelled them to work in the mines : these metallic pro- 
ductions are enumerated by Ezekiel. " Tar'shish [Tartes'sus, or south- 
western Spain], was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all 
kind of riches ; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded in thy 
fairs."* From Spain the Phoenicians entered the Atlantic ocean, and 
proceeded to the south of the British islands, where they proc\ired the 
tin of Cornwall ; and probably to the coasts of Prussia for amber, which 
in the ancient world was deemed more precious than gold. In the 
eastern seas, the Phoenicians had establishments on the Arabian and 
Persian gulf, whence they traded with the coasts of India and Af- 
rica, and the island of Ceylon. During the reign of Pharaoh-Necho, 
king of Egypt, they discovered the passage round the Cape of Good 
Hope ; but this led to no important results, on account of the calamities 
that Tyre endured from the invasion of Nebuchadnez'zar. Though 
their voyages did not equal in daring those of modem times, yet, when 
we consider that they were ignorant of the mariner's compass, and of 
the art of taking accurate astronomical observations, it is wonderful to 
reflect on the commercial enterprise of a people whose ships were to 
be seen in the harbors of Britain and Ceylon. 

* Ezekiel xxvii. 12. 



36 " ANCIENT HISTORY. 






CHAPTER V. 
PALESTINE. 

Section I. — Geographical Outline, 

Palestine, or the Holy Land, lies between Phoenicia on the north, 
and IdumEe'a on the south, separated from both by chains of lofty 
mountains ; to the east its boundaries were the Asphaltic lake, the 
riA^er Jordan, and the sea of Galilee ; on the west it extended to the 
Mediterranean. The mountains are the most remarkable features in 
the geography of Palestine. These mountains divided Palestine into a 
series of valleys and tablelands, leaving two great plains, called " the 
region about Jordan," and the plain of Esdraelon, or Jez'reel. These 
valleys and plains were of very unequal value ; some were so unpro- 
ductive as to be called deserts, others were the most fertile spots in 
western Asia. 

Jordan was the only great river of Palestine ; it falls into the As- 
phaltic lake, or Dead sea, which occupies the site of the ancient cities 
Sod'om and Gomor'rah. There is no outlet from the Asphaltic lake, 
and its waters are bitter and unwholesome. The sea of Galilee, 
through which the Jordan flows, is a beautiful fresh-water lake, abound- 
ing in fish. 

The principal cities were Jerusalem, the metropolis of the kingdom 
of Judah, and Samaria, the capital of Israel. Idumse'a lay south of 
Palestine, beyond the chain of Mount Seir : it was in general a rocky 
and barren country ; but being the high road of Arabian traffic, its nat- 
ural capabilities were improved to the utmost, and it contained the 
great city of Petra, whose commercial wealth was deserv^edly celebra- 
ted. Idumse'a, or Edom, was annexed to the kingdom of Israel in the 
reign of David. 

The valleys of Palestine were in general very fruitful ; and the va- 
ried elevations of the country, causing so many different climates, gave 
the country a greater variety of natural productions than is usually 
found in so confined a space. 

A series of calamities, unparalleled in any other portion of the globe, 
has now reduced Palestine almost to sterility ; but even now there are 
spots to be found whose luxuriance revives the memory of the v,erdure 
and beauty that once covered the entire country. 

Section II. — History of Palestine. 
FROM B. C. 1920 TO B. c. 975. 

God called Abram from the land of the Chaldees to Palestine, then 
named Canaan, to be the founder of a nation that should be his peculiar 



PALESTINE. W 37 

people (b. c. 1920). Abraham, at his death (b. c. 1821), transmitted 
the inheritance- of the divine promise to his son Isaac ; and he was de- 
ceived into making his second son Jacob, or Israel, the heir of this 
glorious privilege. The twelve sons of Jacob sold their brother Joseph 
as a slave to some Arabian merchants, by whom he was carried into 
Egypt. There he became the chief minister of the Pharaoh of Egypt ; 
his brethren having come into that country to purchase corn, he made 
himself known to them, and invited his father, with his whole family, 
to dwell to the rich district of Goshen (b. c. 1705). In process of 
time, the Israelites became so numerous as to excite the envious alarm 
of the Egyptians : they were in consequence cruelly persecuted, until 
God raised up Moses as their deliverer. The miraculous plagues he 
inflicted on the land of Egypt induced the reigning Pharaoh to consent 
to the departure of the Israelites (b. c. 1491). Repenting of his per- 
mission, he pursued them with a mighty host ; but he and all his fol- 
lowers perished in the Red sea. 

After the miraculous deliverance of the Hebrews from the Egyptian 
army, and their safe passage through the Red sea, it seemed as if their 
chief difiiculties had been overcome ; that with Jehovah for their pro- 
tector, and Moses for their guide, they would soon reach the frontiers 
of Canaan, and find no difficulty in subduing its idolatrous inhabitants. 
Were there no other difficulties to be overcome than the ruggedness of 
the way, and the hostility of the various warlike races in and round 
Palestine, the wanderings of the Israelites would soon have terminated, 
but during their protracted bondage they had been deeply imbued with 
all the vices of slavery ; they had become stubborn, rebellious, and in- 
constant ; they vacillated between the extremes of cowardice and 
rashness, and they had acquired an almost invincible fondness for idol- 
atry and superstition, which proved a constant source of misfortunes to 
themselves and of the most harassing vexations to their leader. 

In the beginning of the third month after the departure from Goshen, 
the Israelites reached the plains around Sin'ai, where amid the most 
awful manifestations of the Divine presence, Moses ascended the 
mountain, and received from the Lord the sacred code of laws by which 
the Israelites were thenceforth to be ruled under God's immediate gov- 
ernment, and which was moreover designed, both by its moral and 
ceremonial institutions, to be " a schoolmaster to the Jews to bring 
them unto Christ." The constitution thus given to the Israelites may 
be described as a theocracy ; that is, a government in which God him- 
self was the sovereign, communicating his will by certain authorized 
ministers. The priests through whom the Divine commands were 
made known, could only be chosen from the descendants of Aaron ; and 
all the inferior ministers of religion belonged to the tribe of Levi. All 
the institutions appointed for the people were directed to one great ob- 
ject, the preservation of the purity of religious worship : the Israelites 
were not chosen to be the most wealthy or most powerful of nations, 
but to be the guardians of the knowledge of the true God, until the ar- 
rival of that divine Savior who was to unite both Jews and Gentiles as 
one flock, under one shepherd. While Moses continued on the mount, 
the Israelites, impatient at his long absence, formed a golden calf, or 
representation of a young bull, as an object for their idolatrous worship. 



38 ^ ANCIENT HISTORY 

When Moses, who had been now forty days on the mount, learaed 
from the Lord the crime of which the people had been guilty, he hastily 
descended toward the camp ; as he approached, the sight of the people, 
dancing round the object of their stupid veneration, filled him with such 
wrath that he broke the tables of stone on which the Ten Command- 
ments had been graven by " the finger of God." The tribe of Levi, 
which seems not to have participated in the national guilt, slew three 
thousand of the worst criminals ; the idol was broken to pieces, and the 
people compelled to drink the water with which its dust had been min- 

Jled ; and atonement having been made for the sin, Moses again 
scended the mountain, and, after an absence of forty days, returned 
with two new tables of commandments, in place of those that had been 
broken. 

Having broken up the encampment at Sin^ai, the Israelites directed 
their march to the frontiers of Canaan ; but notwithstanding all the 
signs and wonders that had been wrought in their favor, they broke out 
into acts of rebellion against Moses, and on every trifling occasion pro- 
voked, by their seditions, severe chastisements, from the righteous anger 
of the Almighty ; until, at length upon the very borders of the promised 
land, for their rebellious murmurings at the report of the spies, the Lord 
ordained that none of the existing generation shoidd enter the promised 
land, except Joshua and Caleb. Forty years of wandering in the Des- 
ert were to expiate the national crime, after wliich a new generation 
was to inherit the promise made to Abraham. 

In their Avanderings, the miraculous pillar, which had guided them 
from Egypt, continued still to direct them, and the manna to nourish 
them ; their raiment and their shoes suffered no decay, and their feet 
were unhurt, by their long and frequent marches. Notwithstanding 
these signal proofs of the Divine protection, the children of Israel fre- 
quently rebelled against Moses, and provoked severe chastisements 
from their offended God. 

Thirty-eight years after their departure from Egypt, the march to 
Canaan Avas resumed ; but being defeated in their first attempt, and, 
though more successfid on a second trial, finding the western frontiers 
of Palestine difficult, the Israelites resolved to make a circuit, and at- 
tack the country more to the eastward. On this march, Moses and 
Aaron, having evinced a want of confidence in the divine power, were 
included in the sentence of not being permitted to enter the promised 
land. 

Commanded by God to regard the descendants of Esau as their 
brethren, the Hebrew army avoided the land of Edom, turning their 
course northward, encountering various enemies, who tried to impede 
their passage. They gained signal victories over Sihon, king of the 
Amorites, and Og, the gigantic ruler of Basan, and spread the terror of 
their, name through the surrounding nations. In a pitched battle, which 
the Israelites fought also against five kings of Mid'ian, the confederate 
monarchs fell ; a terrible slaughter was made of their subjects, the 
cities of the land were taken and sacked, and a considerable booty 
brought to Moses and Eleazar, the latter of whom had succeeded Aaron 
in the priesthood. 

Immediately after -the punishment of the Midianites, Moses, by the 



PALESTINE. 39 

divine direction, took a census of the people, and assigned to the tribes 
by lot their future inheritance in Canaan. He found that all the old 
murmuring generation, save .Joshua and Caleb, had disappeared, as God 
had foretold. Being warned that his own end was approaching, he 
solemnly constituted Joshua his successor, and assembling the people, 
recapitulated all the miracles which God had wrought in their favor 
since their departure from Egypt, and exhorted them to be firm in their 
allegiance to Jehovah, setting before them the blessings promised for 
obedience, and the curses denounced against idolatry. Having thus 
completed his task, he ascended Mount Nebo, by God's command, 
whence he was gratified with a view of the promised land ; after which 
he breathed his last, in the one hundredth and twentieth year of his 
age (b. c. 1451),' The place of his burial was carefully concealed, 
probably to prevent the Israelites from making his tomb an object of 
idolatrous veneration. 

Section III. — The Conquest of Canaan by Joshng,. 

Nothing less than the strongest assurance of divine aid could have 
supported Joshua's courage in so arduous an enterprise. He was now 
ninety-three years of age, and wanted neither experience nor sagacity 
to foresee the perils which he had to encounter. Though at the head 
of six hundred thousand fighting men, his army was encumbered by a 
multitude of old men, women, and children, beside servants and cattle ; 
before him was a large river, which he was to cross, equally exposed to 
the arms of those he went to attack, and those he left behind. The na- 
tions he had to subdue were warlike, remarkable for their personal 
strength and gigantic stature ; their towns were well fortified by nature 
and art ; their forces and interests cemented by mutual treaties ; they 
had long been aware of the meditated invasion,, and had made formi- 
dable preparations for the defence of their country. 

The tribes of Reuben and Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh, pre- 
ferred settling in the land east of the Jordan, but they sent a contingent 
of forty thousand men to aid their brethren in the subjugation of Ca- 
naan. 

Passing over the river Jordan by a miraculous passage, the Israelites 
celebrated the feast of the passover, which had been intermitted since 
their encampment on Sin'ai, from the want of corn to prepare unleav- 
ened bread ; now, also, that they were in a productive land, the mirac- 
ulous supply of manna ceased, being no longer necessary. So great 
was the alarm of the Canaanites, that no attempt was made to interrupt 
the Israelites while celebrating this solemn feast ; when it was conclu- 
ded, they advanced against the fortified city of Jer'icho, which was 
straightly shut up because of the children of Israel, — " none went out, 
and none came in. By divine command, Joshua made no military 
preparations for the siege of this important place, but led the army 
round the city once a day for six days, preserving strict silence, broken 
only by the sound of the sacred trumpets which accompanied the Ark 
of the Covenant. On the seventh day, the people " compassed the 
city, after the same manner, seven times ; and it came to pass at the 
seventh time, when the priests blew with the trumpets, Joshua said un- 



40 " ^ ANCIENT HISTORY. 

to the people, Shout, for the Lord hath given you the city. . . . And 
the people shouted with a ;^eat shout, that the wall fell down flat, so 
that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, 
and they took the city." 

The king of A^i next became the victim of a stratagem devised by 
Joshua, and its citizens were utterly exterminated. Great fear spread 
over the land of Canaan in consequence of the destruction of Jer'icho 
and A'i ; the Gibeonites, anxious to escape from impending ruin, sought 
a treaty of peace from Joshua, and obtained it by pretending to be na- 
tives of a distant country. 

Adonized'ec, king of Jerusalem, Avas greatly enraged when he heard 
that the Gibeonites had deserted the common cause ; he sent ambas- 
sies to four of the neighboring princes to aid him in punishing their 
defection ; they readily assented, and " went up, they and all their hosts, 
and encamped before Gibeon, and made war against it." Joshua imme- 
diately marched to their deliverance. The five kings were completely 
routed ; at Joshua's command " the sun stood still and the moon stayed, 

until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies 

And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the Lord 
hearkened unto the voice of a man ; for the Lord fought for Israel." 

During the space of seven years, the Israelites were almost inces- 
santly engaged in completing the conquest of Canaan, but they met 
with no very formidable resistance after the memorable battle against 
the five kings before Gibeon. They did not however wholly extermi- 
nate the idolatrous tribes, as the Lord had commanded ; they became 
weary of the protracted warfare, and the warriors of Reuben, Gad, and 
Manasseh, were naturally anxious to return to their families beyond 
Jordan. This impolitic act of disobedience was subsequently produc- 
tive of fatal consequences, for the surviving Canaanites eagerly sought 
and embraced every opportunity of taking revenge for the extermina- 
tion of their brethren. Even in peace they were scarcely less danger- 
ous to the prosperity of the chosen people than in war, for they fre- 
quently seduced the Israelites to join in the impure and impious rites 
of their licentious idolatry. 

Soon after tranquillity had been established in Palestine, and the dif- 
ferent tribes and families had taken possession of their allotted portions, 
Joshua 'died, at the advanced age of one hundred and ten, having ruled 
the country as wisely as he had conquered it bravely : " And Israel 
served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders 
that overlived Joshua, and which had known all the works of the Lord 
that he had done for Israel." 

Section IV. — History of Israel under the Judges. 

Under the theocracy, as established by Moses, the civil government 
of Israel was to be administered by Shophelim, or Judges, nominated 
by the divine oracle, the mysterious U7im and Thummim, which were 
in the custody of the high-priest ; but after the death of Joshua the 
Israelites frequently apostatized to idolatry, the oracles of God were 
neglected, the appointment of chief magistrates omitted. The tribe of 
Judah at first actively engaged in completing the conquest which had 



PALESTINE. il 

been left imperfect, biTt others entered into compact with the Canaan- 
ites, and were so insnared by the beauty of their women as to contract 
affinities with them. These intermarriages soon reconciled them to the 
worship of the false gods of the heathen, and provoked the Almighty 
to deliver them over to the hamds of their enemies. God permitted 
the idolatrous Israelites to be subdued by the king of Mesopotamia, 
who held them in subjection for nearly eight years ; but on their repent- 
ance, Oth'niel was raised up to be their deliverer, and under his admin- 
istration " they had rest forty years." A second defection was pun- 
ished by a servitude to the Moabites for eighteen years, at the end of 
which time E'hud slew the king of Moab, delivered Israel, and restored 
peace. Sham'gar, the third judge, repelled the incursions of the Phil- 
istines, and slew six hundred of them with an ox-goad. But " the 
children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord, when E'hud 
was dead. And the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin, king of 
Canaan." For twenty years the Israelites groaned under the yoke of 
this despot, but they were at length delivered by the prophetess Deb'- 
orah, aided by Barak, a leader of established reputation. 

A new apostacy was punished by a more severe servitude ; " the 
Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years. And the 
hand of Midian prevailed against Israel ; and because of the Midian- 
ites, the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the moun- 
tains, and caves, and strongholds." The liberator chosen to deliver the 
Israelites from this miserable bondage was Gid'eon, who, with only 
three hundred men, made a night attack on the camp of the Midianites. 
Thrown into confusion by the unexpected assault, and deceived as to 
the number of their enemies, the Midianites turned their arms against 
each other, and finally fled in disorder. They were vigorously pur- 
sued, great numbers were slain, an immense quantity of valuable spoils 
taken, and the freedom of Israel restored. 

Under Gid'eon's administration, " the land had rest for forty years ;" 
but after his death the people of Shechem, at the instigation of Abim'- 
elech, a natural son of Gid'eon, slew all the legitimate children of 
Gid'eon except the youngest, and proclaimed Abim'elech king. This 
dreadful crime produced a civil war, and the fratricide was himself 
afterward killed by a woman. 

There was nothing remarkable in the administration of the judges 
Tola and Jair ; but after the death of the latter, the idolatry of the 
Israelites became so gross, that God delivered them into the hands of 
the Philistines and the Ammonites. In their distress, the children of 
Israel, probably by divine direction, applied to Jeph'thah, the natural 
son of Gil'ead, who, having been refused a share of his father's inher- 
itance, had become the chief of a predatory band beyond Jordan. 

.Teph'thah was succeeded by Ib'zan, E'lon, and Ab'dpn, of whom 
nothing remarkable is recorded. They were followed by E'li, who 
united in his person the office of high-priest and judge. Under his 
administration, the apostacy of the Israelites was punished by their 
being delivered over to the Philistines, who harassed them for nearly 
forty years. These oppressors deprived the Israelites of all their 
weapons of war, and of the means of procuring others. 

During this period appeared Sam'son, the most extraordinary of the 



«» ANCIENT HISTORY. 

Jewish heroes, whose birth and prowess were miraculously foretold to 
both his parents. During his life he harassed the Philistines, slaugh- 
tering them with wonderful displays of strength ; and by his last act, in 
pulling upon himself and upon his enemies the temple of their national 
god, in which a general assembly of the people were gathered, the dead 
which " he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in 
his life." 

The Israelites were too disorganized to take advantage of this 
extraordinary slaughter of the Philistine lords ; E'li, their judge, was 
nearly one hundred years old, and his two sons, Hoph'ni and Phin'- 
ehas, who acted under him, took advantage of his weakness to commit 
the most profligate abominations. Samuel, whom God had called in 
his youth to become a prophet and the future judge of Israel, was 
commanded by the Lord to denounce divine vengeance against E'li ; 
after which he became generally known as an inspired person, divinely 
chosen to be E'li'.s successor. 

Samuel, though still a youth, was chosen judge of Israel after the 
death of E'li. He assembled the people, and impressed upon them the 
criminality and folly of their idolatry ; they were convinced by his 
reasoning, and put away their strange deities, promising to serve the 
Lord alone. They were rewarded by a signal victory over the Philis- 
tines ; after which the land had rest during the remainder of Samuel's 
administration. 

When Samuel had judged Israel twenty years, he appointed his two 
sons to assist him ; but these young men, like the sons of E'li, per- 
verted justice, and the elders of Israel unanimously demanded a king 
to rule over them like other nations. Samuel remonstrated with them 
for thus abandoning their peculiar distinction of having the Lord for 
their king ; but when the demand was renewed more urgently, on a 
threatened invasion of the Ammonites, he was directed by the Lord to 
comply with the popular request. According to the divine instructions 
he selected Saul, the son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, to be the 
first monarch of the Israelites (b. c. 1095). He was presented to the 
tribes at Miz'peh, " and Samuel said to all the people. See ye him 
whom the Lord hath chosen, that there is none like him among all the 
people ? And all the people shouted and said, God save the king !" 

Section V. — History of the United Kingdom of Israel. 

Many of the Israelites were discontented with the choice that had 
been made of a monarch. But these symptoms of discontent were 
soon checked by the signal proof which Saul gave of his military 
qualifications. Nahash, king of the Ammonites, invaded Israel, and laid 
siege to Jabesh-Gil'ead ; the inhabitants proposed to capitulate, but 
Nahash sternly replied, " On this condition will I make a covenant 
with you, that I may thrust out all your right eyes, and lay it as a 
reproach upon Israel." When this intelligence reached the general 
assembly of the Israelites, they burst into loud lamentations ; but Saul 
commanded an instant levy of the people. A numerous body of sol- 
diers obeyed the summons ; Saul marched against the Ammonites, and 
defeated them so effectually, that not two of them were left together. 



PALESTINE. 43 

So delighted were the people with this victory, that they proposed to 
punish with death all who had resisted the elevation of their young 
monarch ; but Saul said, " There shall not be a man put to death this 
day ; for to-day the Lord hath wrought salvation in Israel." A solemn 
assembly of the tribes was then convoked at Gil'gal, in order that the 
people should renew their allegiance. Here Samuel resigned his office. 

Saul was aided in his government by his son Jonathan, a young man 
of heroic valor and the most generous disposition. With a select band, 
he attacked and stormed the Philistine garrison at Geba, which neces- 
sarily led to war. The Israelites were badly prepared for hostilities, 
and when the tribes met at Gil'gal, they showed the greatest timidity 
and confusion. They were also disheartened by the absence of Sam- 
uel, whose duty it was to offer the solemn sacrifice, and began to dis- 
perse ; Saul, alarmed lest he should be entirely deserted, offered the 
solemn sacrifice himself; but the ceremony was not concluded when 
Samuel appeared, and announced to the too hasty monarch, that for this 
wilful violation of the law, the kingdom should not be hereditary in his 
family. The Philistines, advancing with aii immense army, blockaded 
Saul, who had only about six hundredfl|en under his command in the 
mountains of Gib'eah, but he was unexpectedly liberated from his dif- 
ficulties by the daring valor of his son Jonathan, who, accompanied only 
by his armor-bearer, attacked a Philistine outpost, and spread such a 
panic through the whole army that they were easily routed by Saul. 

After this victory, Saul led his forces against the different nations 
that harassed the frontiers of his kingdom ; when these had been re- 
strained from their incursions, Samuel, by the direction of the Lord, 
commanded Saul to execute divine vengeance on the Amalekites, who 
had been long the most bitter enemies of the chosen people. Saul 
smote the Amalekites with great slaughter ; but, in direct violation of 
the Divine prohibitions, he spared the life of A'gag, their king, and 
brought away with him a vast booty of cattle. Samuel bitterly re- 
proached the king for his ingratitude to God, and announced to Saul 
that his disobedience should be punished by the loss of his kingdom, 
which the Lord would transfer to a more worthy person. 

Samuel departed from Saul, whom he never again visited : directed 
by God, he went to the family of Jes^se, in Bethlehem of Judah, 
where he anointed David, Jes'se's youngest son, who thenceforth was 
gifted with supernatural endowments. In the meantime, Saul became 
subject to fits of phrensy and melancholy, which his servants supposed 
could be best dispelled by the influence of music : they therefore sent 
for David, whose skill on the harp was already celebrated, and his ex- 
quisite skill frequently enabled him to dispel the gloom that depressed 
the king's spirits. The Philistines, probably encouraged by secret in- 
formation of Saul's unhappy condition, renewed the war against Israel, 
and Saul led out an army to protect the frontiers. While the hostile 
forces were encamped in sight of each other, the gigantic Goliath of 
Gath came forth as champion of the Philistines, and challenged any 
Israelite warrior to contend against him ; all were daunted by the stat- 
ure, strength, and ferocity of the giant. At length David presented 
himself to the combat, armed only with his staff and a sling : the vaunt- 
ing Philistine treated the young hero with contempt, but a stone from 



44 ANCIENT HISTORY, 

the sling, striking him full in the forehead, penetrated to the brain, and 
laid him prostrate on the earth. Disheartened by the loss of their 
champion, the Philistines fled in confusion, and were pursued with 
great slaughter beyond the frontiers of their own coimtry. 

David's distinguished valor led to a warm and sincere friendship be- 
tween him and Jonathan, but it excited bitter jealousy in the mind of 
Saul. The marriage of David to Michal, Saul's daughter, did not allay 
the king's jealous hatred ; he openly declared his intention of putting' 
his son-in-law to death, and took active measures for the purpose. 
Once David was saved by the stratagem of his wife, and again by the 
vigilant friendship of Jonathan ; but he saw that he was no longer sure 
of his life, if he remained within the reach of Saul, and therefore sought 
safety in exile. After a brief residence among the Philistines, he re- 
turned to Palestine, and became the leader of a band of men of broken 
fortimes, compelled to endure all the vicissitudes of such a perilous 
life. He was closely pursued by his vindictive enemy, Saul, and twice 
had it in his power to destroy his persecutor. But he was too loyal 
"to lift his hand against -the Lord's anointed;" he therefore only in- 
formed Saul of the danger 1^|vhich he had been exposed, and thus 
proved his own innocence, ti hese events led to a temporary recon- 
ciliation ; but David, having reason to fear that Saul meditated treach- 
ery, withdrew to the court of A^chish, one of the kings of the Philis- 
tines. 

The death of Samuel left Saul in a most wretched condition ; the 
prophets fled from him, the priests were slaughtered, " and when Saul 
inquired of the Lord, the Lord answered him not, neither by dreams, 
nor by Urlm, nor by prophets." At this crisis, the Philistines invaded 
the country with a numerous army. Saul was encamped on Mount 
Gil'boa, with forces far inferior to the enemy. Eager to learn some- 
thing of his fate, he resolved to consult one of those unlawfid diviners 
who had been in better times severely proscribed ; he was conducted 
by his servants to a woman residing near En'dor, " who had a familiar 
spirit," and he persuaded her to evoke Samuel from the tomb. The 
image of the prophet appeared, and predicted to the terrified monarch 
the fatal news of his approaching defeat and death (b, c. 1055). On 
the seqond morning after this vision, Saul entered the last of his fields ; 
the Israelites had long neglected the use of the bow, and to their su- 
periority in this weapon the Philistines chiefly owed their victory : 
" the battle went sore against Saul, and the archers hit him, and he was 
sore wounded of the archers." Afraid of falling alive into the hands of 
his enemies, he fell upon his own sword ; his gallant sons had pre- 
viously fallen, and the overthrow of the Hebrew army was complete. 

David had jus.t returned to Zik'lag from pursuing the Amalekites, 
when he heard of the calamitous result of the battle on Moimt Gilboa. 
Having consulted the Lord as to his future proceedings, Jie was di- 
rected to go to Heb'ron, where he was anointed king over the tribe of 
Judah, who regarded him as the champion of their race. In the mean- 
time, Ab'ner, Saul's general, prevailed upon the northern tribes to elect 
Ish'bosheth, Saul's son, their monarch, and he removed him to Ma- 
hanaim, which was beyond Jordan, in order that he might have time to 
recruit his shattered army. One of David's earliest measures was to 



PALESTINE. 45 

send a message of thanks to the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gil'ead, for their 
honorable conduct to the deceased king and his sons : he next caused 
the young men of Judah to be instructed in the use of the bow, and 
they soon rivalled the Philistines in archery. 

War was soon declared between the kings of Israel and Judah : 
Joab, who commanded David's forces, inflicted a severe defeat on Ab'- 
ner, Ish'bosheth's general, and from that time David's power began 
rapidly to increase. Ab'ner, while exerting himself to strengthen Ish'- 
bosheth, incurred the displeasure of that prince ; he therefore resolved 
to seek a reconciliation with David, whom he visited in the character 
of a mediator, but on his return he was treacherously slain by "Joab, 
who probably feared that Ab'ner would become a powerful rival. The 
death of Ab'ner disheartened the supporters of Ish'bosheth ; two of his 
captains murdered him in his bed, and brought the news to David, but 
instead of being rewarded as they hoped, they suffered the punishment 
of treason. No other claimant appearing for the throne, the heads of 
all the tribes of Israel came to Heb'ron, and recognised David as their 
sovereign. But the breach which had taken place between the north- 
ern and southern tribes was never completely healed ; they continued 
to regard themselves as distinct in policy and interest, until they were 
finally divided into separate states by the folly of Rehoboam. 

The city of Jerusalem had long been held by the Jebusites, who, ac- 
cording to the traditions of the east, were a tribe of the wandering and 
plundering Hyk'sos. David resolved to besiege this important city 
with all the forces of his kingdom ; the place was carried by storm, 
and David was so pleased with the situation of the place that he made 
it the capital of his dominions. 

The Philistines were alarmed at the increasing power of David ; as- 
sembling all their forces, they crossed the frontier, took Bethlehem by 
storm, and compelled David for a while to seek shelter in the cave of 
Adul'lam ; but the Hebrew king soon gathered his forces, and he so 
utterly routed the Philistines in two successive engagements that they 
never more were able to compete with him or any of his successors. 
Hiram, king of Tyre, entered into a firm alliance with the victorious 
monarch, and supplied him with workmen and materials to erect a 
palace in his new city. David's next care was to remove the ark from 
Kir'jath-jearim to Jerusalem. The pious monarch was also anxious to 
build a temple for the national worship, but the prophet Nathan de- 
clared to him that it was not fit for a warrior, whose hands were so 
often stained with blood, to erect a temple to the God of peace, but that 
this glorious duty would devolve upon his son and successor. 

David now directed his attention to the surrounding nations ; he 
overthrew the Philistines, the Moabites, and the Amalelutes ; he com- 
pelled the Syrians and Edomites to become tributary, and he amassed 
a prodigious quantity of spoil, a large portion of which he dedicated as 
a sacred treasure to defray the future expenses of building the temple. 
The Ammonites and Syrians soon renewed the war, but they were 
again vanquished, and the dominions of David were extended to the 
Euphrates. But while this war was continued David provoked the 
anger of the Lord, by taking Bath'sheba, the wife of Uriah, one of his 
bravest captains, to himself, and exposing her husband to certain death. 



46 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

The prophet Nathan was sent to reprove his guilt ; David humbly con- 
fessed his sin, and his remorse and repentance procured him pardon 
from his offended God. Domestic calamities interrupted the prosperity 
of David's reign ; Amnon, his eldest son, was slain by his brother Ab'- 
salom, in revenge for a gross insult offered to his sister, and the young 
prince was no sooner pardoned and taken into favor, than he began to 
plot the dethronement and probable death of his indulgent father. The 
standard of revolt was raised ; but a numerous army headed by Joab 
and his brothers marched against Ab'salom, and completely routed his 
forces in the forest of Ephraim. The unfortunate prince, attempting to 
escape, Avas entangled by his long hair in the branches of an oak; in 
this situation he was slain by Joab, contrary to the express commands 
of David, who was fondly attached to his rebellious son. The northern 
tribes again revolted, under the command of Sheba, but they were soon 
subdued, and their leader punished with death. 

David next turned his arms against the Philistines, whom he over- 
threw in four successive battles ; but the joy inspired by these victories 
was soon changed into mourning, for David, having presumed " to num- 
ber the people," was pimished by a pestilence, which swept away 
seventy thousand of his subjects. Shortly afterward, David, being in- 
formed that his son Adonijah was tampering with some of the nobles, 
in order to obtain the throne, gave orders that Solomon, his son by 
Bath'sheba, should be proclaimed king. When this ceremony was 
performed, David tranquilly prepared to meet the approach of death. 
He died after a troubled but glorious reign of forty years. 

SoFomon commenced his reign by putting to death Adonijah and 
Joab. In order to strengthen himself against foreign enemies, he mar- 
ried the daughter of the Egyptian Pharaoh, receiving as her dowry a 
portion of Canaan which had been subdued by that monarch. The 
Lord appeared to Sol'omon in a dream, and promised to grant him 
whatever he should ask ; the young king chose wisdom, and not only 
was his request granted, but riches, honor, and length of days, were ad- 
ded, on condition of his persevering in obedience to the divine com- 
mandments. The proofs which Sol'omon gave of his wisdom and dis- 
cernment were so celebrated throughout the east, that the most power- 
ful monarchs entered into alliance with him ; thus tranquillity was es- 
tablished, and leisure afforded for the erection of the temple. Seven 
years and a half were spent in the building of this magnificent edifice ; 
the costliness of its materials could only be surpassed by the beauty of 
the workmanship ; all the resources of wealth and ingenviity were ex- 
hausted on the wondrous structure. When completed it was dedicated 
to Jehovah in a solemn festival, and the Shekmah, or cloud of glory, 
which announced the visible presence of the Lord, overspread the en- 
tire edifice. 

Opposite Mount Moriah, on which the temple stood, SoFomon erect- 
ed a magnificent palace, and furnished it with unrivalled splendor. He 
was the first who introduced the use of chariots and horses for warlike 
pmrposes in Israel ; these he procured from Egypt, through his alliance 
with the Pharaoh ; and as cavalry was then scarcely known in western 
Asia, his power appeared so formidable that his authority was recog- 
nised in all the coimtries between the Nile and the Euphrates. SoFo- 



PALESTINE. 47 

mon was a distinguished patron of commerce ; he opened a lucrative 
trade with Egypt, not only in chariot-horses but in linen-yarn and cot- 
ton manufactures ; to facilitate the commercial intercourse between 
western and central Asia, he erected the city of Tad^mor, which, in a 
later age, became so celebrated under the name of Palmy'ra ; finally, 
he built a navy at Ez'ion-geber, a convenient harbor on the gulf- of 
Ak'aba, in the northern part of the Red sea, whence his subjects, aided 
by the experienced mariners of Tyre, carried on a lucrative traffic with 
the rich countries of southern Asia and Africa. The learning of SoFo- 
mon was not less conspicuous than his wealth. 

In his old age, SoFomon, seduced by his numerous " strange wives," 
forsook the Lord, by whom he had laeen protected, and not only per- 
mitted, but practised the rites of an impious and licentious idolatry. 
Enemies were raised up against him on every side ; a revolt was or- 
ganized in E'dom. Damascus was seized by an independent adventu- 
rer, and Jeroboam, to whom the prophet Ahijah had predicted his future 
greatness, began openly to aspire at the government of the northern 
tribes ; but being unprepared for revolt he sought shelter in Egypt, 
where he was protected by King Shishak. It is generally believed 
that Sol'omon, before his death, repented of his guilt. He died, after a 
reign of forty years (b. c. 975), and was buried in the city of David his 
father. 

Section VI. — The Revolt of the Ten Tribes. — The History of the Kingdom 

of Israel. 

Rehoboam succeeded his father Sol'omon, and immediately after his 
accession went to Shechem, in order to receive the homage of the 
northern tribes. They had suffered severely, in the close of the late 
reign, from the -pressure of taxation, and from the loss of trade conse- 
quent on the revolt of the Syrians ; they now deputed Jeroboam, and 
their elders, to demand a redress of grievances, promising implicit obe- 
dience if their burdens were removed. His father's aged and experi- 
enced ministers recommended compliance with the popular demands, 
but the -king instigated by his rash associates, returned a haughty and 
threatening reply. Such an answer was the signal for rebellion. The 
northern tribes immediately chose Jeroboam for their king ; and thence- 
forward Israel and Judah became separate kingdoms. Rehoboam 
levied a large army to subdue the insurgents, but the Lord sent the 
prophet Shemaiah to forbid his march, and he was forced thenceforth 
to rest contented with reigning over the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. 

Jeroboam, " the son of Nebat," immediately after his elevation, pre- 
pared to break off all connexion with the kingdom of Judah, and as the 
unity of the national worship, and the custom of going up three times a 
a year to Jerusalem, greatly impeded his plan, he resolved to establish 
idolatrous sanctuaries in his own kingdom, and accordingly, in imitation 
of the Egyptians, with whom he had so long resided, erected two 
golden calves, one at Beth'el, and the other at Dan. The choice of 
these places was not the result of caprice ; Beth'el had long been ven- 
erated as the place in which Jacob, the father of the Hebrew race, had 
his miraculous vision, and Dan had been the seat of idolatrous worship 
since the days of the Judges. The Levites refused to countenance 



48 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

this impious innovation, and sought sheher in the kingdom of Judah ; 
Jeroboam supj)lied their place by selecting priests for his new deities 
from the lowest of the people. A desultory warfare was maintained 
between the kingdoms of Judah and Israel through the whole of Jero- 
boam's reign, which lasted twenty-two years ; but in the nineteenth 
year Jeroboam received so severe a defeat that he never again dis- 
played his former spirit of enterprise. 

Nadab succeeded his father Jeroboam in his kingdom, and his idola- 
trous courses. His brief reign of two years produced no event of im- 
portance ; he was assassinated by Baasha, one of liis generals. Baasha 
put' all that remained of Jeroboam's family to death. 

Baasha adopted the wicked policy of Jeroboam, and though the 
prophets of the Lord forewarned him that similar vengeance would 
overtake his family, obstinately persevered in his guilt. But many 
of the Israelites were secretly attached to the pure worship of their 
fathers, and secretly Avent up annually to offer their devotions at 
Jerusalem. Baasha built a fortress at Ramah to intercept the pilgrims, 
but this was destroyed by A'sa, king of Judah, who also bribed the 
Syrians to invade the territories of his rival. Baasha's reign of twenty- 
three years was feeble and inglorious, and the warlike spirit of the Is- 
raelites seemed extinct. 

E'lah, a weak and luxurious prince, succeeded Baasha ; at the end 
of two years he was assassinated, while feasting in the house of his 
steward, by Zim'ri, the captain of his chariots. When the Israelite 
army, wliich was besieging Gib'bethon, heard of the murder, they ele- 
vated Om'ri, their leader, to the vacant tlirone, and marched against the 
usurping assassin. Zim'ri, hopeless of escape, fled into the palace, 
and setting it on fire, perished in the flames. Om''ri had still to con- 
tend against another rival, named Tib'ni, whom he easily subdued. 
The most important act of his reign was building the city of Samaria, 
so named from Shemer, the proprietor of the hill on wliich it was 
erected. Samaria became the capital of the kingdom of Israel, and 
long after the fall of that kingdom continued to be a place of great im- 
portance. " Om'ri wrought evil in the sight of the Lord, and did 
worse than all that went before him ;" but even his iniquities were sur- 
passed' by those of his son and successor. 

A'hab commenced his reign by marrying Jez'ebel, the daughter of the 
king of Si'don, and at her instigation introduced the worsliip of the Si- 
donian deities, which consisted in the offering of human sacrifices, and 
other ceremonies too abominable for description. Those who adhered 
to the religion of Jehovah were bitterly persecuted, the schools of the 
prophets were closed, and many of the teachers murdered. Elijah, 
undaunted by danger, denounced Divine vengeance against such iniquity, 
but he was forced to fly, and seek concealment in the fastnesses on the 
frontier. God punished the iniquity of the land by fearful drought and 
famine. A'hab, in his distress, sent for Elijah, who challenged the 
priests of Baal to appear in sight of all the people on Mount Carmel, 
and there determine which deity, Baal or Jehovah, was the most pow- 
erful protector of the nation. The challenge was accepted ; the supe- 
riority of the Lord was proved by the most signal miracles, and the 
multitude, enraged at those by whom they had been, duped, put to death 



PALESTINE. 49 

all the prophets of Baal, by command of Elijah, at the brook Kishon. 
The curse was then removed from the land, plenteous rain descended, 
and the famine ceased. Jez'ebel Avas greatly enraged at the defeat of' 
her national deity, and Elijah once more fled into the wilderness. Af- 
ter having witnessed some wondrous manifestations of Divine power, 
he was commanded to announce to Haz'ael that he should be king of 
Syria, to Jehu that he should be king of Israel, and to Elisha that he 
should be his successor in the office of prophet. 

Wj^n A'hab had reigned eighteen years, Benhadad, king of Syria, 
at the head of thirty-two tributary princes, and a numerous army, laid 
siege to Samaria. Encouraged by a prophet of the Lord, A'hab at- 
tacked this immense host with a mere handful of men, and gained a 
«ignal victory. Benhadad attempted to retrieve his losses in the fol- 
lowing year, but was routed with terrible slaughter. A new crime pro- 
voked God's wrath against A'hab and his family ; he was anxious to 
obtain a vineyard belonging to Naboth, a native of Jez'reel, in order to 
enlarge his garden. The wicked Jez^ebel contrived that the innocent 
man should be stoned to death, and A'hab took possession of the vine- 
yard. In the moment of his triumph the prophet Elijah appeared, and 
denounced fearful vengeance for this crime, but A'hab, by timely re- 
pentance, obtained a gracious respite, so that^the evils impending over 
his house did not happen until after his death, which took place in a 
battle against the Syrians, in which the allied forces of A'hab and of Je- 
hoshaphat, king of Judah were defeated. 

Ahaziah succeeded A^hab, and like him, was devoted to idolatry. A 
fall from a window, in the second year of his reign, so severely injured 
him, that fears were entertained for his life, and he sent his servants to 
consult the oracle of Baalzebub, in Ek^ron. On their road the messen- 
gers were met by Elijah, who predicted the approaching death of the 
king, as a punishment for having consulted false gods. Ahazfah sent 
two detachments, of fifty men each, to arrest the prophet, but both com- 
panies were consumed by fire from heaven. A third captain of fifty 
interceded with the prophet ; Elijah accompanied him to the king's 
presence, where he repeated his denunciation, which was soon accom- 
plished by Ahaziah's death. 

Jehoram, another son of A'hab succeeded, but was less prone to idol- 
atry than his father and brother, for he prohibited the worship of the 
Sidonian Baal, though he did not remove the golden calves which Jero- 
boam had set up at Dan and Bethel. It was about this time that Elijah 
was taken up into heaven, without enduring the pangs of death, and his 
successor, Elisha, began to prove his mission by a series of stupendous 
miracles. Benhadad, the Syrian monarch of Damascus, defeated in 
several attacks on the kingdom of Israel, attributed his ill success to 
the prophet, and sent a body of his soldiers to make him prisoner ; but 
the Syrian troops were smitten with blindness, and in this helpless con- 
dition easily taken captive. The Syrian monarch was not daunted; he 
assembled a large army, advanced against Samaria, blockaded the city, 
and reduced the inhabitants to the greatest extremities of famine. Je- 
horam menaced vengeance against Elisha, but the prophet assured him, 
that by the next day Samaria would have abundance of provisions. 
On that night, under* the influence of supernatural terror, they fled. 



<5l0 ANCIENT HISTORY, 

The rich plunder of the vacant tents soon restored plenty to the houses 
of the besieged ; Benhadad, after his return, was murdered by his ser- 
vant Haz'ael, who usurped the throne, and became a most formidable 
enemy of the kingdom of Israel, Jehoram entered into alliance with 
Ahaziah, king of Judah, in order to recover Ramoth-GiFead, but their 
joint forces were routed by the Syrians ; the king of Israel was severely 
wounded, and retired to Jez'reel to be healed. In the meantime, Eli- 
sha, by command of the Lord, sent a prophet to anoint Jehu king of 
Israel ; and the new sovereign who was a great favorite with the^rmy, 
advanced toward Jez'reel. Hearing of his approach, Jehoram went 
out to meet him, accompanied by Ahaziah, king of Judah. Their con- 
ference was brief ; Jehu shot Jehoram through the heart, with an arrow, 
and ordered his body to be cast into the vineyard of Naboth, as the* 
Lord had foretold. Ahaziah was overtaken and slain ; but his servants 
conveyed his body to Jerusalem, and buried it in the sepulchre of his 
fathers. 

Jehu advanced to Jez'reel without opposition ; as he came near the 
palace, Jez'ebel looked out from the window, and reproached him with 
his treason ; the servants, by Jehu's direction, threw her headlong 
down on the pavement, and her mangled body was trampled under the 
feet of the horses. In the evening orders were given for her inter- 
ment, but it was found that the greater part of the body had been 
devoured by dogs and beasts of prey, as the prophet Elijah had fore- 
told. A'hab's family was very numerous ; seventy of his sons were in 
Samaria, but they were all beheaded by the citizens, who dreaded the 
power of Jehu ; and forty-two of the family of the king of Judah shared 
the same fate. Jehu completely extirpated the worship of Baal, but 
he continued the idolatry which Jeroboam had established, and there- 
fore the duration of his dynasty was limited to his descendants of the 
fourth generation. 

The Syrians, under Haz^ael, grievously afflicted the Israelites during 
the reigns of Jehu and his son Jehoahaz ; but these visitations failed 
to turn the princes or the people from their impious idolatries. In the 
reign of the latter Elisha died, but his miraculous powers did not cease 
with his life, for a dead body was restored to life by touching his bones 
in the tomb. The Israelites gained three victories over the Syrians, 
and thus recovered the ancient frontiers of their kingdom ; they also 
conquered Amaziah, king of Judah, plundered Jerusalem, and brought 
its rich spoils to Samaria, 

The kingdom of Israel continued to flourish during the long reign of 
Jeroboam II. ; he enlarged his hereditary dominions by the conquest 
of several cities belonging to the kings of Syria and Judah, and made 
his kingdom respected among surrounding nations. His death was 
followed by a period of great confusion ; there was an interregnum of 
eleven years before Zachariah, his son, succeeded him ; and he, after 
a brief reign of six months, was murdered by Shal'lum, who was in 
his turn slain by Men'ahem. In the reign of this usurper the Israel- 
ites were attacked by a new enemy ; the Assyrians imder Pul, supposed 
by some to be the Sardanapalus of profane writers, came against the 
land, and Men'ahem was forced to purchase his forbearance by the 
payment of a large tribute. The conqueror, however, in return, pro- 



PA^LESTINE. 5r 

tected Men^'aliem against all other enemies,, and the remainder of his 
reign was passed in tranquillity. His son Pekahiah succeeded, but at 
the end of two years he was murdered by Pekah, one of his generals, 
who usurped the throne. 

Though Pekah was a wicked and sanguinary prince, yet on account 
of the sins of A^haz, God permitted him to prevail over the rival king- 
dom of Judah. In conjunction with Rez'in, king of Damascus, he 
invaded southern Palestine, and brought away a vast number of cap- 
tives, who were, however, restored to their country upon the injunction 
of a prophet of the Lord. But notwithstanding this single act of obe- 
dience, the sins of the Israelites continued to increase, and the threat- 
ened punishments began to be inflicted. The Assyrian hosts ravaged 
all the country beyond Jordan ; the interior of the kingdom was con- 
vidsed by factions, and in the midst of these tumults Pekah was slain 
bv Hoshea, a general of some reputation. 

After nine years of civil war, Hoshea succeeded in establishing him- 
self upon the throne, but during the interval, the Assyrians under Tig- 
lath-pileser, and his son Shalmaneser, overran the kingdom, and ren- 
dered it tributary. As soon as his title was established, Hoshea became 
anxious to regain independence, and for this purpose entered into alli- 
ance with So or Sab'aco, an Ethiopian prince who had subdued Egypt. 
Shalmaneser immediately invaded the country, and laid siege to Samaria. 
After a brave resistance of three years, the city was taken by storm, 
and treated with the most ferocious cruelty by the barbarous conquerors 
(b. c. 719). Shalmaneser carried the Israelites captives into some dis- 
tant region beyond the Euphrates, and divided their country among 
Assyrian colonies. In consequence of the signs by which the Lord's 
wrath against idolatry was manifested, the new settlers adopted a cor- 
rupted form of the true religion. From them, and a portion of the old 
inhabitants which remained in the land, the Samaritans descended, be- 
tween whom and the Jews there was always the most bitter national 
enmity. 

Section YIL-^History of the Kingdom of Judah. 

Rehoboam's kingdom was not so much injured by the revolt of the 
ten tribes as might be supposed. When idolatry was established by 
Jeroboam, the priests, the Levites, and a multitude of persons who still 
adhered to the worship of the true God, emigrated to Judah, where 
they were received as brethren. Rehoboam introduced the worst 
abominations of Ammonite idolatry, and the great body of the people 
participated in his guilt. His guilt was punished by an invasion of the 
Egyptians : " in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of 
Egypt came up against Jerusalem, because they had transgressed 
against the Lord, with twelve hundred chariots and threescore thou- 
sand horsemen : and the people were without number that came with 
him out of Egypt ; the Lub'ims, the Sukk'iim, and the Ethiopians. 
And he took the fenced cities which pertained to Judah, and came to 
Jerusalem." The account here given of Shishak's power, and of his 
ruling over the Libyans, the Ethiopians, and the Sukk^iim, or Trog^o- 
dytae, is confirmed by the Egyptian monuments, for the sculptures 
ascribed to him on the walls of Carnak, exhibit him offering to the 



90 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

deity a great number of captives belonging to different nations. Reho- 
boam purchased the forbearance of Shi'shak by the payment of a large 
ransom. " Shishak took away the treasures ol" the house of the Lord, 
and the treasures of the king's house ; he took all : he carried away 
also the shields of gold which Solomon made. Instead of which, King 
Rehoboam made shields of brass, and committed them to the hands 
of the chief of the guard that kept the entrance of the king's house." 

Abijah, the son of Rehoboam, soon after his succession, had to de- 
fend his kingdom against the usurper of Israel, whose army greatly 
outnumbered that of Judah. The Lord gave the victory to Judah. 
This victory greatly depressed the Israelites, and exaUed the glory of 
Judah ; but before the king could improve his advantages, he was pre- 
maturely cut off by disease. 

A'sa, who succeeded his father, was a wise and pious prince. " He 
took away the altars of the strange gods . . . and commanded Judah 
to seek the Lord God of their fathers, and to do the law and the com- 
mandment." He expelled the Eg^-ptians from their recent conquests, 
and secured his frontiers by a chain of fortresses judiciously placed and 
strongly garrisoned. His piety was rewarded by Divine protection in the 
hour of danger. A vast horde of invaders approached the southern 
boundary of Judea : in the original, these enemies are called Cusliiin, a 
word usually rendered Ethiopians. A'sa prayed to the God of his fa- 
thers for aid against this enormous host ; his prayers were heard. 
" The Lord smote the Etliiopians before A'sa and before Judah, and the 
Ethiopians fled." 

A'sa afforded every encouragement to the emigrants from Israel, who 
fled from the idolatry and wickedness which prevailed in that country. 
Baasha, who then reigned in Israel, erected a fortress at Rainah to 
check the emigration, and made such formidable preparations fox 
war, that A^sa, with culpable distrust of the Divine favor, paid a 
large sum to the king of Syria for support and assistance. When re- 
proved for his crime by the prophet Han'ani, he thrust his honest ad- 
viser into prison, and thenceforward became tyrannical and oppressive. 
Being subsequently attacked by a disease in the feet, " he sought not to 
the Lord but to the physicians," and died in the prime of manhood. 

Jehosh'aphat succeeded his father A'sa, and in the commencement 
of his reign used the most vigorous exertions to root idolatry from the 
land. Under this wise administration the kingdom of Judah became so 
prosperous, that not only the Philistines, but the distant Arabians paid 
tribute. Unfortunately, he contracted affinity with the wicked A'hab, 
and gave his son in marriage to Athaliah, the daughter of that monarch, 
a princess whose character was scarcely less depraved than that of 
her mother Jez'ebel. In consequence of this unfortunate alliance, Je- 
hosh'apha' was present at the disastrous battle of Ramoth-Gil'cad, 
where A'hab was slain ; he was surrounded by the enemy, and would 
have been killed, had he not " called upon the Lord," who rescued him 
from his imminent peril. Shortly after his return from the Assyrian 
campaign, Jehosh'aphat was attacked by the united forces of the Moab- 
ites, the Amorites, and the Edomites of Mount Seir. Jehosh'aphat 
threw himself on the protection of Jehovah, and the Lord sent a spirit 
of disunion among the invaders, which led them to destroy each other 



PALESTINE. 53 

by mutual slaughter. The people of Judah came upon their enemies 
thus broken, and obtained a great quantity of valuable spoil. 

Anxious to restore the commerce which Sol'omon had established 
on the Red sea, Jehosh'aphat entered into close alliance with the wicked 
Ahaziah, the son of A'hab ; and a navy was prepared at their joint ex- 
pense, in E'zion-geber. But the unhallowed alliance was displeasing 
to the Lord, and the ships were destroyed in a storm. At his death Je- 
hosh'aphat left the kingdom of Judah in a more prosperous condition, 
than it had been since the days of SoFomon. 

Jehoram commenced his reign by the slaughter of his brethren, after 
which he legally established the abominations of the Sidonian idolatry 
in Judah. His iniquity was punished by the revolt of the Edomites, 
who maintained their independence, and by invasions of the Philistines 
and Arabians, who carried away his wives and most of his children 
into captivity. He was finally smitten by a loathsome and incurable 
disease, of which he died in great tortures. 

Ahaziah, the youngest of Jehoram's children, and the only one spared 
by the Arabians, succeeded to the throne. During his brief reign of 
one year, he followed the evil courses of his father and mother. He 
entered into an alliance with Jehoram, king of Israel, and joined with 
him in the unsuccessful attempt to recover Ramoth-Gil'ead from Hazael, 
king of Syria. Having gone to meet Jehoram, while he lay sick of 
his wounds at Jez^reel, just at the time of Jehu's insurrection, he was 
involved in the fate of his ally, and slain by command of Jehu. 

Athaliah, the queen-mother, having heard of Ahaziah's death, usurp- 
ed the royal authority, and to secure her power, murdered all the royal 
family, save the infant Jehoash, who was saved by his paternal aunt, 
wife to the chief priest Jehoiada, and for six years secretly educated in 
the temple. At the end of that time, Jehoiada gathered together the 
priests, the Levites, and the chief princes of Judah, to whom he re- 
vealed the existence of the young heir to the throne. " And Jehoiada 
and his sons anointed him, and said, God save the king." The accla- 
mations of those who witnessed the ceremony alarmed the wicked 
queen ; she rushed into the assembly, rending her garments, and ex- 
claiming, " Treason ! treason !" but she was forsaken by all her parti- 
sans, and, at Jehoiada's command, was put to death beyond the precincts 
of the temple. 

Under the regency of Jehoiada, the worship of the true God was re- 
stored, the administration of justice purified, and the prosperity of the 
land re-established. He died at the great age of one hundred and thir- 
ty years. After the death of the regent, Jehoash yielded to the evil 
counsels of the profligate young nobles of Judah, and restored the wor- 
ship of the Sidonian Baal, with all its licentious abominations. Several 
prophets were sent to denounce his transgressions, but he persecuted 
them for their fidelity, and even put to death Zechariah, the son of his 
benefactor, Jehoiada, " in the court of the house of the Lord." His 
crime was soon punished : " the army of the Syrians came with a small 
company of men, and the Lord delivered a very great host into their 
hands." They had scarcely departed, when he was seized with " great 
diseases," and in the midst of his agony was murdered by his own ser- 
vants. His subjects were so displeased by the calamities of his reign, 



M ANCIENT HISTORY. 

that they would not allow his remains to be buried in the tombs of the 
kings, an insult which had been previously ofl'ered to the body of Je- 
horam. Aniaziah's first care, after his elevation to the throne, was to 
punish the nmrderers of his father. He then marched against the 
Edoniiu>s with an auxiliary force which he had hired from the kingdom 
of Israel. On the recommendation of a prophet, he dismissed his al- 
lies, by which they were so grievously offended, that they committed 
the most savage excesses on their way home. In the meantime, Am- 
azi'ah routed the Edomites with great slaughter, and subdued all the 
country round Mount Seir. With strange perversity, he adopted the 
idolatry of the nations he had just subdued. The prophets warned him 
of the fearful consequences of his apostacy ; but their remonstrances 
were vain, and he was delivered into the hands of liis enemies. Je- 
hoash, king of Israel, was the chosen instrument of Amaziah's punish- 
ment ; he defeated the men of Judah in a decisive engagement, took 
the king prisoner, captured Jerusalem, destroyed a large extent of his 
fortifications, and returned laden with spoil to Samaria. A conspiracy 
was subsequently organized against Amaziah ; he lied from Jerusalem 
to Lachish, but was overtaken by some of the emissaries of the rebels, 
and put to death. 

Uzziah, the son of the murdered king, though only sixteen years of 
age when he ascended the throne, displayed, in the commencement of 
his reign, the wisdom of mature age. He restored the worship of the 
true God, and reformed the abuses which had crept into every depart- 
ment of the administration. God prospered his undertakings ; he sub- 
dued the Philistines, the Arabians, and the most warlike of the nomad 
tribes that border on the desert. To secure his conquests he erected a 
chain of fortresses, and to render them profitable, he excavated a great 
number of tanks or cisterns, by which means large tracts of land, hith- 
erto unprofitable, were brought into cultivation. " But when he was 
strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction ;" he attempted to 
usurp the priestly office by " burning incense upon the altar of incense," 
and persevered in spite of every warning. But, at the very moment 
that he was about to consummate this act of impiety, he was struck by 
a leprous disease, which at once severed him from all society with his 
fellow-men. Compelled to reside in a separate house, and unable to 
transact public affairs, he transferred the reins of government to his 
son. On his death, his disease was assigned as a reason for refusing 
his body admission to the royal sepulchre, and it was interred in the 
adjoining field. 

Jotham had been accustomed to affairs of state during the lifetime 
of his father, whose piety he emulated, without imitating his faults. 
His fidelity to the worship of Jehovah was rewarded by the conquest 
of the Ammonites, who paid him a large tribute ; and thus " Jotham be- 
came mighty because he established his ways before the Lord his 
God." No particulars are recorded of his death, which took place in 
the seventeenth year of his reign. 

The most wicked king which had yet occupied the throne of Judah, 
was A'haz, the successor of the pious Jotham. He not only deserted 
tlae worship of the true God, but adopted those abominable supersti- 
tions Avhich many of the heathen viewed with horror ; " he burnt in- 



PALESTINE. 5i5 

cense in tlie valley of the sons of Hin'nom, and burnt his children in 
the fire, after the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord had cast 
out before the children of Israel." His dominions were invaded by the 
kings of Syria and Israel, who carried multitudes into captivity ; but 
the Israelites generously released their prisoners, as has been already 
related. The Edomites and Philistines next attacked the kingdom of 
Judah : A'haz, unable to meet them in the field, sought to purchase aid 
from Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria ; but that monarch received the 
tribute, and withheld any effectual assistance. In his distress, A'haz 
sunk deeper into idolatry ; " he sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus 
which smote him, and he said, because the gods of the kings of Syria 
help them, therefore will I sacrifice to them that they may help me. 
But they were the ruin of him and of all Israel." A''haz went further ; 
he shut up the temple of the Lord, broke the sacred vessels in pieces, 
and erected idolatrous altars " in every corner of Jerusalem." The 
country was thus brought to the brink of ruin ; but its fall was arrested 
by the death of the impious monarch. His subjects showed their re- 
sentment for the evils of his administration by refusing his body admis- 
sion to the sepulchres of their kings. 

Hezekiah commenced his reign by a thorough reformation of the 
abuses which had so nearly brought destruction on Judah. The chief 
adviser of the pious king was the prophet Isaiah, who had proclaimed 
the future advent of the Messiah, and denounced the national sins in the 
two preceding reigns. All the vestiges of idolatry were destroyed, the 
images were broken, the groves cut down, and the polluted altars over- 
thrown ; even the brazen serpent, which had been preserved since the 
days of Moses, was demolished, because it had become the object of 
idolatrous veneration. The kingdom of Judah soon acquired such 
strength, that Hezekiah ventured to shake off the Assyrian yoke, to 
which his father had submitted. Shalmaneser, who had just conquered 
Israel, would have immediately marched against Judah, had not the 
wealthy cities of Phosnicia offered a more tempting prize to his avarice 
and ambition. His son, Sennacherib, inherited his revenge against 
Judah : he advanced to Lachish with a powerful army, but Hezekiah, 
with culpable timidity, attempted to purchase his forbearance by a 
large bribe. This rich tribute only served to stimulate the cupidity of 
Sennacherib ; he sent a large army directly against Jerusalem, but 
Hezekiah, encouraged by the gracious promises of Divine protection, 
communicated to him by the prophet Isaiah, made the most judicious 
preparations for a vigorous defence. Rab'shakeh, the Assyrian gen- 
eral, summoned the city to surrender, in a haughty and insolent tone, 
speaking in the Hebrew language, that his threats might be understood 
by the people. Hezekiah, who was suffering under severe illness, 
sought protection from the Lord, and his wavering faith was confirmed 
by the shadow of the sun retrograding on the dial at the command of 
Isaiah. In a few days, the Assyrians were summoned away to defend 
their dominions against Tirhakah, the king of Meroe, or Ethiopia, who 
had conquered Egypt, and was endeavoring to extend his empire to the 
Euphrates. Sennacherib defeated the Ethiopians, and, flushed with 
victory, renewed the siege of Jerusalem, threatening death and destruc- 
tion to the entire kingdom. But his vaunts were suddenly checked ; 
" the angel of the Lord went forth and smote in the camp of the Assyri- 



56 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

ans a hundred fourscore and five thousand ; and when they arose early 
in the mornino;, behold they were all dead corpses." Sennacherib fled 
to Nin'eveh with the miserable remnant of his forces, and was soon af- 
ter murdered by his own sons, " as he was worshipping in the house 
of Nis'roch, his god." 

The intelligence of this wondrous deliverance was spread over the 
east ; Der'odach-Bal'adan, king of Babylon, sent ambassadors to con- 
gratulate Hezekiah, and also to inquire into the phenomenon of the 
retrogression of the solar shadow. Hezekiah, with foolish pride, dis- 
played all his treasures to the ambassadors. Isaiah was sent to re- 
prove his ostentation, and to inform him that these Babylonians would 
destroy the kingdom of Judah. The repentant monarch heard the re- 
buke with pious resignation, and submissively yielded himself to the 
dispensations of Providence. His death was sincerely lamented by his 
subjects ; " they buried him in the chiefest of the sepulchres of the sons 
of David ; and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem did him hon- 
or at his death." 

Manas'seh was scarcely less remarkable for iniquity than his father 
for piety ; He even exceeded A'haz in impiety, for he revelled in the 
grossest abominations of eastern idolatry. His subjects too readily im- 
itated his example ; they joined him in persecuting the prophets of the 
Lord, who remonstrated against their transgressions ; there is a con- 
stant tradition among the Jews, that Isaiah was sawn in sunder dirring 
the reign of this merciless tyrant. But an avenger was at hand ; the 
Assyrians invaded Judah with overwhelming forces, stormed Jerusa- 
lem, and carried the impious Manas'seh in chains to Babylon (b. c. 
676). The imfortimate monarch was treated with savage cruelty by 
his captors ; he was so loaded with iron bands, that he could not move 
his head. But " when he was in afiiiction, he besought the Lord his 
God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers ; and 
prayed unto him, and He was entreated of him, and brought him again 
to Jerusalem into his kingdom." Manas'seh, thus restored, applied 
himself diligently to extirpate idolatry ; and the remainder of his reign 
was spent in peace and comparative tranquillity. 

Notwithstanding the fearful punishment inflicted on Manas'seh, and 
his example of sincere penitence, A'mon, his son and successor, re- 
vived all the infamous rites of idolatry. In a brief reign of two years, 
the kingdom was brought to the verge of destruction ; corruption spread 
through every department of the administration, and crimes at which 
nature revolts were not only permitted, but encouraged. At length, 
some of the oflicers of the household slew the licentious monarch ; they 
'^were however put to death for their treason ; and Josiah, the son of 
A'mon, at the early age of eight years, was raised to the throne. 

From the moment of his accession, Josiah eagerly applied himself 
to restoring the worship of the true God, and reforming the abuses of 
the kingdom. Josiah travelled through his kingdom, and through some 
of the adjoining cities of Israel which lay almost desolate, removing 
from them every vestige of idolatry ; and having thus purified his king- 
dom, he celebrated the feast of the Passover with the utmost solemnity 
and splendor. The greater part of Josiah's reign was spent in tran- 
quillity ; but when he had been rather more than thirty years upon the 
throne, the overthrow of the Assyrian empire by the Medes and Bab- 



PALESTINE. 57 

ylonians, induced Pharaoh-Hoph'ra, the powerful king of Egypt, to at- 
tempt the extension of his dominions to the Euphrates. Josiah rashly 
attacked the Egyptian forces in the valley of Megid'do, and ws^s mor- 
tally wounded. His servants brought him to Jerusalem, where he died. 
" And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah." 

The people of Jerusalem raised Jehoahaz, the youngest son of Josiah, 
to the throne ; but he was set aside by the victorious Pharaoh-Necho, 
who gave the kingdom to the elder prince Eliakim, and changed his 
name to Jehoiakim. A complete revolution in the affairs of Asia was 
effected by the victorious career of Nebuchadnez^zar, king of Babylon. 
He overthrew the Egyptians at Car'chemish, " and took from the river 
of Egypt unto the river Euphrates, all that pertained to the king of 
Egypt." Jehoiakim submitted to the conqueror, and agreed to pay 
tribixte for the kingdom of Judah, but afterward planning a revolt, Neb- 
uchadnez'zar returned to Jerusalem, plundered the city, sent the 
treasures and sacred vessels of the temple as trophies to Babylon, put 
Jehoiakim to death as a rebel, and left his unburied corpse a prey to 
the fowls of the air, and the beasts of the fields. He was succeeded 
by his son Jehoiachin, who after a brief but profligate reign of three 
months, was deposed by the imperious conqueror, and sent in chains 
to Babylon, with a multitude of other captives. 

Zedekiah, the uncle of the deposed monarch, was chosen his succes- 
sor ; but he did not take warning by the fate of his predecessors, and 
abstain from intrigues with Egypt. Instigated by Pharaoh-Hoph'ra, 
and encouraged by false prophets, he renounced his allegiance to the 
king of Babylon. When the forces of Nebuchadnez'zar approached, 
Pharaoh-Hoph'ra made but a faint effort to assist his unfortunate ally ; 
on the first repulse, he retreated within the frontiers of his own king- 
dom, leaving Zedekiah to bear the brunt of the Assyrians' rage. Neb- 
uchadnez'zar, after a short siege, compelled Jerusalem to surrender 
unconditionally. Zedekiah and his family fled, but were overtaken by 
the pursuers in the plains of Jericho ; the degraded king was dragged 
in chains before the cruel conqueror ; his wives and children were 
slain in his presence, his eyes were put out, and he was sent in chains 
to terminate his miserable existence as a captive in Bab'ylon. Jeru- 
salem and its temple were razed to the ground ; the wretched inhab- 
itants were transported to Bab'ylon; and for seventy years the holy 
city had no existence save in the memory of heart-broken exiles (b. c. 
568). The day on which Jerusalem was taken, and that on which its 
destruction was completed, are observed even in our age, as days of 
fasting and humiliation, by the scattered remnant of the Jewish nation. 
The former event occurred on the ninth day of the fourth month ; the 
latter on the seventh day of the fifth month. 

Oriental conquerors subjected their captives to the most cruel treat- 
ment. They were bound in the most painful attitudes and driven like 
cattle to the slave-markets, where families were divided, by their mem- 
bers being sold to different masters. It is probable that the Babyloni- 
ans were not less severe task-masters than the Egyptians had been ; 
for we find in the later prophets that the memory of what the Jews had 
suffered ever rankled in the mind of the nation ; and it is remarkable that 
after their deliverance they never again lapsed into idolatry. 



58 ANCIENT HISTORY. 



CHAPTER VI. 
THE EMPIRE OF THE MEDES AND PERSIANS. 

Section I. — Geographical Outline. 

The boundaries of Iran, which Europeans call Persia, have under- 
gone many changes : in its most prosperous periods, its limits were the 
Persian gulf and Indian ocean on the south, the rivers Indus and Ox'us 
on the east, the Caspian sea and Caucasian mountains on the north, 
and the Euphrates on the west. The most striking features of this ex- 
tensive country are numerous chains of mountains, and extensive tracts 
of desert, interspersed with fertile valleys and rich pasture-lands. The 
southern coast along the Persian gulf is a sandy plain, desolated by pes- 
tilential winds from the desert of Kerman, and scarcely possessing any 
indentation or navigable river which could serve as a harbor. Thence 
to the Caspian sea and the Ox'us there is a succession of mount- 
ains and valleys of different elevation and extent. Few of the mount- 
ains are of extraordinary height, though some of the ranges are capped 
with perpetual snow. None of the valleys are wide, but some of them 
extend to the length of one himdred miles. 

Persia Proper, tbe modem province of Phars, contained the sacred 
metropolis of the empire, known to us only by its Greek name, Per- 
sep'olis. This celebrated city was destroyed by Alexander ; but its 
ruins testify that it must have rivalled the most splendid cities of anti- 
quity. 

The province of Susiana (Khuzistan) separated Persia Proper from 
Babylonig, ; between the two provinces Avas a range of mountains, in- 
habited by warlike pastoral tribes, of which the most celebrated were 
the Ux'ii, who compelled the Persian kings to pay them tribute when 
they went from Susa to Persep'olis. Susiana was a fertile province, 
watered by several small streams, that supplied a vast number of canals 
and water-courses. Susa, the capital of this district, once the favorite 
residence of the Persian monarchs, is now a vast desert, where the ruins 
of a city can with difficulty be traced. 

Media was divided into two provinces ; Atropatene or Media Minor 
(Azerbijan), and Media Major (Irak Ajemi). Ecbatana (Ham'adan) was 
the capital of Media, and rivalled Siisa and Persep'olis in magnificence, 
wliile it exceeded them in extent and the strength of its fortifications. 
The eastern districts of Media, named A'ria, formed an extensive steppe, 
which merged in the desert of Carmania (Kerman). The capital was 
named A'ria, and occupied the site of the modem Herat. 



MEDES AND PERSIANS. 5$ 

North of Media lay Par'thia and Hyrcania (Taberistan and Mazen- 
deran) ; mountainous regions, with some fertile valleys. Northeast of 
these were the sandy deserts now called Khirwan, tenanted by nomade 
tribes, who then and now practised alternately the arts of merchants, 
herdsmen, and robbers. East of A'ria was Bactriana, divided by the 
Ox'us from Sog'diana : its capital city was Bac'tra, which is usually 
identified with the modern city of Balkh. The metropolis of Sogdiana 
Avas Maracan'da, now called Samarcand, one of the most ancient com- 
mercial cities in the world. 

East of the province of Phars were Carmania (Kerman) and Gedrosia 
(Mekran) ; flat and sandy, but interspersed with some very fertile tracts. 

The hills in the interior of Persia are but thinly clad with vegetation, 
and none but those of Mazenderan and Georgia possess forests ; there 
are but few rivers of sufficient magnitude to be navigable : the most re- 
markable are the Ulai or Eulae'us (Karun), the Ar'ras or Arax'es, and 
the Etyman'der (Her'mund). 

The valleys of the centre of Persia abound in the rarest and most 
valuable vegetable productions. The orchards produce all the fruits of 
the temperate zone, and the most beautiful flowers of our gardens grow 
wild in the fields. The horses and dogs are of uncommon size, strength, 
and beauty ; and no country possesses a more robust, active, and well- 
shaped race of men. In short, Persia possesses every natural advantage 
for becoming a powerful and prosperous empire ; but from the remotest 
ages it has been subjected to a blighting despotism, by which its re- 
sources have been not merely neglected, but wasted and destroyed. 

Section II. — The Sources and Extent of our Knowledge respecting the 
Ancient Persians. 

The sources of Persian history are either native or foreign ; the lat- 
ter including the accounts both of the Greek historians and the Jewish 
prophets. 

The first native authority is the Zend-a-vesta, a collection of the 
sacred books of the ancient Persians. In this work are contained the 
early traditions of the nation, the religious system and moral code 
ascribed to Zerdusht, or Zoroas'ter, the great Persian legislator, and 
the liturgy still used by the " worshippers of fire." Connected with 
this is the Dabistan, written by a Mohammedan traveller about two cen- 
turies ago, in which the author treats very fully of the ancient religion 
of Persia, professedly deriving his information from original sources. 
To these must be added some minor Parsi works, collected by oriental 
ists in India. 

Next in importance to these ranks the Shah Nameh, or Book of Kings, 
an immense epic poem, written by Ferdousi, the greatest poet of Persia, 
about the middle of the tenth century. This historical poem was com- 
piled from vague traditions, and from the few fragments of ancient Per- 
sian literature that survived the political destruction of national records 
by the Greeks and Parthians, and the fanaticism of the first Moham- 
medan conquerors ; and, consequently, facts are so disguised by a mid- 
titude of fictions, that it is always difficult, and frequently impossible, to 
arrive at the truth of his representations. Mirkhond and his son Khon- 



60 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

demfr both wrote histories of Persia, about the close of the fifteenth 
century ; they liave, however, in general followed the narrative of Fer- 
dousi ; but in some places Mirkhond undoubtedly has used the same 
authorities as the compiler of the Dabistan. 

Herod'otus, Xen'ophon, and the fragments of Ctesias, are the princi- 
pal Greek authorities for the history of ancient Persia : of these the 
first is by far the most valuable, and his account of the Persian wars 
with Greece is entitled to our confidence. It must also be added, that 
many parts of his narrative are singularly confirmed by the legends pre- 
served in the works of Mirkhond and Ferdousi. 

In the Bible, the Book of Est'her is altogether a Persian history, and 
much important information is given incidentally in the Books of Dan'iel, 
Ez'ra, and Nehemiah. 

Finally, much light has been thrown on ancient Persian history by 
the writings of modern oriental scholars ; especially the philological 
researches of Bopp, Burnouf, and Schlegel, which have shown how 
closely allied the ruling people of Hindustan was with the ruling nation 
of Iran, by pointing out the close resemblance between the original lan- 
guages of both, the Sanscrit and the Zend. 

Section III. — Social and Political Condition of Ancient Persia. 

Central Asia, from the most remote ages, has been exposed to the 
invasions of nomad hordes from the north and east, most of which, ac- 
cording to their native legends, descended from the mountainous tracts 
extending from the great Altaian chain to the borders of India. Recent 
investigations have rendered it probable that this was also the native 
country of the Brahmins and Hindus, at least of the higher castes ; but 
it is impossible to discover at what period migrations commenced to the 
south and west. The colonists who came into Media called themselves 
A'rii, manifestly the same word as the Sanscrit Ar'ya, which signifies 
pure men, in opposition to the Mlechas, or barbarians. They were a 
mixed priestly and warrior caste, who treated their subjects as beings 
of an inferior nature. Their early success was chiefly owing to their 
skill in horsemanship ; if not the first nation of the East that employed 
cavalry, they were the first to make that military body the main strength 
of their army. A cognate race, the Persians, having nearly the same 
institutions, proceeded further to the southwest, and formed a nation 
of herdsmen and shepherds. A monarch named Jemshid, the Achae'- 
menes of the Greeks, first instructed his subjects in agriculture, and 
they gratefully made royalty the inheritance of his family. The Medes, 
having long held dominion as the ruling caste, were overthrown in an 
insurrection of the agricultural and shepherd tribes : this political revo- 
lution was effected by Cy'rus; and it was followed necessarily by a 
religious change, consequent on the altered position of the priestly 
caste. 

Under the Medes, or rather the Magi, as their priests were called, a 
species of the Sabian superstition seems to have prevailed : the sun, 
moon, and planets, received divine worship, while the more ancient be- 
lief in one supreme God, though obscured, was not wholly lost. When 
the Persians triumphed, the priestly caste lost much of its influence, 



MEDES AND PERSIANS. 61 

and seejms to have been regarded as naturally hostile to the new dynasty : 
hence we find the Persian monarchs bitter persecutors of the priests 
wherever they established their sway, destroying the Chaldeans in 
Babylon, and the sacerdotal caste in Egypt. The nature of the reli- 
gious changes made by Cy'rus can not now be determined ; but the 
revolution was completed by Zoroaster, whose system is the most per- 
fect devised by unassisted human reason. God, he taught, existed from 
all eternity, and was like infinity of time and space. There were, he 
averred, two principles in the universe — good and evil : the one was 
named Hormuzd, the other Ahriman. Each of these had the power of 
creation, but that power was exercised with opposite designs ; and it 
was from their co-action that an admixture of good and evil was found 
in every created thing. But the source of good alone, the great Hor- 
muzd, was eternal, and must therefore ultimately prevail.* 

With these speculative tenets was combined a system of castes, 
which are described by Ferdousi, who attributes their introduction to 
Jemshid. 

The conservation of the ordinances that regulated public morals was 
intrusted to the Magi, who were, as we have said, originally a caste or 
tribe of the Medes. Zoroas'ter reformed the institutions of this body, 
and appears to have opened the priestly dignity to persons of every 
caste, though few entered on the functions of public worship who were 
not of the Magian descent. Thus the sacerdotal rank in Persia par- 
took of the nature both of a caste and an order. It was high in power: 
the court was principally composed of- sages and soothsayers. The 
priests also were judges in civil cases, because religion was the basis 
of their legislation ; but they Were strictly bound by the ancient code. 
No circumstances were deemed sufficiently strong to warrant a depar- 
ture from ancient usages ; and hence " the laws of the Medes and Per- 
sians" were proverbial for their strictness of execution. 

The king was as much bound by the national code as his meanest 
subject; 'but in every other respect his power was without control; 
and the satraps, or provincial governors under him, were equally 
despotic in their respective provinces. The court scarcely differed in 
any material point from the oriental courts of the present day. It was 
a heavy tax on the national resources to support the barbarous splendor 
with which the kings and satraps deemed it necessary to surround their 
dignity ; and the exactions wrung from the cultivators of the soil al- 
ways made the Persian peasantry the most miserable even in Asia. 
The army was another source of wretchedness to the country : a vast 
amount of standing forces was always maintained, and hordes of the 
wandering tribes on the borders of Persia kept in pay : beside this, in 
case of any emergency, every man capable of bearing arms was en- 
rolled in his own district, and forced to become a soldier on the first 
summons. This constitution enabled the Persians to make rapid con- 
quests, but it prevented their empire from becoming permanent : the 
soldiers fought for pay or plunder, and were held together by no com- 
mon principle, save attachment to their leader ; hence the fall or flight 
of the commander-in-chief instantly decided the fate of a Persian army 

* Sir John Malcolm's Persia, vol. i., p, 194. The Jews have a tradition that 
Zoroaster was instructed in the true. religion by one of the prophets. 



62 ANCIENT HISTORY, 

however great its numbers ; and wlien the army was defeated, the 
kingdom was subdued. The great oriental monarchies were liable to 
vicissitudes scarcely known in European states. There was no patri- 
otic spirit in the people, no love of independence in the nation ; if 
the invader prevailed in the battle-field, he had no further enemies to 
dread ; the mass of the population cared little for a change of rule, 
which left unaltered the miseries of their situation. 

Section IV. — History of the Medes and Persians under the Kaianian 

Dynasty. 

FROM B.C. 710 TO B.C. 522. 

Media and Persia were provinces of the great Ass}Tian empire ; 
and their native legends preserve the memory of the cruelty with 
which they were treated by the monarchs of Nineveh, When that 
empire was broken to pieces after the death of Sardanapalus, Media 
fell into a state of anarchy, from which it was delivered by Deioces 
(b. c. 710), the Kai-K6bad of oriental writers: he built the city of 
Ecbatana, and greatly strengthened his new kingdom by inducing his 
subjects to form permanent settlements ; but in the midst of his useful 
career, he was summoned to check the rising power of the Babylonians, 
and fell in battle. The Median power was restored by Phraor'tes, 
who succeeded his father ; but it attained its highest glory under Cy- 
ax'ares, the third monarch of this dynasty. 

In the early part of his reign, Cyax'ares had to encounter many for- 
midable difficulties. While he was engaged besieging Nineveh, the 
Scythian hordes from the north entered Media, and overran the greater 
part of central and western Asia. Their ravages were continued for 
twenty-eight years, and they had compelled the Medes to give them 
free admittance to their houses, when they were simultaneously de- 
stroyed by a conspiracy of their hosts, which Cyax'ares had organized. 
A party that had escaped the general massacre entered into the service 
of the Median monarch ; but finding reason to dread the fate of their 
coimtrymen, they transferred their allegiance to the king of Lydia, and 
thus caused a war between the two monarchs. The most memorable 
event of tliis war, which lasted five years, was the total eclipse of the 
sun, that' took place in the midst of a battle, and so alarmed the con- 
tending parties, that both the Medes and Lydians fled in confusion 
from the field. A peace was soon after concluded between the two 
crowns, and Cyax'ares renewed his war against the Assyrians. Aided 
by the king of Babylon, he besieged and took Nineveh, and totally de- 
stroyed that ancient city (b. c. 601). The allies next attacked the dis- 
tricts that the Egyptians possessed in Syria, defeated Pharaoh-Necho 
at Car'chemish, and subdued the principal part of western Asia. It 
seems probable that the supremacy of the Medes over the Persian 
principalities was first established during the reign of Cyax^ares, who 
is generally identified with the Kai Kaoos of Mirkhond and Ferdousi. 

Asty'ages, called in the book of Daniel Ahasuerus,* that is, " the 
mighty hero" (Achash ZAverosh), an epithet given to several oriental 

• Daniel ix. 1. 



MEDES AND PERSIANS. 63 

monarclis, was the next king. To reconcile the Persians to his au- 
thority, he gave his daughter in marriage to Cara'byses, of the family 
of the Achaemen'idae, and the royal tribe of the Pasargadae. The issue 
of this union was Agrad'ates, subsequently named Cy'rus, Khoresh, or 
Khosrau, different forms of a Persian word which signifies the sun. 

The main facts of the romantic legend that Herodotus has preserved 
respecting the early years of Cyrus, are confirmed by the oriental his- 
torians ; and when stripped of some embellishments, can scarcely be 
deemed incredible. The following are the facts in which the Greek 
and Persian historians confirm each other's testimony ; the Persian 
names of the principal actors are enclosed in parentheses. Camby'ses 
(Siyawesh) is said to have sought refuge at the court of Asty'ages 
(Afrasiab), king of a country north of Persia (Turan), to avoid the ef- 
fects of his father's jealousy. He obtained the hand of his host's 
daughter Mandane (Ferangiz) in marriage. Envious courtiers preju- 
diced the Median king against his son-in-law ; he resolved to destroy 
him, and the child of which his own daughter was pregnant. The 
Persian prince, according to the oriental historians, was murdered ; 
but the princess and her unborn child were saved by Har'pagus (Piran 
Wisah), the tyrant's prime minister. The posthumous child of Cam'- 
byses was the celebrated Cyrus : he was brought up in obscurity until 
he approached the age of manhood, when he learned the secret of his 
birth. With all the courage of enthusiastic youth, he went among his 
countrymeli, who revered the memory of his father, and were weary 
of the tyranny of Asty^ages ; they flocked to his standard, and the 
young prince, entering Media, dethroned Asty'ages, and threw him into 
prison. Instead, however, of seizing the crj»wn for himself, he sub- 
mitted to the rule of Cyax'ares H. (Kai Kaoos), his maternal uncle, 
whom the Persians describe as his paternal grandfather. 

Cyax'ares, immediately after his accession to the dignity of Dara- 
wesh, or king of Media (b. c. 560), sent his nephew to invade the 
Babylonian empire, which had now fallen from its high estate. Cy'rus 
invested the city of Bab'ylon, and, after a long siege, took it, in the 
manner that has been already related. Cyax'ares, whose title of Dara- 
wesh, or Darius, is frequently mistaken for a -proper name, removed 
the seat of his government to the newly-acquired city, where becoming 
acquainted with the merits of the prophet Dan'iel, he took him into his 
service, and appointed him his chief vizier. Some envious courtiers at- 
tempted to ruin him by means of his well-known piety, and procured 
an edict from the Darawesh, forbidding any one, for thirty days, to offer 
up prayers to any one but the king, under penalty of being exposed to 
lions. Dan'iel disobeyed the impious command, and was thrown into 
the lions' den ; but God closed the mouths of the ferocious animals, and 
he was taken out uninjured. He was immediately restored to his 
oflice, which he retained to the end of his life ; and it deserves to be 
added, than in consequence of his fidelity to the Median and Persian 
kings, he is described as a renegade in some ancient Jewish traditions. 

Cy'rus succeeded Cyax'ares in the kingdom ; and thus the suprem- 
acy was transferred from the Medes to the Persians (b. c. 534). But 
long before he reigned alone, he had been associated with his uncle in 
the government, and had the sole command of the army that subdued 



64 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

Ly'dia, Assyr'ia, BabyUmia, and western Asia, to the confines of 
Egypt. Immediately after his accession, he issued an edict permitting 
tlie Jews to return to their native land, and rebuild the walls and tem- 
ple of Jerusalem, as the prophet Isaiah had predicted a hundred years 
before his birth. For seven years he ruled his empire in peace and 
prosperity, directing his attention to establishing a stable government 
in his extensive dominions, and endeavoring, as we have good reason 
to believe, to restrict the extravagant privileges claimed by the Magi, 
or priestly caste. 

Whatever may have been the manner of his death, about which there 
is some doubts, it is certain that he was buried at Pasargadse, where 
the remains of his tomb may still be see. In the age of Slrabo, it bore 
the I'oUovving inscription, " O man, I am Cy'rus, who founded the Per- 
sian empire : envy me not then the little earth which covers my re- 
mains." 

Cam'byses (Lohorasp) succeeded to the throne (b. c. 529), and im- 
mediately prepared to invade Egypt. He soon made himself master 
of Pelusium, and, being aided by the local information of Phanes, a 
Greek deserter, he overthrew Psammenitus, the last Egyptian monarch, 
and subdued the entire country. His fierce liostility to the sacerdotal 
caste, which he inherited from his father, made him a persecutor of 
the Egyptian priests, who, in revenge, have portrayed him as the worst 
of tyrants. After the conquest of Egypt, he resolved to annex Ethio- 
pia to his dominions, and, at the same time, to plunder the Ammonium, 
or great temple of Jdpiter Am'mon, built on an oasis in the midst of 
the desert. In the midst of the desert the Persians were deserted by 
their perfidious guides, and the greater part of them were finally over- 
whelmed by the moving sands that winds sometimes raise in the desert. 

Camby'ses intended to have carried Ms arms into western Africa ; 
but his designs were frustrated by the refusal of the Phcenician mar- 
iners to serve against their Carthagenian brethren. To secure his 
throne, he, with the cruel precaution so common in Asia, put his brother 
Smer'dis to death ; but was soon alarmed by hearing that a usurper, 
under his brother's name, had seized the Persian crown. On his re- 
turn home, Camby'ses died of an accidental wound from his own sword, 
having first solemnly assured his officers of the falsehood practised by 
the pretended Smer'dis. As Camby'ses died without heirs, the Kaian- 
ian dynasty, which, as we have seen, included both Modes and Per- 
sians, became extinct (b. c. 522). 

Section V. — History of Ihe Persians under the Hystaspid Dynasty. 

FROM B. c. 522 TO B. c. 330. 

The real history of the false Smer'dis appears to be slightly dis- 
guised in the narratives of the Grecian writers : he was manifestly 
raised to the throne by a conspiracy of the priestly caste, who were de- 
sirous of restoring their own supremacy, and that of their allies, the 
Medes. The Persian nobles combined to prevent such a calamity, de- 
stroyed the usurper, and chose for their sovereign, or darawesh, Hys- 
tas'pes (Gushtasp), who appears to have been a member of the family 
of the Achae'menidae. Darius Hystas'pes appears to have been the 



THE PERSIANS. 65 

first who used the old title of royalty (Darawesh or Darius) as a proper 
name. When fixed upon the throne, he persecuted the magi with 
great severity, and patronised the religious system ascribed to Zerdusht, 
or Zoroas'ter. The Persian legends describe this philosopher as his 
contemporary ; and this is rendered exceedingly probable by a com- 
parison of the various accounts given of this great reformer.* 

To secure his title, Darius, for henceforth he will be best known by 
this name, united himself in marriage with the two surviving daughters 
of Cy'rus, and then prepared to punish the Babylonians, who, in con- 
sequence probably of the ancient connexion between the Chaldeans 
and the sacerdotal caste of the Medes, had not only revolted but mur- 
dered all whom they regarded as useless mouths, to prove their de- 
termined obstinacy. Baby'lon sustained a siege of twenty months ; 
and might have baffled its besiegers, had not a Persian noble mutilated 
himself, and gone over to the citizens as a deserter who had escaped 
from the inhuman cruelty of his sovereign. His wounds gave credit 
to his words : he was intrusted with the command of an important post, 
which he betrayed to Darius, and thus enabled that monarch to become 
master of the rebellious city. The attention of the conqueror was next 
directed to quelling an insurrection of the Greek commercial cities of 
western Asia ; he added Thrace to his dominions, and undertook an 
invasion of Scythia. The Danube was passed on a bridge of boats ; 
and the Persians advanced without opposition through a difficult and 
barren country, until they had advanced beyond the reach of their sup- 
plies. Darius was forced to' retreat, and his safety was purchased by 
the loss of the greater part of his followers. 

Having severely punished a subsequent revolt of the Greeks of Asia 
Minor, Darfus resolved to extend his veugeance to their Grecian allies, 
and collected a large naval and military force, which he intrusted to 
the command of his son-in-law Mardonius. Mardonius crossed the 
Hellespont into Thrace, whence he passed into Macedonia, at that 
time a Persian province. All the neighboring countries submitted ; 
but his fleet was shattered in a storm, while doubling Mount A'thos, 
and his army soon afterward was attacked unexpectedly by the bar- 
barous Thracian tribes, who slew a great many of the soldiers, and 
severely wounded Mardonius himself. A second expedition was sent 
to Greece, under the command of Datis and Artapher'nes, who forced 
a passage into the northern parts of that country, stormed Eret'ria, and 
were menacing Athens, when they were totally routed by the Atheni- 
ans under Miltiades, at the memorable battle of Mar'athon (b. c. 490). 
To avenge these losses, Darius resolved to invade Greece in person ; 
but an insurrection of the Egyptians, and disputes among his children 
respecting the succession, and not long after his own death, frustrated 
his designs. 

Xer'xes, immediately after his accession (b. c. 485), marched against 
the Egyptian rebels, whom he completely subdued. Elated by this 
success, he prepared to invade Greece, and collected the largest army 
that had ever been assembled. His naval preparations were on an 
equally extensive scale. But on the very threshold of Greece, at the 
mountain-pass of Thermopylae, his countless hordes were checked and 
• See Professor Shea's admirable transl?*»«»» of MirVt-^^J ». 074, 
5 



66 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

repulsed by a handful of men under the command of Leomidas, king q( 
Sparta. Treachery enabled him to turn the flank of the gallant war- 
riors, and he entered Greece ; but the account of his campaigns be- 
longs properly to Grecian history. It is sufficient to say, that after 
having suffered unparalleled losses by sea and land, he returned to 
Persia covered with disgrace. The forces that he left behind him un- 
der Mardonius were annihilated at the battle of Plateae ; and the Greeks, 
following up their success, destroyed the power of the Persians in the 
Mediterranean, and made them tremble for the security of their provin- 
ces in Asia Minor. 

Xer'xes is unknoAvn by name to the oriental historians ; they name 
him Esfendiar, and ascribe to him the most eminent qualities of a gen- 
eral and soldier. It is probable that the memory of Xer'xes's exploits in 
youth were alone preserved in eastern Persia. It is generally thought 
that Xer'xes was the Ahasuerus (Achash Zwerosh, that is, "braA'^e 
hero") mentioned in the book of Est'her. 

Xer'xes was murdered by a captain of his guards, named Artabanus 
(B.C. 470), and his eldest son shared his fate. The assassin conferred 
the crown on Artaxer'xes, the third son of the deceased monarch, sur- 
named Macrocheir, or " the long-handed," called by the native histori- 
ans Ardeshir Bahman, who is celebrated ibr his just and beneficent 
administration. But his virtues were insufficient to check the decline 
of the empire, which began to exhibit signs of weakness in every quar- 
ter. x\fter countless humiliations, Artaxer'xes was forced to sign a dis- 
graceful peace, by which he recognised the independence of the Asiatic 
Greeks ; consented that his fleet should be wholly excluded from the 
iEgean : and that the Persian army should not come within three days' 
march of the coast (b. c. 449). 

Internal wars and rebellions were of frequent occurrence ; the royal 
forces were often defeated and the empire kept in a state of turbulence and 
confusion. On the death of Artaxer'xes (b. c. 424), his only legitimate 
son, Xer'xes, ascended the throne ; but within forty-five days was mur- 
dered by his natural brother, Sogdianus ; and he again was deposed by 
another illegitimate prince, O'chus, who, on his accession, took the 
name of Darius II. 

Under the administration of Darius II., sumamed Nothus, that is, 
" illegitimate," the empire declined rapidly, chiefly owing to the in- 
creased power and consequent turbulence of the provincial satraps. On 
the death of Darius, his son Artaxer'xes, sumamed Mnemon, from the 
strength of his memory'', ascended the throne (b. c. 405) ; but was op- 
posed by his brother Cy'rus, who had the support of the queen-mother, 
Parysatis, and of an army of Greek mercenaries, which he was enabled 
to levy through his connexion with Sparta. Cy'rus, at first successful, 
was slain at the battle of Cunax'a (b. c. 401); but his ten thousand 
Greek auxiliaries, under the gTiidance of Xen'ophon, a renegade Athe- 
nian, though a delightful historian, succeeded in forcing a safe passage 
to their native land. During the remainder of his reign, the v/eak Ar- 
taxer'xes was the mere puppet of his mother, Parysatis, whose in- 
veterate hatred against Queen Statira, and all whom she suspected of 
having contributed to the overthrow of her favorite son, Cy'rus, fiUed 
the palace with murders, treasons, and assassinations. While the 



THE PEHSIANS. 67 

court was thus disgraced, Agesilaus, king of Sparta, joined with the 
Asiatic Greeks, was making rapid conquests in western Persia ; and 
he would probably have dismembered the empire, had not the troubles 
excited in Greece by a lavish distribution of Persian gold, compelled 
him to return home. 

The remainder of the reign of Artaxer'xes was singularly unfortu- 
nate : he attempted to reduce Egypt, but his efforts failed, owing to a 
disagreement between the Athenian auxiliaries and the Persian com- 
manders ; Cy'prus regained its independence ; and the spirit of revolt 
spread through all western Asia. His domestic calamities were still 
more afflicting : he was obliged to punish his oldest son Darius with 
death, for conspiring against him ; O'chus, his youngest son, murdered 
his brother, to open a path to the succession ; and Artaxer^xes, over- 
come by such a complication of miseries, died of a broken heart. 

O'chus, on the accession (b. c. 360), took the name of Artaxer'xes 
III. ; and, to secure himself on the throne, put to death no fewer than 
eighty of the royal family. Artabazus, the satrap of Asia Minor, at- 
tempted to take advantage of the unpopularity which those crimes 
brought on the monarch ; and, aided by the Thebans and Athenians, 
made a vigorous effort to seize the throne. O'chus, however, was as 
conspicuous for his military prowess as for his crimes ; he defeated 
Artabazus, and forced him to seek refuge in Greece. He next marched 
against the Phoenician insurgents, who were supported by the Cypri- 
ots and Egyptians : the treason of the general of the confederates 
gave O^chus an easier victory than he had expected, and he levelled 
the city of Sidon with the ground. Being joined by a powerful body 
of Greek auxiliaries, he recovered the island of Cy'prus, and once 
more reduced it to a Persian province. But the king's cruelties were 
not compensated by his victories ; and he was at length poisoned by 
the eunuch Bagoas, who placed Ar'ces, the youngest son of O'chus, on' 
the throne. 

Ar'ces, after a brief reign, suffered the fate of his father ; and the. 
treacherous Bagoas transferred the crown to Darius Codoman^'nus, a 
descendant of Darius Nothus (b. c. 336). The eunuch hoped that by 
raising so remote a branch to the throne, he would be permitted to re- 
tain royal power in his hands ; but Darius soon asserted his indepen- 
dence, and Bagoas prepared to remove him by poison. The treaclxery 
was discovered ; and Darius compelled the baffled eunuch to drink the 
medicated portion that he had prepared. But the fate of the Persian 
empire was now at hand ; Alexan'der the Great of Macedon appeared 
in Asia, and his brave little army scattered the myriads of Persia like 
chaff before the wind. After the loss of the two battles of Is^sus and 
Arbela, Darius, while seeking refuge in a remote part of his empire, 
was murdered by the eunuch Bes'sus ; and Asia received a new mas- 
ter.* 

The Persians inherited the commercial power of the Babylonians 
and Phoenicians ; but they opened no new branch of trade, and scarce- 
ly maintained those they found already established. It is not, there- 
fore, necessary to repeat here what has been said in the preceding 
chapters on the commerce of central Asia. 

* See the history of Macedon in a following chapter. 



68 ANCIENT HISTOKY. 



CHAPTER VII. 
PHCENICIAN COLONIES IN NORTHERN AFRICA, 

ESPECIALLY 

CARTHAGE. 

Section I. — Geographical Outline of Northern Africa^ 

Although Africa was circumnavigated at a period of very remote 
antiquity, the interior of the countiy still remained unexplored, and the 
southern part, on account of the difficulty of navigation in the ocean, 
was neglected until the knowledge of its discovery was forgotten. But 
the northern coast bordering on the Mediterranean became the seat of 
flourishing Greek and Phoenician colonies. This extensive district 
was divided by nature into three regions, or bands, of unequal breadth, 
nearly parallel with the sea-line : 1, the maritime country, consisting 
generally of very fertile districts, whence it was called Inhabited Africa, 
is now named Barbary ; 2, a rugged mountainous country, whose loft- 
iest peaks form the chain of Mount Atlas, abounding in wild beasts 
and palm-groves, whence it was called by the ancients the Land of 
Lions, and by the moderns Beledulgerid, or the Land of Dates ; the 
Romans usually named it Geetulia ; 3, a vast sandy desert, which the 
Arabs call Sahara. 

From the chain of Mount Atlas several small rivers flow into the 
Mediterranean by a short northern course ; but there are no streams of 
importance on the south side of these mountains, and no great river in 
the interior until we reach the remote Niger, concerning which the 
ancients had very imperfect information ; indeed, nothing was known 
with certainty of its true course, until the recent discovery of its mouth 
by the Landers. 

Proceeding westward along the shore from Egypt, Africa presented 
the following political divisions : 1, Marmar'ica, a sandy tract tenanted 
by nomad tribes ; 2, Cyrenaica, a fertile territory, occupied by Greek 
colonies, extending to the greater Syr'tis ; its chief cities were Cyrene, 
and Bar'ca ; 3, Regio Syr'tica, the modern kingdom of Trip'oli, a sandy 
tract subject to the Carthaginians, but almost wholly occupied by nomad 
hordes ; 4, the domestic territory of Carthage, which forms the modem 
kingdom of Tunis ; 5, a very fruitful country subject to the Carthagin- 
ians, the northern part of which was named Byzacena, and the south- 
ern Zeugitana ; and, 6, Numid'ia and Mauritania, occupied during the 
Carthaginian age by nomad hordes ; but having some Carthaginian 
colonies along the coasts. 



CARTHAGE. 69 

Carthage was built on a peninsula in the interior of a large bay, now 
called the gulf of Tunis, formed by the projection of the Hermaean prom- 
ontory (now Cape Bon) on the east, and the promontory of Apollo 
(now Cape Zebid) on the west. The peninsula was about midway 
between U'tica and Tunis, both of which could be seen from the walls 
of Carthage ; the former being about nine, and the latter only six miles 
distant ; it was joined to the land by an isthmus averaging three miles 
in length ; and on the seaside there was a narrow neck of land project- 
ing westward, which formed a double harbor, and served as a mole 
or breakAvater for the protection of shipping. Toward the sea the city 
was fortified only by a single wall ; but the isthmus was guarded by 
the citadel Byr'sa, and a triple wall eighty feet high and about thirty 
wide. 

The African territory of Carthage extended westward along the 
coast of the pillars of Hercules, and eastward to the altars of the 
Philae'ni, which marked the frontier between the territories of Cyrene 
and Carthage. Southward, the dominions of Carthage extended to the 
Tritonian lake ; but many of the nomad tribes beyond these limits paid 
nominal obedience to the republic. 

The fertile provinces of Carthage, occupied by people who tilled the 
soil, extended from Cape Bon, in a direct line, to the most eastern angle 
of the Triton lake, a distance of nearly two hundred geographical miles. 
Its average breadth was one hundred and fifty miles. 

The foreign possessions of Carthage included the Balearic islands, 
Cor'sica, Sardinia, and the smaller islands in the Mediterranean, the 
southern part of Sicily and Spain, some settlements on the western 
coast of Africa, and the Fortunate islands in the Atlantic, which are 
probably the Canaries, and the fertile Madeira, 

Section II. — Social and Political Condition of Carthage, 

The government of Carthage was formed by circumstances ; it was 
originally monarchical, like Tyre, its parent state ; but at a very early 
period it assumed a republican form, in which aristocracy was the pre- 
vailing element, though the power of the people was not wholly ex- 
cluded. There were two kin^s, or chief magistrates, called suffetes 
(the sknphetim, or judges, of the Hebrews), who appear to have been 
nominated by the senate, and then presented for confirmation to the 
general assembly of the people. There was a double senate ; a 
syned'rium, or house of assembly, and a select council, denominated 
gerusia, which was composed of a hundred of the principal members 
of the syned'rium, and formed the high court of judicature. 

Public affairs were not submitted to the assembly of the people, ex- 
cept when there was a difference of opinion between the suffetes and 
the senate, when the decision of the general assembly was final. 

In one particular the Carthaginian government was more constitu- 
tional than that of Rome, or most of the Grecian republics ; it kept dis- 
tinct the civil and military power : the dignity of chief magistrate was 
not united to that of gerieral without an express decree for the purpose. 
When a king was sent to conduct a war, his military powers expired at 
the close of the campaign, and previously to a new one a fresh nomina- 



'TO ANCIENT HISTORY. 

tion was necessary. There are also instances of a general being 
-elected one of the sufletes, or kings, while he was engaged in conduct- 
ing war. Other foreign expeditions were sometimes intrusted to the 
kinofs ; for Hanno, who conducted an armament to establish colonies 
along the coast of western Africa, is expressly called king of the Car- 
thaginians. 

The religion of the Carthaginians was the same as that of their an- 
cestors the Phceniciaus, and was consequently polluted by sanguinary- 
rites and human sacrihces. But the Carthaginians were not averse to 
the introduction of foreign goods ; they adopted the worship of Ceres 
from the Sicilians, and sent ambassadors to the oracle of Delphi. It does 
not appear that there was a distinct sacerdotal caste, or even order, in 
Carthage ; the priestly functions were united with the magisterial. 

A species of national banking was established at Carthage which 
was very curious. Pieces of a compound metal, the secret of whose 
composition was strictly preserved, in order to prevent forgery, were 
sewed up in leather coverings, and marked with a government seal, 
which declared their nominal value. This money was, of course, cur- 
rent only in Carthage itself. The public revenues of Carthage were 
derived from the tribute imposed on the dependant cities and African 
tribes, from the customhouse duties collected in the port, and from the 
Spanish mines, the richest of which were in the neighborhood of 
Carthago Nova, the modern city of Carthagena. 

The Carthaginians, like their ancestors the Phoenicians, paid great 
attention to naval affairs, and long possessed maritime supremacy over 
the western Mediterranean. They were eminent for their skill in ship- 
building, and it was after the model of a Carthaginian galley, accident- 
ally stranded, that the Romans built their first fleet. 

The Carthaginians most commonly used triremes, or galleys with 
three banks of oars, but we read of their using ships with five banks, 
and in one instance with seven. The rowers were composed of slaves 
bought by the state for this particular purpose, and as they required 
constant practice, formed a permanent body, which was not disbanded 
in time of peace. The office of admiral was rarely united to that of 
general, and the naval commanders, even when acting in concert with 
the militaiy, received their orders direct from the senate. 

Carthage supported numerous land armies ; but, unlike most other 
ancient states, its forces were chiefly composed of mercenaries and 
slaves ; the citizens themselves, engrossed by commercial pursuits, 
"were unwilling to eiicounter the hardships and perils of a campaign. 
There was, however, always one Carthaginian corps, which was re- 
garded as the pride of the army. 

Section III. — History of Carthage from the Foundation of the City to the 
Commencement of the Syracusan Wars. 

FROM B. C. 880 TO B. C. 416. 

Di'do, after having escaped from the tyranny of her brother Pygma- 
lion, chose for her new country the Carthaginian peninsula. She is 
said to have acquired by a fraudulent purchase, the ground on which 
the city was built ; but this legend is unworthy of serious notice. At 



CARTHAGE. 71 

first the Carthaginians were compelled to pay tribute to the neighbor- 
ing barbarian princes ; but when their riches and strength increased, 
they shook of this degrading yoke, and extended their dominion by the 
subjection of the nearest native tribes in the interior, and by new 
establishments along the coasts. The more ancient Phoenician colo- 
nies, such as U'tica and Lep'tis, far from feeling jealous of the rising 
power of Carthage, joined in a federation, of which the new city was 
recognised as the head. The Greek settlers at Cyrene, whose state 
had attained great commercial prosperity, viewed the Carthaginians with 
more jealousy, and war soon broke out between the rival cities. 

While the Persian empire was rising into importance in the east, Car- 
thage was fast acquiring supremacy over the western world, chiefly by 
means of the family of Mago — a family that held the chief power of 
the state for more than a century. But just as they were rising into 
eminence, they had to encounter a formidable enemy in the western 
Mediterranean, whose proved skill and courage threatened dangerous 
rivalry. This led to one of the first naval engagements recorded in 
history, and arose from the following circumstances ; — 

After Cy'rus had overthrown Croe'sus, he intrusted the subjugation 
of the Greek colonies in Asia Minor to Har'pagus, one of his generals, 
and returned to complete the conquest of Babylonia. One of the first 
places against which Har'pagus directed his efforts was Phocae'a, the 
most northern city of Ionia (b. c. 589). Its inhabitants were celebra- 
ted for their commercial enterprise and skill in navigation ; they had 
frequently visited the coast of Spain, and ventured beyond the pillars 
of Hercules. But they had not strength to resist the myriads of Per- 
sia ; and when summoned by Har'pagus, they begged for a short inter- 
val to deliberate on his proposals. During this period, they embarked 
their wives, children, and moveable property, on board their galleys, and 
abandoned the naked walls of their city to the Persians. They pro- 
ceeded to the island of Cor'sica, part of which was already occupied by 
the Carthaginians, and prepared to establish themselves on its coasts. 
The Carthaginians and the Tyrrhenians, or Tuscans, dreading the 
rivalry of the enterprising Phocaeans, entered into an alliance for their 
destruction, and sent a fleet of one hundred and twenty sail to drive 
them from Cor'sica. The Phocaeans, with half the number of A^essels, 
gained a brilliant victory ; but, conscious that their numbers were too 
weak to sustain repeated attacks, they abandoned Cor'sica for the 
shores of Gaul, where they founded the city of Marseilles. 

In the year that the Tarquins were expelled, a treaty was concluded 
between the republics of Rome and Carthage (b. c. 509) ; from the 
terms of which it appears that the Carthaginians were already supreme 
masters of the northern coast of Africa and the island of Sardinia, and 
that they possessed the Balearic islands, and a considerable portion of 
Sicily and Spain. 

Ever since the seafight off" Cor'sica, the Carthaginians had a jeal- 
ous dread of Grecian valor and enterprise, which was naturally aggra- 
vated by the increasing wealth and power of the Greek colonies in 
Sicily and southern Italy. When Xer'xes, therefore, was preparing to 
invade Hel'ias, they readfty entered into alliance with the Persian 
monarch, and agreed to attack the colonies, while he waged war against 



73 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

the parent state. An armament was accordingly prepared, whose mag'- 
nitude shows the extensive power, and resources of Carthage. It con- 
sisted of two thousand ships of war, three thousand transports and ves- 
sels of burden, and a land army amounting to three hundred thousand 
men. The command of the whole was intrusted to Hamil'car, the 
head of the illustrious family of Mago. This immense army consisted 
chiefly of African mercenaries, and was composed of what are called 
light troops. They were, however, wholly undisciplined, and if de- 
feated in the first onset could rarely be persuaded to renew the attack. 

A landing was effected, without loss, at Panor'mus (the modern Pal- 
ermo) ; and when the troops were refreshed, HamiFcar advanced and laid 
close siege to Himera. The governor Theron, made a vigorous defence, 
though pressed not only by the overwhelming forces of the enemy, but 
by the still more grievous pressure of famine. Foreseeing, however, 
that the town, unless speedily relieved, must be forced to surrender, he 
sent an urgent request for assistance to Syracuse. 

Gelon, king of Syracuse, could only collect about five thousand horse 
and fifteen thousand foot. With this very disproportionate force he 
marched against the Carthaginians, to take advantage of any opportu- 
nity that fortune might offer. On his road he fortunately captured a 
messenger from the Selinuntines to HamiFcar, promising on a certain 
day to join him with the auxiliary force of cavalry that he had demand- 
ed. Though his forces were formidable, in point of numbers, HamiF- 
car was too prudent to trust such undisciplined hordes, unless aided by 
regular soldiers, and had therefore offered large bribes to win over some 
of the Grecian states in Sicily to his side. The Selinuntines alone 
listened to his terms, and promised to aid him against their old enemies 
the Syracusans. Gelon sent the letter forward to HamiFcar ; and hav- 
ing taking measures to intercept the treacherous Selinuntines, he de- 
spatched a chosen body of his own troops to the Carthaginian camp in 
their stead at the specified time. The Syracusans being admitted with- 
out any suspicion, suddenly galloped to the general's tent, slew HamiF- 
car and his principal officers, and then, hurrying to the harbor, set fire 
to the fleet. The blaze of the burning vessels, the cries of HamiFcar's 
servants, and the shouts of the Syracusans, tlirew the whole Carthagin- 
ian army into confusion ; in the midst of which they were attacked by 
Gelon with the rest of his forces. Without leaders and without com- 
mand, the Carthaginians could make no effective resistance ; more than 
half of the invaders fell in the field ; the remainder, without arms and 
without provisions, sought shelter in the interior of the cotmtry, where 
most of them perished. It is remarkable that this great victory was 
won on the same day that the battle of Thermop'ylae was fought, and 
the Persian fleet defeated at Artemis^ium ; three of the noblest triumphs 
obtained in the struggle for Grecian freedom (b. c. 480). 

The miserable remnant of the Carthaginian troops rallied under Gis'- 
gon, the son of HamiFcar ; but the new general found it impossible to 
remedy the disorganization occasioned by the late defeat, and was 
forced to surrender at discretion. 

For seventy years after this defeat, little is known of the liistory of 
Carthage, except that during that period th% state greatly extended its 
power over the native tribes of Africa, and gained important acquisi- 



CAETHAGE. 73 

tions of territory from tlie Cyrenians. Sicily was, in the meantime, 
the scene of a war which threatened total annihilation to Syracuse, the 
Athenians having invaded the island, and laid siege to that city. But 
when the Athenians were totally defeated (b. c. 416), the Carthagin- 
ians had their attention once more directed to Sicilian politics by an 
embassy from the Segestans, seeking their protection against the Syra- 
cusans, whose wrath they had provoked by their alliance with the 
Athenians. 

« 
Section IV. — History of Carthage during the Sicilian Wars. 

FROM B. c. 416 TO B. c. 264. 

The Carthaginians gladly seized the pretext afforded them by the 
Segestan embassy ; and a new expedition was sent against Sicily, 
under the command of Han'nibal, the son of Gis'gon. This new in- 
vasion was crowned with success ; Selinun'tum and Himera were 
taken by storm, and their inhabitants put to the sword. The Sicilians 
solicited a truce, which was granted on terms extremely favorable to 
the Carthaginians. 

So elated was the state at this success, that nothing less than the 
entire subjugation of Sicily was contemplated. In'ules, the son of 
Han'no, and Han^nibal, at the head of a powerful armament, proceeded 
to besiege Agrigen'tum, the second city of the island. During the 
siege, which lasted eight months, the assailants suffered severely from 
pestilential: disease, and the garrison from famine. After having en- 
dured with wonderful patience the severest extremities of famine, the 
Agrigentines forced their way through the enemies' lines by night, and 
retreated to Gela, abandoning the aged, the sick, and the wounded, to 
the mercy of the Carthaginians. Himil'co, who had succeeded to the 
chief command on the death of his father Han'nibal, ordered these 
helpless victims to be massacred. Gela soon shared the fate of Agri- 
gen'tum ; and Diony'sius I., the king of Syracuse, who had taken the 
command of the confederated Sicilians, deemed it prudent to open ne- 
gotiations for peace. A treaty was concluded (b. c. 405), which 
neither party intended to observe longer than the necessary preparations 
for a more decisive contest would require. Scarcely were the Cartha- 
ginians withdrawn, when Diony'sius sent deputies to all the Greek 
states in Sicily, exhorting them by a simultaneous effort to expel all in- 
truders, and secure their future independence. His machinations were 
successful ; the Carthaginian merchants who, on the faith of the late 
treaty, had settled in the principal commercial town, were perfidiously 
massacred ; while Diony'sius, at the head of a powerful army, cap- 
tured several of the most important Carthaginian fortresses. 

All the forces that the wealth of Carthage could procure were speed- 
ily collected to punish this treachery ; and Himil'co advanced against 
Syracuse, and laid siege to it with the fairest prospects of success. 
But a plague of such uncommon virulence broke out in the Carthagin- 
ian camp, that the living were unable to bury the dead, and information 
of this state of things being conveyed to Sy'racuse, Diony'sius sallied 
forth with all his forces, and assaulted the Carthaginian camp. Scarce 



74 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

any attempt was made at resistance : night alone put an end to the 
slaughter ; and when morning dawned, Himil'co found that nothing but 
a speedy surrender could save him and his followers from total ruin. 
He stipulated only for the lives of himself and the Carthaginians, aban- 
doning all Ills auxiliaries to the vengeance of the Syracusans. 

The Carthaginians sent another armament, commanded by Mago, a 
nobleman of high rank, to retrieve their losses in Sicily ; but their 
forces were routed with great slaughter, and the leader slain. The 
younger Mago, son of the late general, having received a strong rein- 
forcement from Africa, hazarded a second engagement, in which the 
Syracusans were totally defeated. Diony'sius was induced by this 
overthrow to solicit a peace, which was concluded on terms honorable 
to both parties. 

The conclusion of the Sicilian war was followed by a plague, which 
destroyed multitudes of the citizens of Carthage (b. c. 347) ; and 
scarcely had this visitation passed away, when insurrections broke out 
in the African provinces, and in the colonies of Sicily and Sardinia. 
But the Carthaginian senate showed itself equal to the crisis ; by a 
course of policy in which firmness was tempered by conciliation, these 
dangers were averted, and the state restored to its former vigor and 
prosperity. 

In the meantime, Sy'racuse was weakened by the death of Diony'- 
sius I., who, though stigmatized as a tyrant by the Greek historians, 
appears to have been a wise and prudent sovereign. " No one," said 
Scip'io Africanus, " ever concerted his schemes with more wisdom, or 
executed them with more energy, than the elder Diony'sius." His 
son, Diony'sius H., was a profligate prince, whose excesses filled the 
state with tumult and distraction. The Carthaginians eagerly embra- 
ced the opportunity of accomplishing the favorite object of their policy, 
the conqiiest of Sicily ; and a great armament was prepared, of Avhich 
Mago was appointed the chief commander. 

Mago, at the very first attack, made himself master of the harbor of 
Sy'racuse. The Syracusans, destitute of money, of arms, and almost 
of hope, solicited the aid of the Corinthians ; and Timoleon, one of 
the greatest generals and purest patriots oi antiquity, was sent to their 
assistance. A great portion of the Carthaginian army had been levied 
in the Greek colonies; Timoleon, hoping to work on their patriotic 
feelings, addressed letters to the leaders of these mercenaries, expos- 
tulating with them on the disgrace of bearing arms against their coun- 
trjTnen : and though he did not prevail on any to desert, yet Mago, 
having heard of these intrigues, felt such distrust of his followers, that 
he at once abandoned Sy'racuse, and returned home. 

Great was the indignation of the Carthaginians at this unexpected 
termination of the campaign ; Mago committed suicide to escape their 
wrath. New forces were raised to retrieve their losses in Sicily ; two 
generals, Han'nibal and Hamil'car were appointed to the command, 
and were intrusted with an army of seventy thousand men, and a fleet 
consisting of two hundred war-galleys, and a thousand ships of burden. 

Timoleon hasted to meet the invaders, though his forces barely 
amounted to seven thousand men. He imexpectedly attacked the Car- 
thaginian army on its march, near the river Crimisus ; and the confu- 



CAETHAGE. 75 

sion produced by the surprise terminated in a total rout. The Syracu- 
sans captured town after town, until at length the senate of Carthage 
was forced to solicit peace, and accept the terms dictated by the con- 
queror. 

While Carthage was thus unfortunate abroad, her liberties at home 
narrowly escaped destruction. Han'no, one of the principal leaders 
of the state, resolved to make himself master of his country by poison- 
ing the leaders of the senate at a banquet. This diabolical plot was 
frustrated by a timely discovery, and the exasperated traitor resolved to 
hazard an open rebellion. Having armed his slaves, to the number of 
twenty thousand, he took the field, and invited the native African tribes 
to join his standard. This appeal was disregarded ; and before Han'no 
could levy fresh forces, he was surrounded by an army hastily raised, 
his followers routed, and himself made prisoner. He was put to death 
with the most cruel tortures ; and, according to the barbarous custom 
of Carthage, his children and nearest relatives shared the same fate. 

New dissensions in Sy'racuse afforded the Carthaginians a fresh 
pretext for meddling in the affairs of Sicily. Agathoc'les, an intriguing 
demagogue of mean birth, had acquired great influence among his 
countrymen, and, finally, by the secret aid of the Carthaginians, be- 
came master of the state. But he soon showed little regard for the 
ties of gratitude, and declared his resolution to expel his benefactors 
from the island. The Carthaginian senate immediately sent Hamil'car 
with a powerful army against this new enemy. Agathoc'les was com- 
pletely defeated, and forced to shut himself up within the walls of Sy'- 
racuse. The city was soon closely invested, and everything seemed 
to promise Hamil'car complete success at no distant day, when Aga- 
thoc'les suddenly baffled all his calculations, by adopting one of the most 
extraordinary measures recorded in history. Having assembled the 
Syracusans, he declared that he could liberate them from all dangers, 
if an army and a small sum of money were placed at his disposal ; 
adding, that his plan would be instantly defeated, if its natiu-e was di- 
vulged. An army of liberated slaves was hastily levied, the sum of 
fifty talents intrusted to his discretion, and a fleet prepared in secret ; 
when all was ready, Agathoc'les announced his design of transporting 
his forces into Africa, and compelling the Carthaginians, by the dread 
of a nearer danger, to abandon Sicily. 

Having eluded the vigilance of the blockading squadron, Agathoc'les 
arrived safely in Africa before the Carthaginians had received the slight- 
est notion of his intention (b. c. 309). To inspire his soldiers with a 
resolution to conquer or die, he cut off all chance of retreat by burning 
his transports ; then fearlessly advancing, he stormed Tunis and sev- 
eral other cities, the plunder of which he divided among his soldiers, 
and instigated the African princes to throw off the yoke of Carthage. 
Han'no and Bomil'car were sent to check the progress of this daring 
invader, with forces nearly four times as great as the Sicilian army ; 
but Agathoc'les did not decline the engagement. His valor was re- 
warded by a decisive victory. Following up his success, Agathoc'les 
stormed the enemies' camp, where were found heaps of fetters and 
chains, which the Carthaginians, confident of success, had prepared for 
the invading army. 



76 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

Dreadful consternation was produced in Carthage by the news of 
this unexpected defeat. Hamil'car, who was vigorously pressing for- 
ward the siege of Sy'racuse, was surprised by the unexpected order to 
return home and defend his own country. He broke up the siege, and 
sent home five thousand of his best troops. Having supplied their 
place by hiring fresh mercenaries, he again invaded the Syracusan ter- 
ritories ; but was unexpectedly attacked, defeated, and slain. 

Ophel'Ias, king of Cyrene, had joined Agathoc'Ies with all his for- 
ces ; but the Syracusan monarch, jealous of his influence, had him pri- 
vately poisoned. Having thus removed his rival, he thought he might 
safely revisit Sicily, and intrust the command of the African army to 
his son. But, during his absence, the fruits of all his former labors 
were lost : the army under a young and inexperienced general, threw 
aside the restraints of discipline ; the Greek estates, indignant at the 
murder of Ophel'Ias, withheld their contingents ; and the African 
princes renewed their allegiance to Carthage. Agathoc'les hearing of 
these disorders, hasted to remedy them : but finding all his efforts vain, 
he fled back to Sicily, abandoning both his sons and his soldiers. The 
army, exasperated by his desertion, slew their leaders, and surrendered 
themselves to the Carthaginians ; and Agathoc'les died soon after, 
either from grief or poison. 

After the death of this formidable enemy, the Carthaginians renewed 
their intrigues in Sicily, and soon acquired a predominant influence in 
the island. Finding themselves in danger of utter ruin, the Greek col- 
onies solicited the aid of Pyr'rhus, king of Epirus, who had married a 
daughter of Agathoc'les, and was then in Italy endeavoring to protect 
the colonies of Magna Grae'cia from the increasing power of the Ro- 
mans (b. C. 277). Pyr'rhus made a very successful campaign in 
Sicily, every Carthaginian town, except Lilybae'ura, submitted to his 
arms. But he was soon induced to return to Italy ; and the fruits of 
his victories were lost almost as rapidly as they had been acquired, 
notwithstanding the heroic exertions of Hiero, king of Sy'racuse. 

Section V. — From the Commencement of the Roman Wars to the Destruction 

of Carthage. 

FROM B. c. 264 TO B, c. 146. 

When Pyr'rhus was leaving Sicily, he exclaimed to his attendants, 
" What a fine field of battle we are leaving to the Carthaginians and 
Romans ?" His prediction was soon verified, though the circumstances 
that precipitated the contest were apparently of little importance. A 
body of mercenaries in the pay of Agathoc'les, after the death of that 
monarch, treacherously got possession of Messina, and put all the in- 
habitants to the sword. Hiero, king of Sy'racuse, marched against the 
Mamertines, as the independent companies that had seized Messina 
were called, and defeated them in the field. Half the Mamertines in- 
voked the aid of the Carthaginians, and placed them in immediate pos- 
session of the citadel, while the others sought the powerful protection 
of Rome. After much hesitation, the Romans consented to grant the 
required aid. The citadel of Messina was taken after a brief siege, 
and the Carthaginians were routed with great slaughter. Thus com- 



CARTHAGE. 77 

wienced the first Punic war, which lasted twenty-three years, the de- 
tails of which will be found in the chapters on Roman history. 

In this war Carthage lost Sicily, and its supremacy in the western 
Mediterranean, which involved the fate of all its other insular posses- 
sions. The treasury was exhausted, and money was wanting to pay the 
arrears due to the soldiers. The mercenaries mutinied, and advancing 
in a body, laid siege to Tunis. Thence they marched against U'tica, 
while the light African cavalry that had joined in the rebellion ravaged 
the country up to the very gates of Carthage. The revolters were sub- 
dued ; but not until they had reduced the fairest provinces of the repub- 
lic to a desert. The mercenaries in Sardinia had also thrown off their 
allegiance ; and the Romans, in . violation of the recent peace, took 
possession of the island ; an injury which Carthage was unable to 
resent. 

Hamil'car Bar'ca,* grieved to see his country sinking, formed a pro- 
ject for raising it once more to an equality with its imperious rival, by 
completely subduing the Spanish peninsula. His son Han'nibal, then 
a boy only nine years of age, earnestly besought leave to accompany 
his father on this Expedition; but before granting the request, Ham- 
il'car led the boy to the altar, and made him swear eternal hostility to 
Rome. 

During nine years Hamil'car held the command in Spain, and found 
means, either by force or negotiation, to subdue almost the entire 
country. He used the treasures he acquired to strengthen the influence 
of the Barcan family in the state, relying chiefly on the democracy for 
support against his great rival Han'no, who had the chief influence 
among the nobility. ' 

Has'drubal, the son>-in-law of Hamil'car, succeeded to his power and 
his projects. He is suspected of having designed to establish an inde- 
pendent kingdom in Spain, after having failed to make himself absolute 
in Carthage. He built a new capital with regal splendor, which re- 
ceived the name of New Carthage ; the richest silver-mines were opened 
in its neighborhood, and enormous bribes were sent to Carthage to dis- 
arm jealousy or stifle inquiry. Unlike other Carthaginian governors of 
provinces, he made every possible exertion to win the affections of the 
native Spaniards, and he married the daughter of one of their kings. 
The Romans were at length alarmed by his success, and compelled him 
to sign a treaty, by which he was bound to abstain from passing the 
Iberus (Ebro), or attacking the territory of the Sagimtines. 

When Has'drubal fell by the dagger of an assassin, the Barcan family 
had sufficient influence to have Han'nibal appointed his successor, 
though he had barely attained his legal majority (b. c. 221). The 
youthful general having gahied several victories over the Spaniards, 
boldly laid siege to Sagun'tum, and thus caused the second war with 
the Romans, for the details of which we must refer to the chapters on 
Roman history. 

During the course of this war, the Carthaginian navy, the source of 
its greatness and the security of its strength, was neglected. The spirit 
of party also raged violently in Carthage itself. At the conclusion of the 

* Barca signifies "thunder" in the Phoenician language, and also in Hebrew, 
which is closely allied to Phoenician. The Hebrew root is Pl^ to thunder. 



f9 ANCIENT HISTORY, 

war, Carthago was deprived of all her possessions out of Africa, and 
her fleet was delivered into the hands of the Romans. Thenceforward 
Carthago was to be nothing more than a commercial city under the pro- 
tection of Rome. A powerful rival also was raised against the repub- 
lic in Africa itself by the alliance of the Numidian king Massinis'sa 
with the Romans ; and that monarch took possession of most of the 
western Carthaginian colonies. 

Han'nibal, notwithstanding his late reverses, continued at the head 
of the Carthaginian state, and reformed several abuses that had crept 
into the management of the finances and the administration of justice. 
But these judicious reforms provoked the enmity of the factious nobles 
who had hitherto been permitted to fatten on public plunder ; they joined 
with the old rivals of the Barcan family, and even degraded themselves 
so far as to act as spies for the Romans, who still dreaded the abilities 
of Han'nibal. In consequence of their machinations the old general 
was forced to fly from the country he had so long labored to serve ; 
and, after several vicissitudes, died of poison, to escape the mean and 
malignant persecution of the Romans, whose hatred followed him in 
his exile, and compelled the king of Bithynia to refuse him protection. 
The mound wliich marks his last resting-place is still a remarkable 
object. 

But the Carthaginians had soon reason to lament the loss of their 
champion : the Romans were not conciliated by the expulsion of Han'- 
nibal ; and Massinis'sa, relying upon their support, made frequent in- 
cursions into the territories of the republic. Both parties complained 
of each other as aggressors before the Roman senate (b. c. 162) ; but 
though they received an equal hearing, the decision was long previously 
settled in favor of Massinis'sa. While these negotiations were pend- 
ing, Carthage was harassed by political dissension ; the popular party 
— believing, and not without reason, that the low estate of the republic 
was chiefly owing to the animosity that the aristocratic faction had 
shown to the Barcan family, and especially to Han'nibal, on account 
of his financial and judicial reform — convened a tumultuous assembly, 
and sent forty of the pricipal senators into banishment, exacting an oath 
from the citizens that they would never permit their return. The exiles 
sought refuge with Massinis'sa, who sent his sons to intercede with the 
Carthaginian popidace in their favor. The Numidian princes were not 
only refused admittance to the city, but ignominiously chased from their 
territory. Such an insult naturally provoked a fresh war, in which 
the Carthaginians were defeated, and forced to submit to the most oner- 
ous conditions. 

The Roman senate, continually solicited by the elder Cato, at length 
came to the resolution of totally destroying Carthage ; but it was diffi- 
cult to discover a pretext for war against a state which, conscious of its 
weakness, had resolved to obey every command. The Carthaginians 
gave up three hundred of their noblest youths as hostages, surrendered 
their ships-of-war and their magazines of arms ; but when, after all 
these concessions, they were ordered to abandon their city, they took 
courage from despair, and absolutely refused obedience. War was in- 
stantly proclaimed ; the Romans met with almost uninterrupted suc- 
cess ; and at the close of the four years that the war lasted, Carthage 



CARTHAGE. 79 

was taken by storm, and its magnificent edifices levelled with the 
ground. 

Section VI. — Navigation, Trade, and Commerce of Carthage. 

The colonial and commercial policy of the Carthaginians was far 
less generous than that of their ancestors, the Phoenicians ; the harbors 
of the capital were open to the ships and merchants of foreign nations, 
but admission was either wholly refused to all the remaining ports in the 
territory of the republic, or subjected to the most onerous restrictions. 
This selfish system, which has been imitated by too many modem 
commercial states, was forced upon the Carthaginians by peculiar cir- 
cumstances. Their trade with the barbarous tribes of Africa was car- 
ried on principally by barter ; the ignorant savages exchanged valuable 
commodities for showy trifles ; and the admission of competition would 
at once have shown them how much they lost in the exchange. Had 
the Carthaginians, under such circumstances, permitted free trade, they 
would, in fact, have destroyed their own market. 

The principal commerce of the Carthaginians in the western Medit- 
eri'anean was with the Greek colonies in Sicily and the south of Italy, 
from which they obtained wine and oil, in exchange for negro slaves, 
precious stones, and gold, procured from the interior of Africa, and also 
for cotton cloths manufactured at Carthage and in the island of Malta. 
Cor'sica supplied honey, wax, and slaves ; Sardinia yielded abundance 
of corn ; the Balearic islands produced the best breed of mules ; resin 
and volcanic products, such as sulphur and pumice-stone, were obtained 
from the Lipari islands ; and southern Spain was, as we have already 
said, the chief source whence the nations of antiquity procured the 
precious metals. 

Beyond the pillars of Hercules the Carthaginians succeeded the 
Phoenicians in the tin and amber trade with the south British islands 
and the nations at the entrance of the Baltic. After the destruction of 
Cahhage, this trade fell into the hands of their earliest rivals, the 
Phocaeans of Marseilles, who changed its route ; they made their pur- 
chases on the north shore of Gaul, and conveyed their goods overland 
to the mouth of the Rhone, in that age a journey of thirty days. 

On the west coast of Africa the Carthaginian colonies studd^^^l the 
shores of Morocco and Fez ; but their great mart was the island of 
Cer'ne, now Suana, in the Atlantic ocean (29° 10' N. lat., lO'^ 40' W. 
long.). On this island was the great depot of merchandise ; and goods 
were transported from it in light barks to the opposite coast, where they 
were bartered with the native inhabitants. The Carthaginian exports 
were trinkets, saddlery, linen, or more probably, cotton webs, pottery, 
and arms ; for which they received undressed hides and elephants' 
teeth. To tliis trade was added a very lucrative fishery : the tunny fish 
{thynnus scomber), which is still plentiful on the northwestern coast of 
Africa, was deemed a great luxury by the Carthaginians. There is 
every reason to believe that these enterprising merchants had some in- 
tercourse with the coast of Guinea, and that their navigators advanced 
beyond the mouths of the Senegal and Gambia ; but the caution with 
which everything respecting this trade was concealed, renders it im- 
possible to determine its nature and extent with accuracy. 



80 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

It is very difficult to discover any particulars respecting the caravan- 
trade which the Carthaginians carried on from their southern settle- 
ments with the interior of Africa. From the districts bordering on the 
desert the chief articles obtained were dates and salt ; but from beyond 
the desert, the imports were negro slaves and gold-dust. The nature 
of this lucrative commerce was the more easily concealed, as the cara- 
vans were formed not at Carthage, but at remote towns in the interior, 
and all the chief staples were situated on the confines of the Great 
Desert. 



GRECIAN STATES. 81 



CHAPTER VIII. » 

THE FOUNDATION OF 
THE GRECIAN STATES. 

Section I. — Geographical Outline of Hellas. 

Greece was bounded on the north by the Cambunian mountains, 
which separated it from Macedonia ; on the east by the JEgeaji, on the 
south by the Mediterranean, and on the west by the Ionian seas. Its 
extent from north to south was about two hundred and twenty geo- 
graphical miles, from east to west one hundred and sixty miles, and 
consequently its area was about 34,000 square miles ; making a small, 
indeed too small, a reduction for the irregularity of its outline. No 
European country was so advantageously situated ; on the eastern side, 
the ^Egean sea, studded with islands, brought it into close contact with 
Asia Minor and the Phoenician frontiers ; the voyage to Egypt was 
neither long nor difficult, though it afforded not so many resting-places 
to the mariners ; and from the west there was a short and easy pas- 
sage to Italy. The entire line of this extensive coast was indented 
with bays and harbors, offering every facility for navigation ; while the 
two great gulfs that divided Hel'las, or northern Greece, from the 
Peloponnesus, or southern Greece, must have, in the very earliest ages, 
forced naval affairs on the attention of the inhabitants. 

Nature herself has formed three great divisions of this very remark- 
able country. The Saronic and Corinthian gulfs sever the Pelopon- 
nesus from Hel'las ; and this latter is divided into two nearly equal 
portions, northern and southern, by the chain of Mount CE''ta, which 
traverses it obliquely, severing Thes'saly and Epirus from central 
Hel'las. 

Thies'saly, the largest of all the Grecian provinces, may be generally 
described as an extensive table-land, enclosed on three sides by the 
mountains, and by the ^gean sea, close to whose shores rise the lofty 
peaks of Os'sa and Olym'pus. Its principal, indeed almost its only river, 
is the Peneus, which rises in Mount Pin'dus, and flowing in an easterly 
direction, falls into the ^Egean sea. Thes'saly was ruined by its nat- 
ural wealth ; the inhabitants rioted in sensual enjoyments ; anarchy 
and tyranny followed each other in regular succession ; and thus Thes'- 
saly prepared for the yoke of a master, was the first to submit to the 
Persian invaders, and afterward to the Macedonian Philip. 

Epirus was, next to Thes'saly, the largest of the Grecian provinces ; 
but it was also the least cultivated. It was divided into two provinces ; 
Molos'sis, and Thesprotia. The interior of Epirus is traversed by wild 

6 



-ft2 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

and uncultivated mountains. The wildness of the country, and the 
rudeness of the inhabitants, have given occasion to the Greeks to rep- 
resent the rivers Ach'eron and Cocytus, which flow into the gulf of 
Acherusia, as rivers belonging to the infernal regions. Its oxen and 
horses were unrivalled ; and it was also celebrated for a large breed of 
dogs, called Molossin, whose ferocity is still remarked by the traveller. 

Central Greecc, or Hel'las, contained nine countries : 1, At'tica ; 
2, Meg'aris ; 3, Bceotia ; 4, Phocis ; 5, eastern Ldcris ; 6, western 
Locris ; 7, Doris ; 8, iEtolia ; 9, Acamania. 

At'tica is a headland extending in a southeasterly direction about 
sixty-three miles into the ^Egean sea. It is about twenty-five miles 
broad at its base, whence it gradually tapers toward a point, until it 
ends in the rocky promontory of Sunium [Cape Colonna), on the sum- 
mit of which stood a celebrated temple of Minerva. It was not a fer- 
tile country, never being able to produce sufficient com for the support 
of its inhabitants ; but it had rich silver mines in Mount Larium, ex- 
cellent marble quarries in Mount Pentel'icus, and the ranges of hills, by 
which it is intersected in every direction, produced abundance of ar- 
omatic plants, from which swarms of industrious bees formed the most 
celebrated honey. 

Mega^ris, the smallest of the Grecian territories, lay west of At^tica, 
close to the Corinthian isthmus. It capital was Meg'ara, a town of 
considerable strength. 

Bceotia was a large plain, almost wholly surrounded by mountains : 
it was divided by Cithae'ron from At'tica, a mountain celebrated by the 
poets for the mystic orgies of Bac'chus, the metamorphosis of Actae'on, 
the death of Pen^theus, and the exposure of OE'dipus. On the west 
were the chains of Pamas'sus and Hel'icon, sacred to the Muses, sep- 
arating it from Phocis ; and on the north it was divided from eastern 
Locris by a prolongation of the chain of Mount Cnemis. On the east 
was Mount Ptoiis, extending to the Euripus, a narrow strait that divides 
the island of Euboe'a from the mainland. The climate was cloudy, and 
the soil marshy, as might be conjectured from the position of the coun- 
try ; but it was a fertile and well-watered district, and the most densely 
populated in Greece. 

Phocis, a district of moderate size and imequal shape, extended from 
the mountain chains of CE'ta and Cnemis, southward to the Corinthian 
gulf. It contained several important mountain-passes between north- 
em and southern Greece, the chief of which, near the capital city 
Elateia, was early occupied by Philip in his second invasion of Hel'las. 
Mounts Hel'icon and Pamas^sus, and the fountains of Aganippe and 
Hippocrene, are names familiar to every reader of poetry ; and these, 
with the temple and oracle of Del'phi, render the soil of Phocis sacred. 
Del'phi {Castri) was situated on the south side of Mount Pamas'sus, 
overshadowed by its double peak ; and above the city was the mag- 
nificent temple of Apol'lo. Here, under the patronage of the god, were 
collected all the masterpieces of Grecian art in countless abundance, 
together with costly offerings from nations, cities, and kings. Here the 
Amphictyonic council promulgated the first maxims of the law of na- 
tions ; here the Pythian games, scarcely inferior to those of Olympia, 



GRECIAN STATES. €3 

exercised the Grecian youth in athletic contests ; while the poets, as- 
sembled round the Castalian fountain, chanted their rival odes in noble 
emulation. 

East LScris extends along the Euripus : it was inhabited by two 
tribes, the Opun'tii and Epicnemid'ii, deriving their names from Mounts 
O'pus and Cnemis. The most remarkable place in the province is the 
pass of Thermop'ylse, so memorable for the gallant stand made there by 
Leon'idas against the Persian myriads. 

Western LScris, separated by Phocis from the eastern province, 
joined the bay of Cor^inth ; its inhabitants were called Ozolae. 

The mountainous district of Doris, though a. small territory, was 
the parent of many powerfid states. The province was enclosed be- 
tween the southern ridge of CE'ta and the northern extremity of Mount 
Parnas'sus. 

JEtolia extended from Mount CE'ta to the Ionian sea, having the 
Locrian territory on the east, and the river Achelotis on the west. 

Acarndnia, the most western country of Hel'las, lay west of the 
river Acheloiis, from which it extended to the Ambracian gulf. It was 
very thickly covered with wood ; and the inhabitants remained barba- 
rians after other branches of the Hellenic race had become the in- 
structers of the world. 

Section II. — Geographical Outline of the Peloponnesus. 

Southern Greece, anciently called the A'pian land, was named 
the Peloponnesus in honor of Pelops, who is said to have introduced 
the arts of peace into that peninsula from Asia Minor. It consists of 
a moimtainous range in the centre, whence hills branch out in various 
directions, several of which extend to the sea. Its modem name, the 
Morea, is derived from its resemblance to a mulberry leaf, which that 
word signifies. It was divided into eight countries, 1, Arcadia; 
2, Laconia ; 3, Messenia ; 4, E'lis ; 5, Ar'golis ; 6, Achaia ; 7, Sicyonia; 
and 8, the Corinthian territory. 

Arcadia, so renowned in poetical traditions, occupied the central 
mountainous district of the Peloponnesus, nowhere bordering on the 
sea. It resembles Switzerland in appearance ; and this similarity may 
be extended to the character of the inhabitants, both being remarkable 
for their love of freedom and their love of money. Arcadia is sup- 
posed by many vnriters to have been the cradle of the Pelasgic race.; 
but though this is doubtfnl, it certainly was retained by that people long 
after the Hel'lenes had occupied every other part of Greece. 

Laconia occupied the southeastern division of the Peloponnesus : it 
was rugged and mountainous, but was nevertheless so densely inhabited, 
that it is said to have contained nearly a hundred towns and villages. 
The chief city, Spar'ta, on the river Eurotas, remained for many ages 
without walls or gates, its defence being intrusted to the valor of its 
citizens ; but fortifications were erected when it fell under the sway of 
despotic rulers. 

Messenia lay to the west of Laconia, and was more level and fruit- 
ful than that province. Mes'sene (Mauromati), the capital, was a 
strongly-fortified town ; and when the country was subjugated by Spar'- 



'84 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

ta, its citizens escaping to Sicily gave the name of their old metropolis 
to the principal town of the colony they formed, which it still retains 
with very slight alteration. 

Ar'golis was a foreland on the south side of the Saronic gulf, op- 
posite At'tica, and not unlike it in shape, extending southward from 
Arcadia fifty-four miles into the ^Egean sea, and terminating in the 
Scyllaean promontory. The chief chief city was Argos, on the river In'- 
achus, a stream that had disappeared even in ancient times. Durino- 
the reign of Perseus the seat of government was transferred to Mycenae, 
the celebrated city of Agamem'non ; but soon after the Trojan war it was 
besieged by the Argives, and levelled to the ground. 

E'lis, in the west of the Peloponnesus, was the holy land of Greece. 
It was safe from the din of arms ; and when bands of warriors traversed 
the sacred soil, they laid aside their weapons. It was subdivided into 
three districts : the northern, named E'lis Proper, from the chief city 
of the province. The central district, Pisatis, was named from the city 
of Pisa, in the neighborhood of which the Olympic games were cele- 
brated every five years. 

The maritime district occupying the northwestern portion of the 
Peloponnesus was originally called ^Egi'lus, or iEgialeia, either from 
some hero, or from its situation on the coast. Its inhabitants were 
afterward blended with a colony of lonians from Africa, when it took 
the name of Ionia ; but these being subsequently expelled by the 
Achaeans, it received and retained the denomination of Achma, by 
which it is best known in history. It was a narrow strip of country, 
watered by a multitude of mountain-streams, which descended from the 
lofty Arcadian ridges ; but it was not eminent either for fertility or pop- 
ulation. The inhabitants were a peaceful, industrious people, aspirin^ 
to neither eminence in war nor literature, but attached to liberty, and 
governed by wise laws. 

The territory of Sicyonia, frequently regarded as a part of Achaia, 
was remarkable only for the city of Sic'yon, the most ancient in Greece, 
having been founded more than two thousand years before the Chris- 
tian era. 

The Peloponnesus was connected with Hel'las by the Corinthian 
isthmus, having the Saronic gulf on the eastern side, and the Corinth- 
ian on the western. Several attempts were made to join these seas by 
a canal ; but the nature of the ground to be cut through presented insu- 
perable difficulties ; and hence " to cut the Corinthian isthmus" Avas a 
proverbial expression ibr aiming at impossibilities. On this narrow 
pass the Isthmian games were celebrated in honor of Neptune, near the 
national temple of that deity, which stood in the midst of a grove of 
fif -trees. Here also a stand has frequently been made in defence of 
the liberties of Greece ; the narrowness of the isthmus easily admit- 
ting of fortification. At the south of the isthmus stood the wealthy city 
of Corinth, anciently called Ephy're, more than four miles in extent : it 
was erected at the foot of a lofty hill, called the Ac'ro-Corin'thus, on 
which the citadel was built. This was the strongest fortress in Greece, 
and perhaps no other spot in the world aflforded so brilliant a prospect. 
The Corinthian territory was one of the smallest in Greece ; but com- 
merce, not dominion, secured the strength of Corinth, and trade render- 



GRECIAN STATES. 85 

«ed it rich and powerful ; like Venice, whose prosperity was never 
greater than when the republic possessed not a single square mile on 
the continent. 

Section III. — The Checian Islands in the JEgean and Mediterranean Seas. 

The Thracian islands occupy the north of the JEgean sea : the prin- 
cipal were, Thasos, Sam'othrace, and Im'brus. 

Opposite to Im'brus, on the Asiatic coast, at' the entrance of Helles- 
pont, was the island of Te*i'edos, remarkable for a temple dedicated to 
Apollo, under the name of Smin'theus. 

Southwest of Ten'edos was Lem'nos (S/alimene), dedicated to He- 
phaes'tus or Vulcan, because the poets asserted that Vulcan, when flung 
from heaven by Jupiter, had fallen in this island. South of these were 
Sciathus [Sciatica). Scop'elos [Scopelo), and Scyros [Skiro), where 
Achilles was concealed by Thetis. 

South of Ten'edos, and opposite the city of EpVesus, on the Asiatic 
coast, was Lesbos [Metelin). Further to the south was Chios (aScjo), 
whose wines were deemed the best in the ancient world. It also con- 
tained quaries of beautiful marble. 

The largest island in the ^Egean was Eubce''a [Egripo), separated from 
the Boeotian coast by a narrow strait called the Euripus, which is now 
choked up. 

In the Saronic gulf were the islands of Sal'amis and ^Egina. 

Southeast of Euboe'awere the Cyc'lades, a cluster of islands de- 
riving their name from their nearly forming a circle round the island 
of Delos, Orty'gia, or Delos, is celebrated in mythology as the birth- 
place of Apol'lo and Dian'a. 

The other remarkable islands in this group were An'dros ; Ceos ; 
Paros, celebrated for its white marble ; Melos ; Nax'os, sacred to Bac'- 
chus ; and Fos, said to have been the burial-place of Homer. 

East of the Cyc'lades, and close along the Asiatic coast, was another 
cluster of islands called the Spor'ades, from their being irregularly 
scattered over the sea. The chief of these were, Samos, sacred to 
Juno, and the birthplace of the philosopher Pythag'oras ; Pat'mos, 
where St, John wrote the Revelations ; Cos, the native country of the 
celebrated physician Hippocrates ; Car'pathus (Scarpan to), which gave 
name to the Carpathian sea ; and Rhodes. 

Crete (Candia), the largest of the Grecian islands except Euboea, 
lies at the entrance of the ^Egean. In ancient times it was celebrated 
for its hundred cities. Northeast of Crete is Cy'prus, the favorite 
island of Venus, whose Paphian bower is not yet forgotten in song, 
and whose loveliness has been celebrated by poets of every age and 
nation. 

Section IV. — The Ionian Islands. 

Corcy'ra, formerly called Drepand (Corfu), is celebrated by Ho- 
mer, under the name of Phaeacia, for its amazing riches and fertility. 
It was opposite that part of Epirus named Thesprotia, from which it 
was separated by a narrow strait called the Corcyrean. 



86 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

LeiiCtidia (Santa Maura), was originally a peninsula, but the isthmus 
that joined it to the mainland was cut through to facilitate navigation. 

The Echin'ades (Ciirzolari) were a small cluster of islands near the 
mouth of the river Acheloiis, of which the most celebrated was Du- 
lichium, part of the kingdom of Ulys'.3es. Near it was the little island 
of Ith'aca [Theaki), immortalized by Homer. 

Cephalonia, anciently called Scheria, was the largest of the western 
Grecian islands, and the least noted in history. 

South of this was Zacyn'thus [Zante), Avith a capital of the same 
name, celebrated for its fertile meads, its luxuriant woods, and its abun- 
dant fountains of bitumen. 

West of the Peloponnesus are the Stroph'ades (Strivoli), more an- 
ciently called PlotcB, because they were supposed to have been floating 
islands ; and south of them is the island of Sphacteria [Sphagias), 
which guards the entrance of Py'los [Navarino). 

South of the Peloponnesus is the island of Cyth'erea (Cerigo), sa- 
cred to Venus, and celebrated in ancient times for its fertility and 
beauty. 

Section V. — Social and Political Condition of Greece. 

It is useless to investigate the social condition of the Greeks in 
what are called the heroic ages, because we have no credible account 
of that period. But when the certain history of Greece commences, 
we find the country divided between two races, the Ionian and the Do- 
rian, distinguished from each other by striking characteristics, which 
were never wholly obliterated. We know, also, that two other races, 
the iEolian and Achaean, existed ; but they seem to have become in a 
great degree identified with one or other of the two former. 

The lonians were remarkable for their democratic spirit, and conse- 
quent hostility to hereditary privileges. They were vivacious, prone to 
excitement, easily induced to make important changes in their institu- 
tions, and proud of their countiy and themselves. Their love of refined 
enjojTnents made them diligent cultivators of the fine arts, but without 
being destitute of martial vigor. They were favorably disposed tow- 
ard commerce ; but, like too many other free states, they encumbered 
it with short-sighted restrictions, and they were cruel masters to their 
colonial dependancies. 

The Dorian race, on the contrary, was remarkable for the severe 
simplicity of its manners, and its strict adherence to ancient usages. 
It preferred an aristocratic form of government, and required age as 
a qualification for magistracy, because the old are usually opposed to 
innovation. They were ambitious of supremacy, and the chief object 
of their institutions was to maintain the warlike and almost savage spirit 
of the nation. Slavery in its worst form prevailed in every Dorian 
state ; and the slaves were almost deprived of hope — for the Dorian 
legislation was directed chiefly to fix every man m his hereditary con- 
dition. Commerce was discouraged on account of its tendency to 
change the ranks of society, and the fine arts aU but prohibited, be- 
cause they were supposed to lead to effeminacy. 

The differences between these two races is the chief characteristic 



GRECIAN STATES. 87 

of Grecian politics ; it runs, indeed, through the entire history, and 
was the principal cause of the deep-rooted hatred between Athens and 
Sparta. Next to this, the most marked feature in the political aspect 
of Greece is, that it contained as many free states as cities. At'tica, 
Meg'aris, and Laconia, were civic rather than territorial states ; but 
there are few of the other divisions of the country that were united 
under a single government. The cities of A'chaia, Arcadia, and 
Boeotia, were independent of each other, though the Acheean cities 
were united by a federative league ; and Thebes generally exercised a 
precarious dominion over the other cities of Boeotia. The supremacy 
of the principal state was called by the Greeks Hegem' ony ; it included 
the right of determining the foreign relations of the inferior states, and 
binding them to all wars in which the capital engaged, and all treaties 
of peace which it concluded ; but it did not allow of any interference 
in the internal administration of each government. This parcelling 
out of a small country, added to the frequent revolutions, facilitated 
by the narrow limits of each state, necessarily led to a more rapid de- 
velopment of political science in Greece than in any other country. 

Divided as the Greeks were, there were many circumstances that 
united the whole Hellenic race by a common bond of nationality. Of 
these the chief was unity of religion, connected with which were the 
national festivals and games, at which all the Hellenes, and none others, 
were allowed to take a share. If, as is commonly supposed, the 
Greeks derived the elements of their religion from Asia or Egypt, they 
soon made it so peculiarly their own, that it retained no features of its 
original source. All Asiatic deities are more or less of an elementary 
character ; that is, they symbolize some natural object, such as the 
sun, the earth, an important river ; or some power of nature, such as 
the creative, the preserving, and the destroying power. In many in- 
stances both were combined, and the visible object was associated with 
the latent power. On the other hand, the gods of Greece were human 
personages, possessing the forms and the attributes of men, though in a 
highly exalted degree. The paganism of Asia was consequently a re- 
ligion of fear ; for it was impossible to conceive deities of monstrous 
forms sympathizing with man : hence, also, the priesthood formed a pe- 
culiar caste ; for the mystery which veiled the god was necessarily 
extended to the mode in which he should be worshipped. 

Instead of this gloomy system, the Greeks had a religion of love ; 
they regarded their gods as a kind of personal friends, and hence their 
worship was cheerful and joyous. The priesthood was open to all ; 
the office was commonly filled for a limited time only, and was not 
deemed inconsistent with other occupations. There is no doubt that 
the Grecian religion received its peculiar form from the beautiful fic- 
tions of the poets, especially Homer and Hesiod ; for in all its features 
it is essentially poetical. We need scarcely dwell on the beneficial 
effects produced by this S5^stem on the fine arts, or its facilitating the 
progress of knowledge, by separating religion from philosophy. 

The oracles of Dodona and Del'phi, the temples of Olym'pia and 
Delos, were national ; they belonged to the whole Hellenic race. The 
responses of the oracles were more reverenced by the Dorian than the 
Ionian race, for the latter early emancipated itself from the trammels 



88 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

of superstition. The worship in all was voluntary, and the large gifts 
emulously sent to them were the spontaneous offers of patriotic affection. 
Del'phi was under the government of the Amphictyon'ic council ; but 
this body did not limit its attention to the government of the temple : 
by its influence over the oracle, it acquired no small share in the af- 
fairs of different states ; and it superintended the administration of the 
law of nations, even when the states represented in it were engaged 
in war. 

The great public games were the Olympian, the Pythian, the Ne- 
raean, and the Isthmian. Foreigners might be spectators at these 
games, but Hellenes alone could contend for the prize. This right be- 
longed to the colonies as well as to the states in the mother-country ; 
and, as it was deemed a privilege of the highest value, it preserved the 
unity even of the most distant branches of the Hellenic race. 

All the constitutions of the Grecian states were republican ; but they 
varied so much in the different cities, that hardly any two were alike. 
In general, however, it may be stated, that in all the most severe pub- 
lic and private labors were intrusted to slaves ; and in many, as 
Laconia, agriculture was managed by them exclusively. This degraded 
manufacturing industry, and led to an undue depression not only of ar- 
tisans and retailers, but even of master manufacturers. Foreign mer- 
chants were treated with unwise jealousy, and could never obtain the 
privileges of citizens. The right of coinage was reserved to the state ; 
but it was not until a very late period that the Greeks began to pay 
attention to finance. Little or no taxation was necessary while the 
citizens served as voluntary soldiers ; and the magistrates were re- 
warded with honor, not money. But when mercenary armies were 
employed, and ambassadors sent into distant lands, when the impor- 
tance of a navy induced cities to outbid each other in the pay of their 
sailors, heavy taxes became necessary, and these brought many of the 
cities into great pecimiary embarrassment. 

Another source of expense was the provision for public festivals and 
theatrical shows ; to which was added, in Athens and other places, the 
payment of the dicasts, or persons analogous to ourjuryiuen ; though, in- 
stead of their number being limited to twelve, they frequently amounted to 
several hundreds, and had no presiding judges. This was doubly injuri- 
ous ; the multitude of the dicasts not only entailed a heavy expense 
upon the state, but the sum paid being small, few save those of the 
lower classes attended, whose decisions were not unfrequently guided 
by prejudice and passion, instead of law and justice. 

The poetical nature of its religion, and the free constitution of its 
states, not only rendered Greece peculiarly favorable to the progress of 
literature, philosophy, and the fine arts, but gave these, in turn, a de- 
cided influence on the government. The tragic and lyric poets pro- 
duced their pieces in honor of the gods ; the comic poets at Athens 
discussed public affairs on the stage with a freedom, or rather licen- 
tiousness, which the wildest excesses of the modern press have never 
equalled ; and the influence of the orators at Athens rendered them the 
leaders of the state. 

The seeds of dissolution were thickly sown in the social system of 
the Greeks. The rivalry between the Dorian and Ionian races ; the 



GRECIAN STATES. 89 

turbulence and sedition natural to small republics ; and the gradual de- 
cline of religion, followed by a consequent corruption of morals — 
rendered the duration of the constitution as brief as it was glorious. 

Section VI. — The traditional History of Greece from the earliest Ages to the 
Coniniencemenl of the Trojan War. 

FROM AN UNKNOWN PERIOD TO ABOUT 1200 B. C. 

Sacred history, confirmed by uniform tradition, informs us that 
Thrace, Macedon, and Greece, were peopled at an earlier period than 
the other portions of the western world. The first inhabitants were 
tribes of hunters and shepherds, whose earliest approaches to civiliza- 
tion were associations for mutual defence against robber-tribes, and the 
Phoenician corsairs that swept the coast of the iEgean to kidnap slaves. 
The Pelas'gi were the first tribe that acquired supremacy in Greece : 
they were probably of Asiatic origin ; and the first place in which they 
appear to have made a permanent settlement was the Peloponnesus, 
where they erected Sic'yon (*b. c. 2000), and Argos (*b. c. 1800). 
In'achus was regarded by the Pelas'gi as their founder : he was prob- 
ably contemporary with Abraham; but nothing certain is known of his 
history. 

To the Pelas'gi are attributed the remains of those most ancient 
monuments generally called Cyclopian. They are usually composed 
of enormous rude masses piled upon one another, with small stones 
fitted in between the intervals to complete the work. From the Pel- 
oponnesus the Pelas'gi extended themselves northward to Attica, 
BoBOtia, and Thessaly, which they are said to have entered under three 
leaders, Achae'us, Phthius, and Pelas'gus ; though by these names we 
ought probably to understand separate tribes rather than individuals. 
Here they learned to apply themselves to agriculture, and continued to 
flourish for nearly two centuries. (From *b. c. 1700 to *b. c. 1500.) 

The Hellenes, a more mild and humane race, first appeared on 
Mount Parnas'sus, in Phocis, under Deucalion, whom they venerated 
as their founder (*b. c. 1433). Being driven thence by a flood, they 
migrated into Thessaly, and expelled the Pelas'gi from that territory. 
From this time forward the Hellenes rapidly increased, and extended 
their dominion over the greater part of Greece, dispossessing the more 
ancient race, which only retained the mountainous parts of Arcadia and 
the land of Dodona. Numbers of the Pelas'gi emigrated to Italy, 
Crete, and some of the other islands. 

The Hellenic race was subdivided into four great branches, the 
.^olians, lonians, Dorians, and Achaeans, which, in the historic age of 
Greece, were characterized by many strong and marked peculiarities 
of dialect, customs, and political government ; we may perhaps add, 
religious, or at least, heroic traditions, only that these appear to be con- 
nected rather with the localities in which they settled than with the 
stock from which they sprung. There were many smaller ramifications 
of the Hellenic race ; but all united themselves to one or other of the 
four great tribes, whose names are derived from Deucalion's immediate 
posterity. It is the common attribute of ancient traditions to describe 
the achievements of a tribe or army as personal exploits of the leader ; 



9ft ANCIENT HISTORY. 

and hence we find the history of the tribes and their migrations inter- 
woven with the personal history of Deucalion's descendants. 

Hel'len, the son of Deucalion, gave his name to the whole Hellenic 
race : he had three sons, ^Eolus, Dorus, and Xiithus ; of whom the 
first settled in the district of Thessaly called Phthiotis, and became 
the founder of the ^Eolian tribe ; the second settled in Estiaeotis, and 
there established the Dorian tribe ; the third, expelled by his brethren, 
migrated to Athens, where he married Creiisa, the daughter of king 
Erec'theus, by whom he had two sons, I'on and Achseus. After the 
death of Erec'theus, Xiithus was forced to remove to ^gialeia (the 
province of the Peloponnesus afterward called Achaia), where he died. 
His son I'on, the founder of the Ionian race, became general of the 
Athenian forces, and lord of ^Egialeia, to which he gave the name of 
Ionia. Achaeus, the founder of the Achaean race, obtained possession 
of the greater part of the Peloponnesus, especially Argolis and Laconia. 

The iEolian tribe spread itself over western Greece, Acamania, 
iEtolia, Phocis, Locris, E'lis in the Peloponnesus, and the western 
islands. The Dorians, driven from Estiaeotis by the Perrhaebians, 
spread themselves over Macedonia and Crete ; a part of them subse- 
quently returning, crossed Mount (E'ta, and settled in Doris on the 
Doric Tetrap'olis, where they remained until they migrated into the 
Peloponnesus under the guidance of the Heracleidae ; an important rev- 
olution, which will soon engage our attention. 

The lonians inhabited At'tica and jEgialeia ; but they were expelled 
from the latter by the Achaeans at the time of the great Dorian migra- 
tion, and the name of the country changed to Achaia. The Achaeans 
retained Argolis and Laconia until they were expelled by the Dorians, 
when, as we have just said, they established themselves in ^Egialeia. 

From the middle of the sixteenth to the middle of the fourteenth cen- 
tury before Christ, several colonies from Egypt, Phoenicia, and Phry'- 
gia, settled in different parts of Greece, bringing with them the im- 
provements in the arts and sciences that had been made in their re- 
spective countries, and thus greatly advancing the progress of civiliza- 
tion in Greece. The chief of these colonies were : — 

An Egyptian colony was led from Sais in the Del'ta to At'tica by 
Cecrops (*b. c. 1550) : he is said to have introduced the institution of 
marriage and the first elements of civilization. 

A second colony, from Lower Egypt, was led by Danaus, who fled 
from a brother's enmity, and settled in Ar'gos (*b. c. 1500). The fa- 
ble of his fifty daughters is well known ; but its historical foundation 
is altogether uncertain. 

A Phoenician colony, under Cad'mus, settled in Bceotia, and foimded 
Thebes, nearly at the same time that Cecrops established himself at 
At'tica. He was the first who introduced the use of letters into Greece. 

Pelops led a colony from Phry'gia, the northwestern kingdom of 
Asia Minor, into the Peloponnesus (*b. c. 1400) : he did not acquire 
so large a kingdom as ^he settlers mentioned before ; but his descend- 
ants, by intermarriages with the royal families of Ar'gos and Lacedae'- 
mon, acquired such paramount influence, that they became supreme 
over the peninsula, and gave it the name of their great ancestor. 

Several circumstances, however, impeded the progress of civilization. 
The coasts of Greece were temptingly exposed to the Phoenicians, 



GRECIAN STATES. 91 

Carians, and islanders of the iEgean, who at first made the art of nav- 
igation subservient to piracy rather than commerce ; and the Thracians, 
the Amazons, and other barbarous tribes from the north, made frequent 
incursions into the exposed Hellenic provinces. To resist these in- 
cursions the celebrated Amphictyonic league was founded by Amphic- 
tyon, a descendant of Deucalion : the federation was constantly re- 
ceiving fresh accessions, until it included the greater part of the Gre- 
cian states ; deputies from which met alternately at Del'phi and Ther- 
mop'ylae. 

Like Europe in the middle ages, Greece at this period was infested 
by bands of robbers, who deemed plunder an honorable profession, and 
some of whom exercised the most atrocious cruelties on the hapless 
passengers. The adventurers who acquired most fame by their ex- 
ertions in destroying the freebooters were Perseus, Her^cules, Beller'- 
ophon, Theseus, and the Dioskouroi Cas''tor, and Pol'lux, whose ro- 
mantic histories form a very large portion of Grecian mythology. 

The most celebrated events in this period of uncertain history are, 
the Argonautic expedition, the two Theban wars, the siege of Troy, 
the return of the Heracleidae, and the migration of the Ionian and 
jEolian colonies to Asia Minor. It is not easy to discover the real 
nature and objects of the Argonautic expedition : it appears certain 
that in the thirteenth century before the Christian era, a Thessalian 
prince, named Jason, collected the young chivalry of Greece, and sailed 
on an expedition, partly commercial and partly piratical, in a ship 
named Argo, to the eastern shores of the Euxene sea. The Argonauts 
fought, conquered, and plundered ; they planted a colony in CoFchis, 
and their chief brought a princess of that country home to Thes^ly. 
But though impenetrable da.rkness veils the nature of this expedition, 
there can be no doubt of its results. From the era of the Argonauts, 
we may discover among the Greeks not only a more daring and more 
enlarged spirit of enterprise, but a more decisive and rapid progress 
toward civilization and humanity. 

The worship of Diony'sus or Bac'chus was established at Thebes 
by Cad'mus ; and the Phoenician mythology is full of the miseries and 
crimes that debased and ruined the family of Cad'mus. CE^'dipus, the 
most remarkable of his descendants, having been removed from the 
throne for an involuntary series of crimes, his sons, Eteoc'les and 
Polynices, seized the kingdom, and agreed to reign in turn. Eteoc'les 
refused to perform the agreement ; and Polynices being joined by six 
of the most eminent generals in Greece, commenced the memorable 
war of " the Seven against Thebes" (*b. c. 1225). The result was fa- 
tal to the allies ; Eteoc'les and Polynices fell by mutual wounds ; and 
Creon, who succeeded to the Theban throne, routed the confederate 
forces, five of whose leaders were left dead on the field. After the lapse 
of about ten years, the sons of the allied princes, called the Epig'oni, 
marched against Thebes to avenge the death of their fathers. After a 
sanguinary conflict, the Thebans were routed with great slaughter, 
their leader slain, and their city captured. In consequence of these 
wars the Thebans were long odious to the rest of the Greeks, and they re- 
paid this hatred by infidelity to the Hellenic cause during the Persian 



92 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

When the family of Pelops became powerful in southern Greece, they 
appear to have attempted to retaliate the injuries that had driven their 
ancestors into exile. In one of their plundering expeditions to the 
Phrygian coast, a young prince named Podar'kes was carried away cap- 
tive, and detained until a large ransom had been paid for his liberalion. 
From this circumstance, he was afterward named Priam, or " the pur- 
chased." At a subsequent period, Priam having become king of Troy, 
sent his son Paris, or Alexan'der, as an ambassador to the Peloponnesian 
princes, probably to negotiate a peace. He seduced HeFen, the beau- 
tiful wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta, and conveyed her, with some 
valuable treasures, to Troy. The injured husband applied to his 
countrymen for redress. A large army, raised by the confederate 
kings, was placed under the command of Agamemnon, the brother of 
Menelaus. 

Troy was at this time the capital of a powerful kingdom, possessing 
numerous allies and subjects. It mustered, according to Homer, an 
army of fifty thousand men ; its walls could defy the imperfect machines 
then used in sieges, and its citadel was impregnable. Against this 
powerful kingdom the Greek princes undertook their expedition, with 
an army of about one hundred thousand men, conveyed in eleven hun- 
dred and eighty-six ships. These vessels were of very rude construc- 
tion, having only halfdecks, and stones instead of anchors ; the soldiers 
acted as rowers, and when they reached their destination the ships were 
hauled upon land. 

The war was protracted ten years, during which several battles were 
fought imder the walls of Troy ; and we find that the military weapons 
used were in every respect similar to those employed by the ancient 
Egyptians. . The city was finally taken by stratagem, and razed to the 
ground ; most of the inhabitants were slain or taken, and the rest were 
forced to become exiles in distant lands. The victors, however, suffer- 
ed nearly as much as the vanquished. During the protracted absence 
of the chiefs, usurpers had seized many of their thrones, aided by faith- 
less wives and the rising ambition of young men. These circumstances 
necessarily led to fierce wars and intestine commotions, which greatly 
retarded the progress of Grecian civilization. 

Section VII. — Grecian History from the Trojan War to the Establishment 
of the Greek Colonies in Asia. 

FROM *B. c. 1183 TO B. c. 994. 

We have seen how the posterity of Pelops, by various means, ob- 
tained possession of the entire Peloponnesus, to the exclusion of the 
more ancient dynasties. Their rivals were the Perseidse, who claimed, 
through their ancestor Per'seus, the honors of a divine descent, and 
who could boast of having in their family such heroes as Per'seus, 
Beller'ophon, and Her'cules. From the last-named hero a powerful 
branch of the Perseid family received the name of the Heracleldae : 
they were persecuted by the Pelop'id sovereigns, and driven into exile. 
After having been hospitably received by the Athenians, they retired to 
the movmtainous district of Doris, and became masters of that wild and 



GRECIAN STATES. 93 

barren province. The Dorian mountains were ill-calculated to satisfy 
men whose ancestors had inherited the fertile plains of the Peloponnesus. 
When the consequences of the Trojan war filled Greece with confusion, 
the Heracleidse were encouraged to make an efiort to regain their 
ancient rights ; twice they attempted to break through the Corinthian 
isthmus, but were each time repulsed with considerable loss. Warned 
by these misfortunes, they abandoned the design of entering the 
Peloponnesus by land, and resolved to try their fortune in a naval ex- 
pedition. 

Their rendezvous was Naupac'tus {Lepanto), on the Corinthian gulf, 
where they were joined by a body of iEtolians, and by several of the 
Dorian tribes. By secret intrigues, a party was gained in Lacedae'- 
mon. A favorable gale, in the meantime, wafted their armament 
to the eastern coast of the Peloponnesus. Laconia was betrayed 
to the invaders ; Ar'golis, Messenia, E'lis, and Corinth, submitted to 
their authority ; tlie mountainous districts of Arcadia, and the coast 
province, iEgialeia (afterward Achaia), were the only parts of the pen- 
insula that remained unsubdued. The revolution was effected with lit- 
tle bloodshed ; but not without great oppression of the ancient inhab- 
itants, many of whom emigrated, while those who remamed were re- 
duced to slavery. 

The associated victors divided the conquered provinces among them- 
selves by lot. Aristodemus, who obtained Laconia, happening to die, 
the kingdom vi^as secured for his twin children, Eurys'thenes and 
Procles, and from that time forth Sparta was governed by t^vo kings. 
The commander of the Pelop'id forces at the isthmus, instead of attempt- 
ing to recover his kindgom, invaded ^Egialeia, expelled the lonians, 
and gave that province the name of Achaia, which it ever after retained 
. (b. c. 11 04). Many of the fugitives sought refuge in At'tica, where they 
were hospitably entertained by the Athenians, who were alarmed by the 
success and ambition of the Dorians. A still greater rmmber passed 
over into Asia Minor, and founded the colonies of Ionia, iEolia, and 
Caria. " * 

The jealousy of the Athenians was soon proved to be derived from 
reasonable fears. In the reig-nof Codrus the Dorians passed the bound- 
aries of At'tica, and seized the territory of Meg'ara, on the northern 
coast of the Saronic gulf. A cruel war ensued ; Codrus in vain at- 
tempted to drive the intruders from their stronghold : at length, hearing 
that a superstitious rumor prevailed among them, that they would be 
successful as long as they refrained from injuring the Athenian king, 
he entered their camp in disguise, provoked a quarrel with a Dorian 
soldier, and suffered himself to be slain. On recognising the body, the 
superstitious Peloponnesians, despairing of success, abandoned their 
hostilities ; and the Athenians, out of respect for his memory, declared 
that none of the human race was worthy to succeed Codrus, and there- 
fore abolished royalty altogether (b. c. 1068). 

Two of the Pelop'idae, having Unsuccessfully traversed the northern part 
of Greece in search of new settlements, finally crossed the Hellespont 
eighty-eight years after the taking of Troy, and established themselves 
along the coast of the ancient kingdom of Priam. Their colonies grad- 
ually extended from the peninsula of Cyzicus on the Propontis to the 



94 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

mouth of the river Her'mus, which delightful country, together with the 
island of Les'bos, received the name of iEolia. The younger sons of 
Codrus, dissatisfied with the abolition of royalty, collected a numerous 
band of Athenians and Ionian exiles, with which they crossed the sea, 
and established themselves along the coast from the river Her'mus to 
the promontory of Posideion, expelling the ancient inhabitants. The 
islands of Chios and Samos were subsequently seized, and all these 
countries were united by the common name of Ionia, or, as it was some- 
times called, the Pan-Ionian confederacy. 

The renewal of hostilities between the Athenians and Dorians led to 
the establishment of a tliird series of Greek colonies in Asia (b. c. 994). 
The Dorians having been driven from their stronghold in Meg'ara, were 
ashamed to return to the Peloponnesus ; part of them sailed to the islands 
of Crete and Rhodes, already peopled by Doric tribes ; the rest settled 
in the peninsula of Caria, to which, in honor of their mother-country, 
they gave the name of Doris. 

At a later period, the tide of emigration turned toward the west, and 
colonies were established in Sicily, and on the coasts of southern Italy. 
The Greeks seldom made settlements in the interior of the country ; for 
most of their colonies were designed to extend commerce rather than 
conquests. Most of these colonies were independent states, and their 
institutions were generally improvements 6n those of the parent-coimtry. 
Owing to their freedom and their superiority to their neighbors in the 
arts of civilized life, many of the colonies not only equalled but greatly 
surpassed their parent states in wealth and power. 



GRECIAN STATES AND COLONIES. 95 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE HISTORY OF 

THE GRECIAN STATES AND COLONIES, 

BEFORE THE PERSIAN WAR. 

Section I. — Topography of Sparta. 

The city of Spar'ta, called also Lacedae'mon, a name properly be- 
longing to the suburbs, was built on a series of hills, whose outlines are 
varied and romantic, along the right bank of the Eurotas, within sight 
of the chain of Mount Taygetum. We have already mentioned, that it 
was not originally surrounded by walls ; but the highest of its eminences 
served as a citadel, and round this hill were ranged five towns, sep- 
arated by considerable intervals, occupied by the five Spartan tribes. 
The great square or forum, in which the principal streets of these towns 
terminated, was embellished with temples and statues : it contained also 
the edifices in which the senate, the ephori, and other bodies of Spartan 
magistrates, were accustomed to assemble : there was besides a splen- 
did portico, erected by the Spartans from their share of the spoils taken 
at the battle of Platae'a, where the Persians were finally overthrown. 
Instead of being supported by pillars, the roof rested on gigantic statues, 
representing Persians habited in flowing robes. 

On the highest of the eminences stood a temple of Miner'va, which, 
as well as the grove that surrounded it, had the privileges of an asylum. 
It was built of brass, as that at Delphi had formerly been. 

The greater part of these edifices had no pretensions to architectural 
beauty ; they were of rude workmanship, and destitute of ornament. 
Private houses were small and unadorned ; for the Spartans spent the 
greater part of their time in porticoes and public halls. On the south 
side of the city was the Hippodromos, or course for horse and foot 
races ; and at a little distance from that, the Platanis'tse, or place of ex- 
ercise for youth, shaded by beautiful palm-trees. 

Section II. — Legislation of Lycurgus, and Messenian Wars. 

FROM *B. c. 880 TO B. c. 500. 

The Dorian conquerors of Laconia formed themselves into a perma- 
nent ruling caste, and reduced the greater part of the inhabitants of the 
country to a state of vassalage, or rather perfect slavery. During two 
centuries the Spartans were engaged in tedious wars with the Argives, 



96 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

and their slate was agitated by domestic broils, resulting from the un- 
equal division of property, the ambition of rival nobles, and the dimin- 
ished power of the kings. At length, Lycur'gus having obtained the 
supreme authority, as a guardian of his nephew Charilaus, directed his 
attention to establishing a system of law, which might prevent the re- 
currence of such disorders. ■ The legislation of Lycur'gus was not a 
written code ; and many things of later origin, have been erroneously at- 
tributed to this lawgiver. His great object, was to insure the continu- 
ance of the Spartans as a dominant military caste, by perpetuating a 
race of athletic and warlike man ; and hence his laws referred rather to 
domestic life and physical education than to the constitution of the state, 
or the form of its government. 

He continued the relation of caste between the Spartans and Laconi- 
ans, and the double line of kings as leaders in war and first magistrates 
in peace. He is said to have instituted the gerusia, or senate, of 
which no one could be a member who had not passed the age of sixty ; 
but it is uncertain whether he founded the college of the five eph'ori, or 
inspectors, chosen annually, with powers somewhat similar to those of 
the Roman tribunes ; he certainly did not invest them with the power 
they assumed in later ages. There were also popular assemblies ; but 
they could originate no law, nor make any alteration in the resolutions 
submitted to them by the kings and the senate, their power being con- 
fined to a simple approbation or rejection. 

The chief regulations in private life were, the equal distribution of 
lands, the removal of every species of luxury, the arrangement of do- 
mestic relations so as to insure a race of hardy citizens, and the com- 
plete establishment of slavery. Thus a military commonwealth was 
established in Greece, which for ever banished a chance of tranquillity ; 
since the Spartan citizens must have been impelled to war by the rest- 
lessness common to man, when all the occupations of household life 
and of agriculture were intrusted to the care of the Helots, as their 
slaves were usually called. The strength of the Spartan army lay in 
its heavy-armed infantry ; they usually fought in a phalanx or close col- 
umn, and were remarkable for the skill and rapidity of their evolutions. 
They marched to the charge with a measured regular step, and never 
broke their ranks either to plunder or pursue a flying enemy. After 
battle, every soldier was obliged to produce his shield, as a proof that 
he had behaved bravely and steadily. 

The first great war in which the Spartans engaged was with their 
neighbors the Messenians (b. c. 743). After a long series of sanguinary 
engagements, whose horrors were aggravated by cruel superstitions, the 
■ Messenians were totally subdued, and forced to give up half the 
revenue of their lands to the Spartans (b. c. 722). During this war, 
the Spartan army, consisting of the greater part of the citizens who had 
attained the military age, bound themselves by a voluntary oath not to 
return home until they had subdued their enemies. The war being pro- 
tracted beyond expectation, the senate, fearing that the Spartan race 
would become extinct, invited the young men, who had not taken the 
obligation, to return home, and permitted them to have promiscuous in- 
tercourse with the women. The offspring of these irregular connex- 
ions were called Parthen'iae ; they had nf> certain father, nor were they, 



ATHENS. 97 

thougli citizens of Sparta, entitled to any inheritance. Finding them- 
selves despised by the other Spartans, they entered into a conspiracy 
with the Helots, which was detected at the moment it was about to ex- 
plode. The senate, however, was afraid to punish so powerful a body ; 
sufficient means of transport, arms, and munitions, were supplied to the 
Parthen'iae, who, under the guidance of Phalan'tus, proceeded to south- 
ern Italy, where they founded the city of Taren'tum. 

The oppression of the Spartans drove the Messenians to revolt, and 
they found a worthy leader in Aristom'enes, a youth descended from the 
ancient line of Messenian kings. So rapid and decisive were his suc- 
cesses, that the Spartans sought the advice of the oracle, and received 
the mortifying response, that they should solicit a general from the 
Athenians. Ambassadors were sent to urge this request; and the 
Athenians sent back the poet Tyrtae'us, who had, indeed, borne arms, 
but was never distinguished as a warrior. His patriotic odes roused the 
spirit of the Spartan soldiers, and they renewed the war with more zeal 
and greater success than ever. Notwithstanding these advantages 
acquired by the Spartans, Aristom'enes protracted the defence of his 
country more than eleven years ; but at length Messene was taken by 
treachery, aud its heroic defenders forced to seek refuge in Arcadia. 
Here Aristom'enes planned an expedition against Sparta, whose citi- 
zens were engaged in plundering Messenia ; but he was betrayed by 
the Arcadian monarch, and his last plan for the redemption of his coun- 
try frustrated (b. c. 671). 

Sparta had conquered, but the struggle had greatly weakened the 
strength of the state ; and in her subsequent wars with the Tegeans and 
■ Argives, she was far from maintaining her ancient superiority in arms. 
The important island of Cythera was, however, wrested from the Ar- 
gives, about B. c. 550. 

Section III. — Topography of Athens. 

Athens was situated in a plain, which on the southwest, extended 
for about four miles toward the sea and the harbors, but on the other 
side was enclosed by mountains. Several rocky hills arose in the plain 
itself; the largest and highest of which was fortified by Cecrops as the 
citadel, or Acropolis, and was sometimes called Cecropia. Around this 
the city was built, most of the buildings, however, spreading toward the 
sea. The summit of the hill was nearly level for a space of about 
eight hundred feet in length and four hundred in breadth ; as if Nature 
herself had prepared a fit locality for those masterpieces of architec- 
ture which announced at a distance the splendor of Athens. The only 
road that led to the Acrop'olis passed through the Propyla;a, a magnificent 
gateway adorned with two wings, and two temples full of the finest 
pieces of sculpture and painting. It was erected under the administra- 
tion of Per'icles, by the architect Mnesic'les, and was decorated with 
admirable sculptures of Phid'ias. Through these splendid portals was 
an ascent by marble steps to the summit of the hill, on which were 
erected the temples of the guardian deities of Athens. On the left was 
the temple of Pallas Athene {Minerva), the protectress of cities, con- 
taining a column fabled to have fallen from heaven, and an olive-tree 

7 



98 ANCIENT HISTORY- 

believed to have sprung spontaneously from the earth at the mandate of 
the goddess. Beyond this was a temple of Neptune. On the right 
side arose the Par'thenon, sacred to the virgin Minerva, the glory of 
Athens, the noblest triumph of Grecian architecture. From whatever 
quarter the traveller arrived, whether by land or sea, the first thing he 
saw was the Par'thenon rearing up its lofty head above the city and 
the citadel. 

At the foot of the Acrop'olis, on one side, was the Odeum, or music- 
hall, and the Theatre of Bacchus, where the tragic contests were cel- 
ebrated on the festival of that deity ; on the other side was the Pry- 
taneum, where the chief magistrates and most meritorious citizens were 
honorably entertained at a table furnished at the public expense. 

A small valley called Ccele {the hollow) lay between the Acrorp^olis 
and the hill on which the court of Areop'agus held its sessions ; and it 
also separated the Areop'agus from the Pnyx, a small rocky hill on which 
the general assemblies of the people were held. It was remarkable 
only for the meanness and simplicity of its furniture, which formed a 
striking contrast to the grandeur of the neighboring buildings, Herfe 
the spot from which the eminent orators addressed the people may still 
be seen : for it is imperishable, being cut in the natural rock, and it has 
been recently cleared from rubbish, as well as the four steps by which 
it was ascended. 

Beyond the Pnyx lay the Ceramicus, or pottery-ground, containing 
the market-place. This was a large square, surrounded on all sides 
with statues and public buildings ; at the south was the senate-house, 
and the statues of the Epon^ymi, ten heroes from whom the tribes of 
Athens received their respective names. At the east were erected two 
splendid stoai, or porticoes ; that of the Her'mas, or statues of Mercury, 
on which were inscribed the names of the citizens, allies^ and slaves, 
who had distinguished themselves in the Persian Avar ; and that called 
Poecile, ornamented with many splendid paintings, particularly one 
representing Miltiades at the battle of Marathon. Under this stoa the 
philosopher Zeno used to lecture his pupils, whence his followers are 
called Stoics. 

There were three principal gymnasia, or places of public exercise, near 
the city, where philosophers and rhetoricians delivered their lectures. 
The most celebrated of these was the Academy, deriving its name from 
having been the country-seat of the wealthy Academus, Avho spent the 
greater part of a large fortune in ornamenting this delightful spot. 
Here Plato delivered his eloquent lectures, and hence his followers are 
called Academics. The Lyceum, on the opposite side of the city, near 
the Ilys'sus, was chosen by Aristotle for his school after his return 
from Macedon, the Academy having been pre-occupied by Xen'ocrates, 
He generally instructed his pupils while walking about the groves and 
avenues of this highly-cultivated place, and on this account his followers 
were called Peripatetics. Cynosar'ges was about a mile from the 
Lyceum, and was the residence of Antis^thenes, the founder of the 
Cynic sect. 

The whole coimtry round Athens, particularly the long road to the 
Peirae'us, was ornamented with monuments of all kinds, especially with 
tombs of great poets, statesmen, and warriors. This road was enclosed 



ATHENS. 99 

by a double wall, called the northern and southern, erected under the 
administration of Themis'tocles : it was nearly five miles in length on 
both sides, and enclosed the two harbors Peirae'us and PhaFereus. It 
was rather more than eighty feet high, built entirely of freestone, and 
so broad that two baggage-wagons could pass each other. The Pei- 
rae'us and Phal'ereus, but especially the former, might be regarded as 
little cities, with public squares, temples, market-places, &c. ; and the 
commercial crowd that enliven the quays gave the chief harbor a more 
animated appearance than Athens itself. The Munychian port lay east 
of Athens, and, like the others, was formed naturally by the bays of the 
coast. It was a place of considerable natural strength, and was gar- 
risoned by the Lacedaemonians after they had subdued Athens. 

Section IV. — The History of Athens to the Beginning of the Persian War. 

FROM *B. C. 1300 TO B. C. 500. 

The political history of Athens begins properly with the reign of 
Theseus, who succeeded his father ^geus about b. c. 1300. Certain 
institutions, such as the court of Areop'agus, and the division of the 
people into eupat'ridae [nobles), georgi [husbandmen), and demiur'gi [me- 
chanics), are so manifestly derived from the Egyptian system of caste, 
that we may without hesitation assign them to Cecrops. Theseus, 
however, deserves to be regarded as the founder of the state, since, in- 
stead of the four independent districts, or demoi, into which Attica was 
divided, he established one body politic, and made Athens the seat of 
government. Among his successors, the most remarkable were Mnes^- 
theus, who fell before Troy, and Codrus, whose generous devotion, as 
has been already related, led to the total abolition of royalty. After 
the abolition of royalty (b. c. 1068), thirteen archons of his family ruled 
in succession, differing from kings only in being accountable for their 
administration. The first was Medon, the last Alcmaeon ; after his 
death (b. c. 752), archons were chosen every ten years from the family 
of Codrus. There were seven of these, the last of whom ceased to 
rule B. c. 682. Nine annual archons were then appointed by the pow- 
erful class of nobility, consisting not only of the descendants of such 
foreign princes as had taken refuge in Athens, but of those Athenian 
families which time and accident had raised to opulence and distinc- 
tion. The powers of these magistrates were not equal ; their rank and 
offices were so arranged, that the prerogatives of the former kings and 
the preceding archons were divided among the first three of the nine. 
Nothing was gained by the great body of the people during these rev- 
olutions. The equestrian order, so called from their fighting on horse- 
back, enjoyed all authority, religious, civil, and military. The Athenian 
populace were reduced to a condition of miserable servitude ; the lives 
and fortunes of individuals were left at the discretion of magistrates, 
who were too much disposed to decide according to party prejudices 
or their own private interests. 

In this confusion, Draco was chosen to prepare a code of laws (b. c. 
622). He was a man of unswerving integrity, but of unexampled severity. 
His laws bore the impress of his character ; the punishment of death 
was denounced against all crimes, small as well as great ; and this in- 



100 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

discriminate cruelty rendered the whole code inoperative. Human na- 
ture revolted against such legal butchery ; and Draco, to avoid the pub- 
lic indignation, fled to ^gina, where he died an exile. 

This ineffectual effort only augmented the divisions of the state ; the 
excesses of the aristocratic factions produced the most violent indigna- 
tion. The state was in fact reduced to perfect anarchy. To remedy 
these disorders, Solon, who had already won the confidence of his 
countrymen by planning and accomplishing an enterprise for the re- 
covery of Sal'amis, was unanimously raised to the dignity of first 
magistrate, legislator, and sovereign arbiter (b. c. 594). He was em- 
inently qualified for this important station. Descended from the 
ancient kings of Athens, he applied himself in early life to commercial 
pursuits, and having secured a competency by honorable industry, he 
travelled to distant lands in search of knowledge. Such was his suc- 
cess, that he was reckoned the chief of the sages commonly called the 
Seven Wise Men of Greece, who in his age laid the foundation of 
Grecian philosophy. 

The chief object of Solon's legislation was to restrain the excessive 
power of the aristocracy, without, however, introducing a pure democ- 
racy. He abolished all the laws of Draco, except those against mur- 
der. The state of debtors calling loudly for relief, he made an equita- 
ble adjustment of the claims of creditors ; but at the same time concil- 
iated capitalists by raising the value of money. He abolished slavery 
and imprisonment for debt, which had led to great abuses and cruelties. 

Without abolishing the ancient local divisions he arranged the citizens 
in four classes, according to their property, measured in agricultural 
produce. 1 . The first class were the pentacos'i-medim'ni, whose annual 
income exceeded five hundred bushels (medim'ni ; 2, the knights (hip- 
peis), Avhose revenue was equal to four hundred ; 3, the zeugitse, Avho 
had three hundred ; and 4, the thetes, whose yearly revenue fell short 
of that sum. Citizens of all classes had a right of voting at the popular 
assemblies and in the courts of judicature ; but magisterial offices were 
limited to the first three classes. The archonship was left unaltered ; 
but it was ordained that none of these magistrates should hold military 
command during his year of office. A council of four hundred was 
chosen from the first three classes, possessing senatorial authority : the 
members were selected by lot ; but they were obliged to undergo a very 
strict examination into their past lives and characters before they were 
permitted to enter upon office. The archons were bound to consult the 
council in every important public matter ; and no subject could be dis- 
cussed in the general assembly of the people which had not previously 
received the sanction of the four hundred. 

The popular assemblies consisted of all the four classes, and usually 
met on the rocky hill called the Pnyx, described in the proceeding sec- 
tion. They had the right of confirming or rejecting new laws, of elect- 
ing the magistrates, of discussing all pulilic affairs referred to them by 
the council, and of judging in all state trials. 

According to Solon's plan, the court of Areop'agus should have been 
the chief pillar of the Athenian constitution. Before his time it was a 
mere engine of aristocratic oppression ; but Solon modified its constitu- 
tion, and enlarged its powers. It was composed of persons who had 



ATHENS. 101 

lield the office of archon, and was made the supreme tribunal in all 
capital cases. It was likewise intrusted with the superintendence of 
morals, with the censorship upon the conduct of the archons at the ex- 
piration of their office ; and it had besides the privilege of amending or 
rescinding the measures that had passed the general assemblies of the 
people. 

Soon after this constitution was established, Solon was sent as a 
deputy to the Amphictyon'ic council at DeFphi, and had no small share 
in stimulating that body to undertake the first sacred war against the 
Crisseans who had invaded the sacred territories, and not only ravaged 
the country, but even plundered the shrine of Apol'lo. The war was 
protracted ten years ; but it terminated in the final destruction of the 
Crissean community, and the dedication of their territory to the deity 
whose temple they had sacrilegiously plundered (b. c. 590). The ter- 
mination of the war was celebrated by the revival of the Pythian games, 
which had been discontinued during the contest. 

Scarcely had the liberties of Athens been established, when they 
were again subverted by the usurpation of Peisis'tratus. Like Solon, 
the usiu-per was descended from the ancient kings of Athens. He was 
also possessor of an enormous fortune, which he distributed to the poor 
with lavish munificence. His generosity, his eloquence, and his cour- 
teous manners, won for him universal favor : but he had the art to per- 
suade the lower ranks of his countrymen, that Ms popularity had ren- 
dered him odious to the nobles, and that the protection of a body-guard 
was necessary to the safety of his life. Scarcely had this been granted, 
when he seized on the Acrop'olis, and made himself absolute master of 
Athens (b. c. 561). Solon refused the usurper's offers of favor and pro- 
tection : he went into voluntary exile, and died, or at least was buried, 
at Sal'amis. Meg'acles, the chief of the powerful family of the 
Alcmaeon'idse, retired, with all his attendants and political friends, be- 
yond the boundaries of At'tica ; but he entered into a secret intrigue 
with Lycur''gus, the chief of another faction, and by their joint efforts 
Peisis'tratus was driven into exile about twelve months after he had 
obtained the sovereignty. 

Meg'acles soon quarrelled with Lycur'gus, and opened a negotiation 
with Peisis'tratus, offering to restore him, if he would become his son- 
in-law. The terms were accepted, and Peisis'tratus was again sum- 
moned to assume sovereign power, amid the general exultation of the 
people. A quarrel with Meg'acles drove him a second time into ban- 
ishment ; but he returned again at the head of an army, and having 
recovered the reins of power, held them without interruption to the day 
of his death. The power thus illegally acquired, was administered 
with equity and mildness. Peisis'tratus ceased not to exert himself to 
extend the glory of Athens, and secure the happiness of the Athenians. 

On the death of Peisis'tratus (b. c. 528), his sons Hippar'chus and 
Hip'pias succeeded to his power, but not to his prudence and abilities. 
After a joint reign of fourteen years, Hippar'chus was murdered by two 
young Athenians, Harmodius and Aristogeiton, whose resentment he 
had provoked by ^n atrocious insult (b. c. 514). The cruelty with 
which Hip'pias punished all whom he suspected of having had a share 
in his brother's death, alienated the affections of the people, and encour- 



102 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

aged the Alcmaeonidae to make an effort for his expulsion. By large 
bribes to the Delphian priesthood, they obtained a response from the 
oracle conmianding the Spartans to expel the Peisistrat'idae ; and that 
superstitious people immediately sent an army for that purpose (b. c. 
510). After a brief struggle Hip'pias was forced to abandon Athens, and 
thenceforward lived in perpetual exile. 

Scarcely was the tyrant expelled, when the state was rent in sunder 
by the rivalry of contending factions. Clis'thenes, the son of Meg'acles, 
headed one ; the other, chiefly composed of the aristocracy, was led by 
Isaur'oras. Isag'oras received armies to support his cause from the Spar- 
tans, the Corinthians, the Boeotians, the Chalcidians, and the ^Egine- 
tans. But the confederates could not agree ; and these dissensions 
broke up the alliance. After some time, the Spartans, having discover- 
ed the trick played upon them by the Delphian oracle, wished to re- 
store Hip'pias ; but, finding their allies universally opposed to the proj- 
ect, they abandoned him to his fate, and he fled to the court of Persia, 
where his exertions greatly contributed to the forcing Darius into a war 
against Greece. 

Section V. — Historical Notices of the minor Grecian States previous to the 

Persian War. 

FROM *B. C. 1100 TO B. C. 500. 

After the capture of Thebes by the Epig'oni, the Boeotians were ex- 
pelled by Thracian hordes, and retired to Ar'ne in Thessaly, but about 
the time of the great Dorian migTation they returned to the land of their 
forefathers, and became united with some ^olian tribes. 

Royalty was abolished upon the death of Xuthus (b. c. 1126), and 
the Boeotians formed a confederation of as many states as there were 
cities in the province : at the head of which was Thebes, but with very 
indefinite privileges. The constitutions of the states were unfixed; 
and they continually fluctuated between a licentious democracy and a 
tyrannical oligarchy. This great evil, combined with the unsettled 
nature of the confederation, prevented the Boeotians from taking a lead- 
ing share in the affairs of Greece. 

Acarnania, ^tolia, and Locris, offer nothing remarkable ; and the 
most important event in the history of Phocis was the sacred war, which 
has been described in the last section. The states of Thessaly were 
for the most part governed by arbitrary individuals. 

In the Peloponnesus, Corinth was the most remarkable state next to 
Sparta. At the time of the Dorian conquest of southern Greece, its 
throne was seized by Aletes, whose descendants retained the power and 
title of royalty for five generations. On the death of Teles'sus, the last 
of the Aletian race, Bac'chis usurped the throne (b. c. 777), and his 
descendants, called Bacchiadse, held the regal authority for five genera- 
tions more. Teles'tes, the last of these kings, having been murdered, 
the kingly office was abolished, and a species of oligarchy established 
in its stead, under yearly magistrates, called prytanes, chosen exclu- 
sively from the house of Bac'chis. It would have been scarcely possi- 
ble for such a narrow oligarchy to maintain its ground, even if it had 



PRINCIPAL GRECIAN ISLANDS. 103 

used its power with moderation and wisdom ; but the Bacchiads, proud 
of their race and great commercial wealth, insulted their subjects ; and 
Cyp'selus, an opulent citizen of jEolian descent, aided by the com- 
monalty, usurped the government (b. c. 657), and held the supreme 
power for thirty years. On his death, he was succeeded by his son 
Perian'der, who is sometimes ranked among the Seven Wise Men of 
Greece, though he is described by many writers as a rapacious, oppres- 
sive, and cruel despot. His reign lasted forty years, and yet is suppospd 
to have been shortened either by violence or grief for the loss of his 
son. He was succeeded by his nephew Psammet'ichus, whose reign 
lasted only three years, when he was expelled by his subjects, assisted 
by a Spartan army (b, c. 584). This revolution was followed by the 
establishment of a commercial aristocracy, whose exact constitution is 
unknown, but which long kept Corinth in close alliance with Sparta. 
The Corinthian trade consisted chiefly in the exchange of Asiatic and 
Italian merchandise, for which her position gave her many peculiar 
advantages. The period of Corinth's highest prosperity closed with the 
government of the Cyp'selids ; and the loss of Corcy'ra one of her colonies 
which had been kept in subjection by Per'iander, but revolted after his 
death, proved a blow to her power which she never recovered. The 
naval engagement between the Corcyrians and Corinthians (b. c. 650) 
is the first sea-fight recorded in history. 

The history of Sic'yon and the other Achaean states presents a series 
of revolutions similar to those of Corinth. After various revolutions and 
usurpations, they all adopted republican institutions, about.the time that 
the Cyp'selids were expelled from Corinth. 

The constitution of Arcadia became republican when Aristodemus, 
its last king, was stoned by his subjects for having betrayed Aristom'- 
enes and the Messenians. 

The regal dignity was abolished in Argos so early as b. c. 984 ; but 
nothing is known of t]ie circumstances that led to the change, or the 
peculiar nature of the republic by which it was succeeded. 

E^'lis preserved its internal peace, owing to the wise laws of Iph'- 
itus, a contemporary of Lycur'gus ; while the sanctity of its soil ensured 
its external security. After the abolition of royal power two supreme 
magistrates were chosen, called Hellanodicae, to whose office was added 
the charge of superintending the Olympic games. Their number was 
subsequently increased to ten, one being chosen from each of the Elian 
tribes ; and their power was limited by a senate of ninety, whose mem- 
bers were chosen for life. 

Section VI. — History of the principal Grecian Islands. 

The revolutions in the Grecian islands were very similar to those 
on the continent, republican constitutions having succeeded to mon- 
archy in most of them. After the Athenians had acquired the sover- 
eignty of the sea, the insular states lost their independence ; for though 
they were called confederates, they were treated as subjects ; no change, 
however, was made in their internal constitutions. We shall only no- 
tice the islands that were most remarkable in history. 

Corcy'ra was occupied by a Corinthian colony under Chersic'rates 



104 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

(b. c. 753), who expelled or subdued the former inhabitants. As the 
leader and most of his companions had been driven into exile by polit- 
ical commotions, they retained but little affection for the parent state ; 
while the rapid progress of the Corcyrean power excited the commer- 
cial jealousy of Corinth. These circumstances led to an open war. 
The Corcyrean constitution appears to have been originally aristocratic 
or oligarchical, like that of most Dorian states ; but after the Persian 
^vars a democratic faction arose, powerfully supported by the Athenians, 
which produced the most violent internal commotions, and ended in the 
total ruin of Corcy'ra. 

JEgina, first colonized b. c. 1358, rapidly grew, by commerce, and 
navigation, to be one of the first Grecian states. It even established 
colonies of its own in Crete and Pontus. iEgina was long the suc- 
cessful rival of Athens ; it was subdued by Themis'tocles (b. c. 485). 

The island of Euboe'a received many different colonies from the main- 
land of Greece ; but its cities were not united by any confederation, 
each possessing a separate constitution. It was subdued by the Athe- 
nians after the Persian wars ; but the islanders made several sanguin- 
ary struggles to regain their independence. 

The Cyc'lades were all, except Delos, rendered tributary to Athens, 
when that state acquired the supremacy of the sea. 

Crete was celebrated in the heroic ages for the laws of Minos (*b. c. 
1300). After the death of Clean'thus (*b. c. 800), republican constitu- 
tions were adopted in the principal cities, which thenceforth became in- 
dependent states. The Cretans rarely engaged in foreign wars, but 
they were almost incessantly involved in mutual hostilities ; a circum- 
stance that tended greatly to degrade the national character. 

Cy'prus was only partially colonized by the Greeks, whose principal 
settlement was at Sal'amis, founded by Teucer, a little after the Trojan 
war (b. c. 1100). The island was successively subject to the Phoeni- 
cians, Egyptians, and Persians. The kings of Sal'amis frequently re- 
volted against their Persian masters, and always maintained a qualified 
independence. When Alexander the Great besieged Tyre (b. c. 333), 
he was voluntarily joined by the nine Cypriot kings, and thenceforth 
the island was annexed to the Macedonian monarchy. 

The history of Rhodes belongs properly to the portion of this work 
which treats of the successors of Alexander, to which we refer our 
readers. ^ 

Section VII. — History of the Greek Colonies in Asia Minor. 

FROM B. C. 1200 TO B. C. 500. 

The colonies founded by the Greeks, between the period of the Dorian 
migration and the final subversion of Grecian liberty by the triumph of 
the Macedonians, were the most numerous and important established by 
any nation, and all acted a very conspicuous part in accelerating the 
progress of civilization. 

The colonies that first engage our attention are those that were es- 
tablished along the western coast of Asia Minor, from the Hellespont 
to the confines of Cilic'ia, in consequence of the revolutions produced 
by the Dorian migration and conquest of the Peloponnesus. They were 



GREEK COLONIES IN ASIA MINOR. 105 

established by the ^Eolians, lonians, and Carians ; tbeir commerce soon 
exceeded that of the parent states ; and in them were produced the first 
of Grecian poets, Homer and Alcae'us ; and the first of Grecian philos- 
ophers, Thales and Pythag'oras. 

The iEoLiANs, after the conquest of the Peloponnesus, settled for a 
time in Thrace, whence they passed over, after the lapse of a genera- 
tion, to Asia (*B. c. 1124), and occupied the coasts of Mysia and Caria 
giving to the strip of land they colonized the name of tEoUs. They 
acquired possession, also, of the islands of Les'bos, Ten'edos, and the 
cluster called the Hecatonnesi (hundred islands). Twelve cities were 
erected on the mainland by the iEolians, of which the chief were Cyme 
and Smyr'na. The latter city was destroyed by the Lydians (*b. c, 
600), and was not restored until four hundred years later, when it be- 
came a flourishing Macedonian colony. The jEolian cities maintained 
their independence until the age of Cy'rus, when those on the mainland 
were subdued by the Persians. When Athens acquired supremacy by 
sea, the insular states were forced to submit to her authority, and were 
in general ruled with great severity. 

The Ionian migration took place some years after the iEolian, about 
B. c. 1044. It was the largest that ever left Greece ; and fortunately 
it is that, with whose details we are best acquainted. It originated in 
the abolition of royalty at Athens : the sons of Codrus reluctant to live 
as private individuals, declared their design of leading a colony into 
Asia : they were readily joined by the Ionian exiles from the northern 
Peloponnesus, who were straitened for room in At'tica, and by large- 
bands of emigrants from the neighboring states, actuated by political dis- 
content, or the mere love of change. They were supplied liberally 
with ships and munitions of war. They pursued their voyage to 
Asia Minor, and landed on the coast south of tE'oUs. After a long se- 
ries of sanguinary wars, the native barbarians resigned their lands 
to the intruders ; and the lonians acquired possession of the whole of 
the valuable district between Miletus and Mount Sip'ylus. 

The lonians then began to erect cities ; they established twelve, 
united by an Amphictyon'ic confederacy ; viz., Eph'esus, Ery'thrae, 
Clazom'enae, Colophon, My'us, Miletus, Priene, Phocae'a, Leb'edos, 
Samos, Teos, and Chios, of which the last three were insular stations. 

Miletus was the chief of the Ionian colonies : but Eph'esus was the 
most renowned of the cities. 

All the Ionian cities were united by an Amphictyon'ic confederacy. 
Deputies from the different states met, at stated times, in a temple of 
Nep'tune, erected on the headland of Mycale, which they named Heli- 
conean, from Helice, the chief of their ancient cities in the northern 
Peloponnesus. Here they deliberated on all matters that affected the 
Pan-Ionian league ; but the council never interfered with the domestic 
government of the several cities. They also celebrated festivals and 
public games, which rivalled in magnificence those of Greece. In the 
midst of their prosperity, the Ionian cities became engaged in a long 
and arduous struggle with the Lydian kings, which continued almost 
without intermission until both were absorbed in the rising greatness of 
the Persian empire. 

Neither the extent nor progress of the Dorian colonies could com- 



106 ANCIENT HISTOHY. 

pare with those we have just described. Limited to a narrow and not 
very fruitful territory, their confederation always continued in a state of 
feebleness ; and, with the exception of Halicarnas'sus, which, at a com- 
paratively recent age, became the capital of an opulent monarchy, and 
the isle of Rhodes, whose daring navigators rivalled those of the most 
potent commercial states, there is scarcely a Dorian state that rose 
above mediocrity. 

The Dorians, after the conquest of the Peloponnesus, meditated new 
acquisitions ; but, being checked by the Athenians at Meg'ara, they pro- 
ceeded in detached bands to the coast of Caria, and to the islands of 
Cos and Rhodes. It is impossible to assign the exact age of these mi- 
grations ; but they were certainly later than the Ionian and ^Eolian ; 
they appear also to have been conducted without any definite plan, and 
to have taken place at very different times. The six cities forming the 
Doric confederation, called Hexapolis, were Halicarnas'sus and Cnidus 
on the Carian peninsula, Cos in the island of the same name, and Ha- 
lys'sus, Camirus, and Lin'dus, in the island of Rhodes. 

The Dorians submitted without a struggle to the Persian power, and 
seem to have made no effort to regain their independence. 

Section VIII. — The Greek Colonies on the Euxine Sea, the Coasts of Thrace, 

Macedon, Syc. 

Most of the Greek colonies on the shores of the Propon'tis, the 
Euxine sea, and the Palus Maeotis, were founded by the citizens of 
Miletus between the eighth and sixth centuries before the Christian era. 
That city, whose commerce occupied four harbors, and whose naval 
power amounted to eighty or a hundred galleys of war, owed its great- 
ness to its possession of the northern trade ; and to secure this lucra- 
tive commerce, it planted several colonies, all of Avhich became pros- 
perous marts of trade. Their commerce was not confined to the sea- 
coasts : their merchants penetrated into southern Russia, and advanced 
even beyond the Caspian to the countries which now form the king- 
doms of Khiva and Bokhara. The Phocaeans shared the honor of 
founding these important colonies ; but they were too much devoted to 
the western trade to waste their energies on the northern ; and it may 
be generally stated, that the settlements on the Euxine depended 
chiefly on Miletus. 

On the Propon'tis adjoining the Hellespont, stood Lamp'sacus, 
originally founded by some Phocaeans, who obtained a grant of the 
site of the city from one of the native princes whom they had assisted 
in war. It was afterward occupied by the Milesians, under whom it 
became a place of great wealth and extensive commerce. 

Cyz'icus, erected on an island joined by bridges to the Asiatic coast, 
was a very ancient city ; it is said to have been colonized in the earli- 
est ages by the Tyrrhenian Pelas'gi, and afterward by the Argonauts. 
About B. c. 751, it was occupied by the Milesians, who at the same 
time took possession of the neighboring island of Proconnesus [Mar- 
mora). Cyz'icus, in a late age, under the dominion of the Romans, 
became one of the most beautiful and flourishing cities in Asia. 

Opposite to Cyz'icus on the Thracian coast, was Perin'thus, at a la- 



GREEK COLONIES ON THE EUXINE SEA. 107 

ter age called Heracleia, founded by a Samian colony ; on the Euro- 
pean side of the Tliracian Bosphorus was Byzan'tium {Constantinople); 
and over against it, on the Asiatic coast, ChaFcedon {Scutari), both 
colonized from Meg'ara. 

The first Greek city on the Black sea was Heracleia, on the Bithy- 
nian coast, which appears to have been successively colonized from 
Meg'ara and Miletus. 

Sinope, in Paphlagonia, was the most powerful of the Greek states 
on the Euxine se a. Amjsus,in Pon'tus, was, next to Sinope, the best 
harbor on the Euxine sea. After having been long subject to Miletus, 
it was seized by the Athenians in the age of Per'icles, and its name 
changed to Peiree'aeus. During the days of its prosperity, Amisus is 
said to have become the parent of a colony that soon surpassed itself 
in importance, Trap'ezus {Trebisonde). 

On the eastern coast of the^ Euxine were Phasis, Dioscurias, and 
Phanagoria. In the Macedonian age, Phanagoria became the capital 
of the Greek cities on the Asiatic side of the Bos'phorus : its prosperity 
was owing to its being the chief mart for the slave-trade, which has 
always prevailed in the countries round the Caucasus, and also to its 
being the staple for the goods brought from central and southern Asia 
by the route of the Caspian sea and the Oxus. 

The Milesians formed several establishments in the Tauric Cher- 
sonese {Crimea), and wrested the greater part of that peninsula from 
its barbarous inhabitants. The city of Panticapse'um was the most 
important, and probably the most ancient, of these settlements. It be- 
came the capital of the little Greek kingdom of the Bos'phorus, and 
continued to maintain its independence until, in the Roman age, it was 
seized by Mithridates the Great, who laid there the foundations of his 
subsequent power. 

The coasts of Thrace and Macedon were covered with Greek colo- 
nies, principally derived from Corinth and Athens. 

On the coasts of Africa was the celebrated Greek city of Cyrene, 
long the commercial rival of Carthage, founded by a Dorian colony 
from the island of Thera (b. c. 651), in obedience to the directions of 
the Delphic oracle. The government was at first monarchical, the crown 
being hereditary in the family of Bat'tus, the founder. About b. c. 
450, royalty was abolished, and a republic formed ; but the citizens of 
Cyrene never were able to form a permanent constitution ; and their 
state continued to be rent by factions until it was annexed to the Egyp- 
tian kingdom, in the age of the Ptolemies. 

The history of the Greek states in Sicily and southern Italy being 
closely connected with the Roman wars, will be found in the chapters 
on Italy. 



108 ANCIENT HISTORY. 



* " 



CHAPTER X. 

HISTORY OF GREECE, 

FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE PERSIAN WARS 
TO THE ACCESSION OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 

FROM B.C. 500 TO B.C. 336. 

Section I. — The First Persian War. 

FROM B. C. 500 TO B. C. 490. 

When Darius Hystas'pes invaded Scythia, he intrusted the guard 
of the bridge of boats that he had constructed over the Danube to the 
Greeks of Asia and Thrace, who had been so recently brought under 
subjection to the Persians. Many of those were anxious to recover 
their freedom, and they deliberated seriously on the propriety of de- 
stroying the bridge, and leaving the Persians to perish without resource 
in an inhospitable desert. The proposal was strenuously advocated by 
Miltiades, the king or tyrant, as he was called, of the Thracian Cher- 
sonese ; but he was opposed by Histiae'us, the tyrant of Miletus, whose 
selfish counsels finally prevailed. Miltiades retired to Athens, his na- 
tive city, where he subsequently rose to the highest honors ; Histiae'us 
accompanied the monarch he had saved to the court of Persia. But 
the gratitude of absolute princes is not permanent : Histiag'us soon 
found that the very magnitude of his services exposed him to danger ; 
and he concerted with his nephew, Aristag'oras, a revolt, which in- 
cluded all the Ionian colonies. In order that the insurrection should 
have any reasonable prospects of success, it was necessary that it should 
be supported by the Grecian states ; and to engage this assistance, 
Aristag'oras came to Lacedae'mon. 

Being repulsed at Spar'ta, Aristag'oras proceeded to Athens, where 
he was more generously received (b. c. 500). Twenty ships were 
prepared for him with all convenient speed ; and these being rein- 
forced by five more from the little state of Eret'ria, in the island of 
Eubcs'a, sailed over to the harbor of Miletus, and commenced the war. 
The allies were at first very successful. Sar'dis, the wealthy capital 
of Lydia, was taken and plundered ; but Aristag'oras had not the tal- 
ents of a general ; the fruits of success were lost as soon as won ; the 
several divisions of the army quarrelled and separated ; and the Asiatic 
Greeks were left to bear the brunt of the vengeance of their merciless 
masters. Miletus was taken, its walls razed, and its citizens mas- 
sacred ; several minor cities suffered similar calamities. Aristag'oras 



GREECE. 109 

fled to Thrace, where he was murdered by the barbarians ; and His- 
tiae'us, after a vain attempt to escape, was crucified at Sar'dis by com- 
mand of the Persian satrap. 

Darius next turned his resentment against the Greeks, who had aided 
this revolt ; he sent ambassadors to demand homage from the Grecian 
states, especially requiring the Athenians to receive back Hip'pias, 
their exiled tyrant. All the states, insular and continental, except 
Athens and Spar'ta, proffered submission ; but those noble republics 
sent back a haughty defiance, and fearlessly prepared to encounter the 
whole strength of the Persian empire. 

Darius, having prepared a vast armament, intrusted its command 
to his son-in-law Mardonius, who soon subdued the island of Thasus, 
and the kingdom of Macedon (b. c. 493). But his fleet, while doubling 
Mount A'thos, was shattered by a violent storm ; three hundred vessels 
were dashed against the rocks, and twenty thousand men are said to 
have perished in the waves. Mardonius returned home to excuse his 
disgrace, by exaggerating the cold of the climate, and the dangers of 
the ^Egean sea. 

A second and more powerful armament was prepared (b. c. 490), 
over which Darius placed his two best generals, Datis, a Mede, and 
Artapher'nes, a Persian nobleman. The fleet passed safely through 
the Cyc'lades, and arrived at the island of Euboe'a. Thence the 
Persians crossed the Euripus, and, by the advice of the exiled Hip'- 
pias, encamped with an army said to exceed five hundred thousand 
men on the plains of Mar'athon, within forty miles of Athens. 

The Athenians could only muster an army often thousand citizens, and 
about double that number of slaves, who were armed in this extremity. 
The little city of Platae'a sent an auxiliary force of a thousand men ; 
but the Spartans, yielding either to superstition or jealousy, refused to 
send their promised aid before the full of the moon. Miltiades dis- 
suaded his countrymen from standing a siege, because the immense 
host of the Persians could completely blockade the city, and reduce it 
by starvation. He led the army to Mar'athon ; but when the Persian 
hosts were in sight, five of the ten generals, commanding jointly with 
himself, were afraid to hazard a battle ; and it was not without difficulty 
that Callim'achus was prevailed upon to give his casting vote in favor 
of fighting. But when the bold resolution of engaging was adopted, 
all the generals exerted themselves to forward the wise plans of their 
leader (b. c. 490). 

Miltiades formed his lines at the foot of a hill that protected his rear 
and right flank; his left was secured by an extensive marsh, and his 
front protected by trunks of trees, strewn for some distance, to break 
the force of the Persian cavalry. The Athenian citizens occupied the 
right wing, the Plataeans the left, while the raw levies of slaves 
were stationed in the centre. Datis saw the advantages of this 
position ; but confident in his superior numbers, he gave the signal for 
battle. The Greek centre was broken at the moment that the two 
wings had routed the divisions opposed to them : this had been fore- 
seen ; and Miltiades directed the victorious wings to attack the Per- 
sians rushing incautiously through the broken centre on both flanks. 
Surprise is fatal to an oriental army ; in a few minutes the Asiatics 



no ANCIENT HISTORY. 

were wholly routed, and fled in confusion to their ships. The Greeks 
pursued them vigorously, and destroyed seven of their vessels. But the 
Persian fleet was still powerful, and its commanders deemed it possible 
to suprise Athens before the army could return. Milliades, however, 
bafiied this attempt by rapidly marching from the field of battle to the 
city, and securing the posts before the hostile navy could get round the 
promontory of Sdnium. Thus disappointed, the Persians took advan- 
tage of a favorable gale, and returned to Asia. 

Miltiades was subsequently accused of having taken a bribe, con- 
victed on rather doubtful evidence, and sentenced to pay a heavy fine, 
which not being able to pay, he was thrown into prison, where he 
died of his wounds. 

Themis'tocles, the most able statesman, and Aristides, the most 
uncorrupt patriot of Greece, for a time shared the power that had been 
previously possessed by Miltiades. Their struggle for power ended 
in the banishment of Aristides ; but when his wise counsels were 
required in the hour of emergency, he was recalled on the motion of 
his successful rival. Themis'tocles directed all his efforts to improving 
the naval power of Athens, and he succeeded in securing for his 
country the complete supremacy of the Grecian seas. 

In the interval between the two Persian wars nothing remarkable 
occurred in any other of the Grecian states, save that in Spar'ta, one 
of its kings, Demaratus, was deposed and driven into exile by the in- 
trigues of the other, Cleom'enes. Demaratus sought refuge in the 
court of Persia ; Cleom'enes perished by his own hand, a victim to 
remorse. Leoty'chides succeeded the former, Leon'idas the latter. 

Section II. — The Second Persian War. 
FROM B.C. 480 TO B. c. 449. 

Nine years after the battle of Mar'athon, Xer'xes, the son and suc- 
cessor of Darius, resolved to attempt the conquest of Greece, and for 
this purpose collected an army, which, after making every allowance 
for the exaggerations of historians, appears to have been the most 
numerous ever assembled. When he reached the pass of Thermop- 
ylae, t;hrough which lay the road from Thessaly to Greece, he found a 
body of eight thousand men, commanded by the Spartan Leon'idas, 
prepared to dispute the passage. The haughty Persian instantly sent 
a herald, commanding these warriors to surrender their arms, and was 
maddened by the contumelious reply, " Come and take them." 

After many ineff'ectual efforts to break the Grecian lines, all of 
which were repulsed with great slaughter, Xer'xes was on the point 
of retiring in despair, when the treachery of Ephial'tes, a Trachinian 
deserter, revealed to him a path leading to the top of the mountain, 
that secured the Grecian flank. Leon'idas advised his allies to retire, 
declaring that he and his Spartans were forbidden by law to abandon 
their posts. Retaining with him only a thousand men, he resolved to 
attack the Persian camp by night, hoping in the confusion and darkness 
to reach the royal tent, and, by the slaughter or capture of Xer'xes, to 
put an end to the war. The plan had nearly succeeded when morning 
dawned on the assailants, wearied Avith slaughter ; they then retreated 



GREECE. Ill 

to the upper part of the pass, where they were soon surrounded by 
muUitudes ; but they still fought with all the energies of despair, until 
they sunk, fatigued rather than vanquished. 

About the same time the Greeks obtained a victory over the Persian 
fleet off the headland of Arteniis'ium, in the island of Euboe'a ; but 
this triumph was rendered fruitless by the loss of the pass of Ther- 
mopylae ; and Themis'tocles persuaded the allies to remove the navy 
into the Saronic gulf, v/here they anchored off the island of Sal'amis. 
Xer'xes, having entered Phocis, divided his army, sending a large 
detachment to plunder and destroy the temple of Del'phi. They were 
attacked by the Phocians, and hewn down almost without resistance. 
A miserable remnant escaped to Xer'xes, who, having destroyed Thes'- 
pige and Platee'ae, was rapidly advancing against Athens. On his 
approach, the Athenians, by the persuasion of Themis'tocles, abandoned 
their beloved city ; those capable of bearing arms retired to the island 
of Sal'amis, while those whom age or sex rendered unfit for war, 
found shelter in the hospitable city of Trcezene. Athens was burned 
to the ground ; and Xer'xes, in the pride of success, resolved to anni- 
hilate the last hopes of Greece in a naval engagement. 

Euryblades, the Spartan, who commanded the allied fleet, was 
induced by Themis'tocles to adopt the plan of hazarding an engage- 
ment. Fearing, however, some change, the crafty Athenian sent a 
spy, as a pretended deserter, to Xer'xes, informing him that the Greeks 
were preparing to disperse and escape ; upon which the whole Persian 
navy was sent to blockade the harbor of Sal'amis. Themis'tocles 
learned the success of his stratagem from Aristides, who crossed over 
from ^gina in a small boat with the intelligence ; a circumstance that 
at once put an end to the rivalry between these great men. 

Xer'xes witnessed the battle of Sal'amis from ^Egaleos, a rocky 
eminence on the coast of At'tica : he had the mortification to see his 
magnificent navy utterly annihilated. From that moment Xer'xes 
resolved to return into Asia, leaving three hundred thousand men under 
Mardonius to prosecute the war. When he reached the Hellespont, 
he found his magnificent bridge broken down, and he was forced to 
cross the strait in a common fishing-boat. 

Mardonius having wintered in Thes'saly, before opening the next 
campaign, sent the king of Macedon as an ambassador to the Atheni- 
ans, offering them the rebuilding of their city, and the friendship of his 
master, on condition of their seceding from the alliance. These offers 
were rejected. The confederates encamped at the foot of Moimt 
Cithae'ron, in front of the Persian lines. Several skirmishes took 
place, in all of which the Greeks had the advantage ; but being dis- 
tressed for want of water, they broke up their camp to seek a better 
position. 

Mardonius, believing that his enemies were in full retreat, ordered 
his soldiers to pursue the fugitives and complete the victory. A battle 
ensued not far from the city of Platae'ae, which ended in the total defeat 
of the Persians, and the annihilation of their army, with the exception 
of forty thousand that escaped to the Hellespont under Artabazus. 
Two hundred thousand of the barbarians are said to have fallen in this 
memorable battle, and the value of the plunder found in the Persian 



112 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

camp exceeds calculation. On the very same day (September 22d, 
B. c. 479), an equally important victory was gained by the confederate 
fleet, cominaiuled by the Athenian Xanthip'pus and the Spartan Leoty'- 
chides at Mycale, on the coast of Asia Minor. Dreading the heroism 
of the Greeks, the Persians had drawn their ships on shore, surrounded 
them with fortifications, and protected them with an army of sixty 
thousand men. The allied Greeks, with far inferior numbers, landed 
their troops, stormed the works, destroyed the navy, and put the greater 
part of the Persians to the sword. The plunder taken by the Greeks 
was immense, but the most splendid results of these victories were the 
overthrow of the Persian power in the iEgean sea, and the freedom 
of the islands. It is probable that the colonies in western Asia might 
have regained their independence if they desired it ; but, with the 
exception of the lonians, most of the Asiatic Greeks preferred the 
tranquil supremacy of Persia to an alliance with the Grecian republics. 

During the half century which followed the battle of Platse're, the 
Athenian republic attained the summit of its greatness, and became the 
first state, not only of Greece, but of the civilized world. Themis'to- 
cles rebuilt the defences of the city, fortified the harbor of the Peirse'- 
us, and joined it to Athens by what were called "the long walls." 

In the meantime the Spartan Pausanias, at the head of the confed- 
erate Greeks, continued to wage war against the dependancies of the 
Persian empire in the JEgenxi sea and on the coast of Thrace. By- 
zan'tium, already regarded as a strong and flourishing city, was takea 
after a short siege (b. c. 470), and its vast wealth became the prey of 
the conquerors. Among the captives were many distinguished Persian 
noblemen, and even relations of the king, who paid large sums to re- 
deem them from captivity. But this sudden influx of riches proved fa- 
tal to Pausanias ; he resolved, by the aid of the Persians, to become 
supreme master of Greece. Secret information of their general's trea- 
son was conveyed to the Spartan senate ; he was recalled, and brought 
to trial ; but escaped the first time, it is said, by bribing his judges. 
J'^resh evidence being obtained against him, he Avas secretly warned 
of his danger, and fled for safety to the temple of Miner'va. The Spar- 
tans did not dare to drag the traitor from the sanctuary ; they blocked 
up the, door of the temple with huge stones, stripped off its roof, strictly 
guarded all its avenues, and left the wretch to perish by cold and hun- 
ger. In consequence of the tyranny of Pausanias, the Spartans Avere 
deprived of the supremacy by sea, and the Athenians were chosen to 
lead the naval confederacy of the islands and colonies. Aristides was 
elected treasurer of the allies, and to prevent any complaints, he se- 
lected the island of Delos as the point of reunion, and the sanctuary 
where their contributions should be deposited under the protection of 
Apol'lo. 

Themis'tocles, by the artifice of the Spartans, was involved in the 
fate of Pausanias : he appears to have been acquainted with the plot, 
but he strenuously denied that it had ever received his sanction. He 
was banished by ostracism for ten years ; but the malice of his enemies 
pursued him in his exile, and, to save his life, he was forced to seek 
refuge at the court of Persia. He soon however ended his life by 
poison. Nearly at the same time Aristides died full of years and hon- 



GEEECE. 113 

©?s, Having administered the public finances with so much integrity, 
that he did not leave behind him a sum sufficient to defray the expenses 
of his funeral. A sum was issued from the public treasury to pay for 
the last rites to his corpse, to complete his son's education, and to por- 
tion his daughters. 

Cimon, the son of Miltfades, succeeded Aristides as leader of the 
Athenian republic : he continued the war against the Persians with 
equal vigor and skill, reducing all their cities and forts, not only in 
Europe and the islands, but even on the coast of Asia. At length he 
completely destroyed the whole Persian navy off the coast of Cy'prus 
(b. c. 470), and then dressing his men in the vestures and arms of his 
prisoners, surprised the Persian camp at the mouth of the river Eurym'- 
edon on the very same day, and before the barbarians could recover 
from their confusion, completed their destruction. The war continued 
twenty-one years, during which the naval power and commercial wealth 
of the Athenians were continually increasing ; both sides at length began 
to entertain thoughts of peace. The articles were soon arranged, and 
they were worthy of the valor that the Greeks had shown in this great 
struggle (b. c. 449). It was stipulated that the independence of the 
Greek cities in lower Asia should be restored ; that no Persian vessel 
should appear between the Cyanean rocks and Chelidonian islands, that 
is, between the northern extremity of the Thracian Bos'phorus and the 
southern promontory of Lycia ; that no Persian army should come with- 
in three days' journey of the seacoast; and that the Athenians should 
withdraw their fleets and armies from the island of Cyprus. Thus 
gloriously were terminated the Persian wars, which, reckoning from the 
burning of Sar'dis, had lasted, with little intermission, during fifty-one 
years. 

Section III. — The First Peloponnesian War. 
FROM B. c. 431 TO B. c. 422. 

While the Athenians were acquiring wealth and glory in the war 
against Persia, the Spartans, jealous of their rival's rising fame, were 
secretly preparing to weaken the Athenian power by a sudden war. 
But their animosity, before it broke into action, was diverted by a ca- 
lamity equally great and unexpected. Laconia was laid waste by an 
earthquake, which destroyed one hundred and twenty thousand of its 
inhabitants, and overv^helmed the city of Sparta (b. c. 469). The op- 
pressed Helots and the remnant of the Messenians took advantage of 
this calamity to make a vigorous effort for the recovery of their free- 
dom ; they failed in surprising Sparta ; but they made themselves mas- 
ters of their ancient fortress Ithome. Though aided by the Atheni- 
ans, whose assistance they repaid with ingratitude, the Spartans had 
great difficulty in subduing the insurgents, and were finally forced to 
allow them to retire from the Peloponnesus with their families and 
properties. These exiles were hospitably received in the Athenian 
colony of Naupac^tus ; and they repaid the kindness shown to them by 
subsequently adhering, through every vicissitude of fortune, to the cause 
of Athens. The Argives had declined to support the general cause of 
Greece in the great struggle with the Persians ; and the dependant 

8 



114 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

States, despising their treachery, had thrown off obedience to the ca|V 
ital. Mycenae was the only city on which the Argives could wreak 
their vengeance ; the rest, supported by Spar^ta, maintained their inde- 
pendence. From similar reasons, Thebes had lost her supremacy over 
the Boeotian cities ; but here the Athenians embraced the cause of the 
minor states, while Sparta supported the sovereignty of the Boeotian 
metropolis. 

Athens had now attained the summit of its greatness, under the bril- 
liant administrations of Per'icles. That eminent statesman, though 
sprung from a noble house, had risen to power by warmly supporting 
the cause of the people, and procured the banishment of his rival 
Cimon, on account of his partiality to Sparta. To secure his influence, 
Per'icles weakened the power of the great aristocratic court, the 
Areop'agus, by removing various causes from its jurisdiction to that of 
the popular tribunals. He adorned the city with the most splendid 
monuments of architecture, sculpture, and painting ; and in order to 
defray the necessary expenditure, he augmented the contributions im- 
posed on the allied states, under the pretence of supporting the Persian 
war, and removed the treasury of the confederates from Delos to 
Athens. Finding that the Spartans were supporting the cause of the 
Theban supremacy, he sent an anny to maintain the independence of 
Boeotia, which, though at first worsted near Tanag'ra, won a decisive 
victory on the same ground in the following year (b. c. 457). A fleet 
at the same time ravaged the coasts of the Peloponnesus, and made the 
Spartans tremble for their own safety. The recall of Cimon, and the 
defeat of the Athenians in an enterprise against Thebes, through the 
rashness of their leader Tol'midas, led to a truce for five years (b. c. 
450), which might probably have led to a permanent peace, but for the 
death of Cimon before the walls of Cit'ium. The close of the truce 
led to a brief renewal of war; but a second truce v/as concluded for 
fifty years, which gave Per'icles time to mature his favorite policy of 
making Athens mistress of the maritime and insular states. Some of 
the islands revolted, but they were successively subdued ; and the sub- 
jugation of Samos, the chief city in the island of that name, gave Per'- 
icles the fame of a military leader as well as a statesman. About the 
sametime he completed the overthrow of the aristocratic party, by pro- 
curing the banishment of its leader, the elder Thucyd'ides ; and se- 
cured the popular favor by his unrivalled shows and theatrical exhibi- 
tions. The brilliancy of Athens, however, provoked a host of secret 
enemies, especially in the Peloponnesus, who only waited an opportu- 
nity of combining for her destruction. 

Athens now formed the metropolis of an extensive territory which 
some of the ancients have denominated a kingdom. In that narrow 
space of time which intervened between the battle of Mycale and the 
memorable war of Peloponnesus, xithens had established her authority 
over an extent of more than a thousand miles of the Asiatic coast, from 
Cyprus to the Thracian Bos'phorus ; taken possession of forty inter- 
mediate islands, together with the important straits which join the 
Euxine and the ^Egean ; conquered and colonized the winding shores 
of Thrace and Macedon ; commanded the coast of the Euxine from 
Pon'tus to the Tauric Chersonese ; and overawing the barbardus na- 



GH-EECE. 115 

tives by the experienced terrors of her fleet, at the same time rendered 
subservient to her own interests the colonies which Miletus and other 
Greek cities in Asia had established in those remote regions. Thus 
the Athenian galleys commanded the eastern coasts of the Mediterra- 
nean ; their merchantmen had engrossed the traffic of the adjacent 
countries ; the magazines of Athens abounded with wood, metal, ebony, 
ivory, and all the materials of the useful as well as the agreeable arts ; 
they imported the luxuries of Italy, Sicily, Cyprus, Lyd'ia, Pon'tus, 
and the Peloponnesus. 

The circumstances that gave rise to the first Peloponnesian war 
originated in the unsettled state of colonial relations among the ancient 
Greeks. Corcy'ra, originally a Corinthian colony, had risen so rapidly 
in wealth and power, that it more than rivalled the parent state, and 
possessed many flourishing colonies of its own, among which one of 
the most important was Epidam'nus, called in Roman history Dyrac'- 
chium [Durazzo), on the western coast of Macedonia. The people of 
Epidam'nus, pressed by their barbarous neighbors, sought aid from the 
Corcyreans ; but finding their request unheeded, they applied to the 
Corinthians, who readily sent an armament to their assistance (b. c. 
436). Nothing could exceed the rage of the Corcyreans when they 
received this intelligence ; a fleet was instantly sent to the harbor, and 
its citizens were haughtily commanded to dismiss the Corinthians, and 
receive a Corcyrean garrison. This mandate was spurned with con- 
tempt, and Epidam'nus was immediately besieged. The Corinthians 
sent a powerful navy to raise the siege ; but they were encountered by 
the Corcyreans in the Ambracian gulf, and completely defeated. Epi- 
dam''nus immediately surrendered ; contrary, however, to the general 
expectation, its inhabitants were treated with great leniency. But the 
haughty islanders abused their victory by ravaging the territories of the 
states that had assisted Corinth, and provoked universal indignation by 
burning the city of Cyllene, on the sacred coast of E'lis. Both powers 
applied to Athens, as the head of the maritime states, to decide their 
quarrel. By the advice of Per'icles, a defensive alliance was concluded 
with the Corcyreans, and a fleet sent to their aid, which fortunately ar- 
rived at the moment when the Corinthian navy, having obtained a de- 
cisive victory, seriously menaced the island. On the arrival of the 
Athenians, the Corinthians retired ; but as they returned, they sur- 
prised the garrison of Anactorium, on the coast of Epirus, which en- 
abled them to bring home twelve hundred and fifty Corcyrean prison- 
ers. The fatal effects produced by this capture will soon demand our 
attention. 

Potidse'a, a Corinthian colony on the Macedonian coast, which had 
been for some time subject to Athens, revolted during the Corcyrean war, 
and was instantly besieged. The Potidse'ans sought aid from their ancient 
parent ; and the Corinthians, too weak to afford efficient protection, be- 
sought the assistance of the Spartans. About the same time, ambas- 
sadors arrived from the city of Meg'ara, complaining that they had 
been, by an unjust decree, excluded from the ports and harbors of 
At'tica, soliciting the Spartans, as heads of the Dorian race, to procure 
a reversal of so unjust a law ; and emissaries came from iEgina to 
represent the miserable condition to which that island had been reduced 



116 ANCIENT HISTORY, 

by Athenian oppression. After some affected delay, the Spartans re- 
solved that the Athenians had violated the principles of justice, and 
should be coerced to redress the injuries they had inflicted ; but to give 
their proceedings an appearance of moderation, it was resolved to send 
ambassadors to Athens vrith demands w^hich they knew well would be 
refused- They required that the siege of Potidee'a should be raised, 
the decree against Meg'ara repealed, the is'land of iEgina abandoned, 
the independence of the maritime states respected, and the descendants 
of Cy'lon's murderers banished. This last demand was levelled at 
Per'icles, whose maternal ancestor had headed the aristocratic party 
when that sacrilegious murder was committed ; and it was urged at a 
favorable moment, when Per'icles was suspected of impiety on account 
of his protecting the philosopher Anaxag'oras, 

But the haughtiness with which the Spartan ambassadors urged their 
injurious demands roused the fiery spirit of the Athenian people, and it 
required all the influence of Per'icles to induce them to couch their re- 
fusal in temperate and dignified language. While the declaration of 
war was yet withheld intelligence arrived at Spar'ta of the Thebans 
having been foiled in an attempt to surprise Platae'a?, and that their de- 
feat was owing to the instigation and aid of the Athenians (b. c. 431). 
War was instantly proclaimed, and the Spartan king Archid'amus. 
elected chief of the Peloponnesian confederates. 

Athens, supported by the insular and maritime states, was supreme 
mistress of the sea ; Spar'ta, on the other hand, was joined by the chief 
powers on the Grecian continent, and was consequently superior by 
land. Both began the war by displaying their strength on their own 
peculiar element : a Spartan army ravaged At'tica, an Attienian fleet 
plundered the coasts of the Peloponnesus. The Spartans were thus 
forced to return home to the defence of their own country ; and no 
sooner had they withdrawn, than Per'icles invanded Meg'aris, and laid 
the whole of its narrow territory desolate. Early in the next summer 
the Peloponnesians again invaded At'tica ; but the Athenians were 
assailed by a more dreadful calamity — a plague of unparalleled viru- 
lence had been introduced into the Pirae'seus from Asia, and it raged 
fiercely in a city crowded by the peasants who had sought refuge within 
the walls on the approach of the Spartans. At length, two years and 
six months after the commencement of the war, Per'icles himself fell a 
victim to the pestilence (b. c. 429). His death-bed was surrounded by 
his Iriends and admirers, who recited the many illustrious exploits of his 
glorious life. " You forget," said the dymg patriot, " you forget the only 
valuable part of my character ; none of my fellow-citizens was ever com- 
pelled by any action of mine to assume a mourning robe." 

The war was supported by mutual ravages, and the success of the 
contending parties nicely balanced. PotidBe''a surrenderd to the Athe- 
nians, its inhabitants were banished, and their place supplied hy fresh 
colonists ; Plata^'se, after a brave and protracted defence of five years, 
was yielded to the Spartans, and the whole garrison was mercilessly 
butchered (b. c. 427). In the same year that the Spartans had stained 
their national character by the atrocious massacre of the Plataeans, the 
Athenians narrowly escaped being disgraced by a similar atrocity. The 
Lesbians of Mitylene had revolted, and sought the assistance of the 



GREECE. 117 

Feloponnesians, but the tardy and selfish policy of Lacedse'mon delayed 
the succors until the insurgents were forced to surrender at discretion. 
When the fate of Mitylene was discussed in the Athenian assembly, the 
populace, instigated by Cleon, a vulgar demagogue, decreed that the 
city should be destroyed, and the male inhabitants put to the sword. 
But night brought better counsels ; a general feeling of pity and regret 
spread among the people ; and on the following day the sanguinary 
decree was revoked, and a fast-sailing vessel sent to prevent its execu- 
tion. The messengers of mercy made such speed, that they entered 
the harbor of Mitylene a few hours after the preceding boat, and thus 
saved Les''bos from desolation. 

The Spartan admiral, having failed to succor Les^bos, sailed against 
Corcy'ra, then agitated by the tumults of a most dangerous sedition. It 
has been already mentioned, that many Corcyreans had been made 
prisoners by the Corinthians ; these men were won by the kindness and 
bribes of their captors to aid the aristocratic party of their countrymen 
in an attempt to subvert the democratic constitution of Corcy'ra, and 
break off the alliance with Athens. On their return home, they made 
a vigorous effort to accomplish their designs, and very nearly succeed- 
ed. After a violent and sanguinary contest, in which both parties were 
■disgraced by the most savage atrocities, the democratic faction prevailed 
by the aid of an Athenian fleet, but sullied its triumph by exterminating 
all its opponents, under circumstances of equal treachery and cruelty. 

The presence of the Athenian fleet in the Ionian sea rendered west- 
ern Greece the scene of war; and Demos'thenes, its chief commander, 
subdued all the allies of the Peloponnesians in ^Etolia and Epirus. 
The term of his command having expired (b. c. 425), he was returning 
home, when the Messenians who served in his fleet proposed to eflect 
a landing in the harbor of Py'lus [Navarino], and, fortifying themselves 
there, make the Spartans tremble in their own capital, which was only 
fifty miles distant. The bold design was accomplished ; and the Spar- 
tans in alarm sent a fleet and army to besiege Py'lus ; they garrisoned 
the little island of Sphacteria ; but their navy being defeated by the 
Athenians, this garrison, consisting of the noblest of the Spartan fami- 
lies, was brought to the brink of ruin, and would have been utterly 
destroyed, but for the inadequate resources which Demos'thenes had at 
his command. Under these circumstances, the Spartans sent deputies 
to solicit peace ; but the Athenian people, instigated by their unworthy 
favorite Cleon rejected the proffer with disdain. This arrogant boaster, 
whose cowardice was notorious, offered, if he were made general, that 
he would make the Spartans in Sphacteria prisoners within twenty 
days. He had no notion that his offer would be accepted ; but the 
Athenian populace, ready at all times to sacrifice everything for a joke, 
took him at his word. Cleone sailed to the scene of war, and was 
enabled, by an accidental fire, which destroyed the Spartan fortifica- 
tions, to accomplish his promise. This success was followed by the 
capture of the island of Cythera, the destruction of the Megarean 
harbor Nicas'a and of several seaports on the coast of the Peleponnesus- 
But these triumphs were counterbalanced by the defeat of the Atheni- 
ans at Delium, the revolt of their northern colonies, and the commence- 
ment of hostilities against them by Perdic'cas, king of Macedon. The 



118 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

Spartans, roused to vigor by this unexpected turn of events, sent an 
army under Bras'idas, their ablest general, through northern Greece, to 
aid the revolted colonies ; and this eminent leader soon deprived the 
Athenians of their principal cities in Thrace and Macedon. Cleon 
headed an Athenian army sent to retrieve these losses ; he was defeat- 
ed and slain ; but the Spartan victory was deprived of all its fruits by 
the death of Bras'idas, who incautiously exposed liimself, and was mor- 
tally wounded (b. c. 422). 

Sparta had no general fit to succeed Bras'idas, and the senate was 
anxious to recover the prisoners taken in Sphacteria ; the Athenians 
were equally eager to procure the restitution of their northern colonies ; 
and Nic'ias, who had succeeded Cleon, was naturally of a pacific dis- 
position. These favorable circumstances led to the conclusion of a 
peace, or rather truce, for fifty years, on the basis of mutual restitution, 
by which Sparta wantonly sacrificed the interests of her allies. 

Section IV. — The Second Peloponnesian War. 

FROM B. C. 421 TO B. C. 404. 

Justly provoked by the neglect of their interests in the recent treaty, 
the Corinthians privately instigated the Argives against the Spartans ; 
and a combination was formed by the principal democratic states, 
which was secretly encouraged by the Athenians. The sudden depar- 
ture from pacific policy was owing to the influence of Alcibiades, the 
nephew of Per'icles, who, to a large share of his uncle's abilities, 
added a boundless ambition, and a reckless disregard of the means he 
used to accomplish his ends. The Argives and Spartans, after having 
harassed each other by petty expeditions, at length prepared for open 
war ; but just as the two armies were on the point of engaging, the 
remembrance that they were both descended from the Dorian race sus- 
pended their rage, and a truce was concluded between their respective 
leaders. Alcibiades, who was then ambassador at Ar'gos, roused the 
populace to refuse the ratification of this agreement ; a fresh attack was 
made on the Spartan allies, but it proved unsuccessful. Two years of 
mutual recrimination followed ; during which the Argive republic was 
harassed by sanguinary revolutions, which ended in the complete 
establishment of a democracy. In the meantime, the Athenians, 
anxious to restore their naval supremacy, attacked the Dorian island of 
Melos, and punished the resistance of the inhabitants by a cruel massacre, 
which provoked universal indignation throughout Greece. But public 
attention was soon engrossed by a more important topic, the Athenian 
expedition to Sicily, undertaken at the instigation of Alcibiades (b. c. 
415), nominally to deliver the Egestans from the tyranny of the Syra- 
cusans, but really to establish the Athenian supremacy in that island. 

Notwithstanding the remonstrances of Nic'ias and Soc'rates, the most 
powerful armament which had ever left a Grecian port was speedily 
prepared, and intrusted to the just command of Alcibiades, Nic'ias, and 
Lam'achus. When reviewed at Corcy'ra, it was found to consist of a 
hundred and thirty-four ships-of-war, with a proportional number of 
transports and tenders. The army was composed of five thousand 



GB.EECE. 119 

lieavy-armed infantry, accompanied by a sufficient body of slingers and 
archers. . Instead, however, of sailing directly to Syracuse, which prob- 
ably would have fallen, the fleet was steered to Cat'ana, whose inhab- 
itants were induced to join the Athenians by the brilliant eloquence of 
Alcibiades. Scarcely, however, had he obtained this triumph, when he 
was summoned home to be tried for his life on a charge of impiety and 
sacrilege. 

He was accused of having violated the Eleusinian mysteries, and 
wantonly defaced the Her'mBe, or sacred statues of Mercury, which 
adorned the streets of Athens. Conscious of his guilt, or dreading the 
giddy populace, he refused to incur the hazard of a trial, but fled to 
Thurium, whence he removed to Ar'gos, and afterward, when a price 
was set on his head, to Spar^ta, Nic'ias, by the departure of Alcibiades, 
and death of Lam'achus, remained sole commander of the Athenian 
forces ; he was an able but cautious leader, and after he had defeated 
the Syracusans, he wasted precious time in fortifying his camp and 
useless negotiations. The Corinthians and Spartans profited by the 
delay to send succors to Syracuse, which they intrusted to Gylip^pus, 
the best general of his day. Under his command the fortune of the war 
soon changed ; and the Athenians, so far from making any impression 
on Syracuse, were severely defeated, and besieged in their camp. At 
the request of Nic'ias, a new armament was sent to Sicily, under the 
command of Demos'thenes and Eurym'edon ; but through the dilatory 
policy of the old general, and the rashness of his colleagues, this rein- 
forcement was rendered unavailing, and the Athenians were defeated in 
a decisive engagement. Demos^'thenes now proposed to return ; but 
Nic'^ias lingered in Sicily after all rational hopes of success were lost, 
and the Syracusans, in the meantime, collecting a powerful navy, de- 
stroyed the Athenian fleet, and became masters of the sea. An attempt 
was made by the Athenians to retreat to some friendly city ; but they 
were overtaken by the Syracusan army, and forced to surrender at dis- 
cretion (b. c. 413). The generals were barbarously put to death, and 
the common soldiers sold as slaves. 

This terrible calamity was fatal to the power of Athens ; but it was 
not the only misfortune that befell the republic. Acting under the 
revengeful advice of Alcibiades, the Spartans fortified and garrisoned 
Deceleia, a town not fifteen miles from Athens, and commanding its 
richest lands ; and thus, instead of harassing their enemies by annual 
incursions, they infested them by a continual war. Soon afterward 
they learned that the wealth of Persia was added to the formidable 
confederacy of the Spartans. 

But under all these misfortunes the Athenians maintained their 
national courage, and prepared to meet the crisis with enthusiasm. 
Their most pressing danger arose from the discontent of the maritime 
states, whose desire of independence was stimulated by the presence 
of a superior Spartan fleet in the iEgean sea. The ruin of the Athe- 
nians was, however, suspended by the negotiations of Alcibiades with 
the Persian satrap Tissaphei-'nes ; for this ambitious man, having pro- 
voked the resentment of the Spartans by his vices, was now eager to 
be reconciled to his native country. His intrigues procured the abo- 
lition of the Athenian democracy, and the substitution of an aristocratic 



120 ANCIENT HI8T0RY. 

government ; but the new heads of the state justly dreaded the ambi- 
tion of Alcibiades, and refused to repeal the sentence pronounced 
against him. The four hundred tyi"ants, as the aristocratic usurpers 
were justly called, alienated the minds even of their partisans by their 
cruelty and incapacity. At length the revolt of Euboe'a, and the 
destruction of the Athenian fleet near Eretria, provoked a fierce insur- 
rection : they were deposed, and thus, at the end of four months, the 
democracy was restored. Alcibiades was immediately recalled ; but 
he resolved not to return home until his return should be gilded by 
the fame of some great exploit. He hastened, with a small squadron, 
to aid the Athenian fleet, at the moment it had joined battle with the 
Spartans ; and this seasonable reinforcement decided the victory. But 
Alcibiades, eager for a more decisive blow, persuaded his countrymen 
to attack the Spartans in the harbor of Cyz'icus, and by his prudent 
arrangements the whole hostile fleet was either taken or destroyed 
(B.C. 411). This great victory was followed by the re-establishment 
of the Athenian ascendency in the Thracian Chersonesus. After hav- 
ing performed these essential services, Alcibiades returned home 
(b. c. 407), and was welcomed at Athens with great enthusiasm: he 
was appointed commander-in-chief by sea and land, and a large arma- 
ment was placed at his disposal. 

But when Alcibiades returned to the coast of Asia, he found the 
cause of Sparta retrieved by the crafty Lysan'der, who was more than 
his equal in the diplomatic arts of duplicity and cunning. The Spartan 
had the art to gain the confideage of the Persian prince Cy'rus, to 
whom his father had just intrusted the government of lower Asia ; and 
by the simple expedient of raising the pay of the sailors on board the 
confederate fleets, he at once deprived the Athenians of their most 
experienced mariners. Alcibiades went with a small squadron to raise 
contributions in Caria : during his absence, Antiochus, his lieutenant, 
contrary to orders, engaged Lysan'der, and was defeated with the loss 
of fifteen ships. Intelligence of this event being conveyed to Athens, 
the suspicions of the treachery of Alcibiades, which had been only 
partially lulled, returned in full force, and he was a second time deposed 
and banished. He fled to a fortress he possessed in Thrace, while ten 
admirals were appointed to command in his stead. 

Lysan'der's year of office having expired, he was succeeded as 
admiral of the Peloponnesian fleet by Callicrat'idas, a man as inferior 
to him in ability as he was superior in rectitude and integrity. An 
engagement between the fleets, off" the islands of Arginusae, ended in 
the total defeat of the Spartans ; but a violent storm prevented the 
Athenian admirals from improving their victory, and from recovering the 
bodies of their slain, to procure them the rites of sepulture. For these 
imaginary crimes, they were accused before the people by one of their 
colleagues, denied the benefit of a fair trial, condemned by clamor, and 
put to death. 

The war for a time languished, but the reappointment of Lysan'der 
to the command of the Peloponnesian fleet was fatal to Athens, whose 
best officers had been wantonly sacrificed to gratify the fury of a licen 
tious populace. Profiting by the unskilfulness and presumption of the 
Athenian admiral, Lysan'der attacked them imawares at the mouth of 



GREECE. ■ 121 

the TEgos-pot'amos (Goat's river), and totally annihilated their navy, 
with the exception of eight galleys, vi^hich, by the prudent manage- 
ment of Conon, escaped to the island of Cy'prus (b. c. 406). Lysan'- 
der, having thus virtually put an end to the Peloponnesian war, merci- 
lessly butchered his unfortunate prisoners, to the amount of three 
thousand. 

Before sailing against Athens, Lysan'der reduced the principal mar- 
itime states, and thus prevented the import of grain into the devoted 
city. When he deemed that famine had sufficiently prepared the way 
for success, he appeared before the harbor with a fleet of one hun- 
dred and fifty sail, while A'gis, the king of Sparta, attacked the city 
by land. 

The Athenians made an obstinate defence ; but they were at length 
forced to surrender, on the humiliating conditions of abolishing the 
democracy, and intrusting the chief power to thirty persons named by 
the Spartans, surrendering all their ships but twelve, resigning all claim 
to their colonies and foreign possessions, and consenting to follow the 
Spartan standard in war. Harsh as were these conditions, they were 
mercy compared to the sanguinary measures proposed by the Thebans 
and Corinthians. The Athenians submitted in bitter sorrow. On the 
sixteenth of May (b. c. 404), the anniversary of the memorable victory 
of Sal' amis, the harbors and forts of Athens were occupied by her ene- 
mies, and the demolition of her walls commenced amid loud shouts 
and flourishes of martial music : while her citizens, broken-hearted, 
hid themselves from the light of day. 

But the Spartans did not believe their triumph secure while Alcibi- 
ades lived to reanimate the hopes of the Athenians, and perhaps pro- 
cure for them the aid of the Persians. He had detected the hostile 
plans of Cy'rus the younger against his brother Artaxer'xes, which 
the crafty Lysan'der secretly encouraged, and desired to be escorted to 
Susa, in order to reveal the plot to the king. Pharnabazus dreaded the 
consequence of such a discovery : he therefore readily listened to the 
suggestions of Lysan'der, and sent a body of assassins to murder the 
illustrious exile. Alcibiades was living in a Phrygian village uncon- 
scious of his danger. Such was the fame of his valor, that the mur- 
derers were afraid to attack him openly, and set fire to his house. The 
brave Athenian rushed through the flames, and clove down the foremost 
of the assassins, but the rest overwhelmed him with showers of darts, 
and he fell by a multitude of wounds. The Athenians paid an involun- 
tary and extraordinary homage to his talents, for they at once abandoned 
themselves to despair, and made no effort to retrieve the hapless condi- 
tion of their country. 



Section V. — T'^rannical Rule of Sparta. — Third Peloponnesian War. 

FROM B. C. 404 TO B. C. 361. 

The confederates had destroyed the supremacy of Athens, but soon 
found that they had thereby subjected themselves to the galling tyranny 
of the Spartans. Lysan'der proved to be the worst oppressor that had 



122 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

ever been raised to power ; and the Greek cities in Asia would have 
gladly chosen the non-despotism of Persia, in preference to his avarice 
and cruelty. But, to secure her power, Sparta had established an oli- 
garchy of her creatures in every state, and supported those domestic 
tyrannies with arms and money. The power of the thirty tyrants at 
Athens was secured and maintained by a Spartan garrison in the 
Acrop'olis : thus supported, these despots set no bounds to their cruelty 
and rapacity, putting to death all who possessed wealth or political 
influence, and enriching themselves by confiscations. 

The city seemed to possess only two classes of inhabitants, the ready 
instruments of cruelty and the patient victims of tyranny ; three thou- 
sand miscreants were found to act as a bodyguard to the tyrants ; all 
the other citizens were disarmed, and those who were suspected or at- 
tached to the ancient constitution, were either murdered or driven into 
exile. The dockyards were demolished in order to cripple the commer- 
cial enterprise of the Athenians ; the bema, or pulpit on the Pnyx, was 
turned to the land side, that the view of the sea might not awaken glo- 
rious recollections, or revive patriotic emotions, and all instruction in 
oratory was strictly prohibited. 

Although the Thebans had been the most inveterate enemies of the 
Athenians, their hearts were affected by witnessing the evils brought 
upon their rivals by the cruelty of the tyrants, and they received with 
generous kindness those who fled from the persecution of the despots. 
A numerous band of exiles was soon assembled at Thebes, and at its 
head was placed Thrasyb'ulus, whose daring valor was tempered by 
prudence and humanity. Under his guidance the exiles seized Phy'le, 
a strong fortress on the frontiers of At'tica and Bceotia, whence they 
opened a communication with the enemies of the tyrants in the city. 
Justly terrified, the thirty and their partisans flew to arms, but they suf- 
fered a shameful defeat ; and Thrasyb'ulus, strengthened by the acces- 
sion of new partisans, seized the Peirae'us. The aristocratic faction, in 
great alarm, deposed the thirty and elected ten new magistrates in their 
stead, who emulated the wickedness of their predecessors, and, to se- 
cure their power sought assistance from Sparta. Lysan'der quickly 
advanced to their aid, and blockaded the Peirse'us ; but his pride and 
ambition had given deep offence in Sparta ; and Pausanias, the most 
popular of the Lacedaemonian princes, hastily marched with a second 
army to frustrate the plans of Lysan'der. Under the protection of Pau- 
sanias the despots were stripped of power, the ancient constitution of 
Athens restored, and the Spartan garrison withdrawn from the citadel 
(b. c. 403). Some of the tyrants retired with their followers to Eleus'is ; 
but their xmequal hostility was easily defeated by the vigor of the new 
republic. A few of the most obnoxious were put to death : the rest 
were pardoned by a general act of amnesty, which was ratified by the 
people on the motion of Thrasyb'ulus. 

Scarcely had the constitution been restored, when the Athenians show- 
ed how greatly their national character had been deteriorated, by con- 
demning the virtuous Soc'rates to death on a frivolous charge of impiety 
(b. c. 400). His death was worthy of his useful and honorable life ; he 
submitted to the injustice of his countrymen without murmuring or repi- 
ning, and spent his last moments in impressing on the minds of his friends, 



GREECE. 123 

who remained faithful to him, those sublime lessons of philosophy 
which his eloquent disciple Plato has transmitted to posterity. 

Another disciple of Soc'rates was at the same time less honorably 
engaged as a hireling soldier in Asia. Darius Nothus, at his death, 
bequeathed the crown of Persia to his eldest son Artaxer'xes, surnamed 
Mnemon from the strength of his memory. Cy'rus, his younger broth- 
er, was stimulated by the queen dowager Parysatis, to claim the king- 
dom, on the ground of his having been born the son of a king, while the 
birth of Artaxer'xes took place while Darius was as yet in a private 
station. Cy'rus, while governor of lower Asia, had earned the grati- 
tude of Lysan'der and the Spartans, by supplying them with money to 
carry on the war against Athens, and in return he obtained their permis- 
sion to raise an auxiliary force in Greece to aid his intended rebellion. 
Thirteen thousand adventurers soon enrolled themselves under his stand- 
ard, consisting not only of the Spartans and their allies, but of some 
renegade Athenians, among whom was Xen'ophon, the celebrated his- 
torian. With these auxiliaries, and an army of one hundred thousand 
of his own provincials, Cy'rus invaded Upper Asia, and advanced with 
little difficulty into Babylonia (b. c. 400). Here he encountered his 
brother's immense army, and rashly charging the centre of the royal 
guards, was slain on the field. His army, according to the usual 
custom of Asiatics, dispersed immediately ; and the Greeks were 
left almost alone in the midst of a hostile country, to effect a difficult 
retreat of more than a thousand miles. Their leaders proposed terms 
of accommodation to the Persians. They were invited to a conference, 
under the pretence of arranging the preliminaries, and were mercilessly 
butchered. Undismayed, they chose new commanders ; and after en- 
during incredible hardships, succeeded in fighting their way to their na- 
tive country. Thus gloriously ended "the retreat of the ten thousand ;" 
but nothing can excuse the original guilt of the expedition. 

The remnant of the ten thousand entered into the service of the 
Spartans, who had sent an army to protect the Greek cities of Asia 
from the threatened vengeance of Artaxer'xes. A desultory war en- 
sued, productive of no important result, until the command of the Greek 
forces was given to Agesilaus, who had been raised to the throne of La- 
conia by the influence and intrigues of Lysan'der. Agesilaus depart- 
ed for Asia just as the Spartans had escaped from the peril of a plot 
formed for their destruction by the subject Lacedaemonians, at the in- 
stigation of the ambitious Cin'adon (b. c. 396). Lysan'der, the author 
of his greatness, accompanied Agesilaus, hoping to re-establish the in- 
fluence which he had formerly possessed in the Asiatic cities. But 
Agesilaus treated him with the most mortifying neglect, and Lysan'der 
returned home, unpitied, to bewail his friend's ingratitude. The Spa:r- 
tan monarch, thus freed from a dangerous rival, then directed his entire 
attention to the war, and defeated the Persians in several battles. It 
is very probable that Agesilaus would have shaken the throne of Arta- 
xer'xes, had not the atrocious tyranny of his countrymen provoked the 
general enmity of all the Greek states, and kindled a new Peloponne- 
sian war. 

Under the most frivolous pretences, Lysan'der and the Spartan king 
Pausanias were sent to invade the Theban territories. The former laid 



124 ANCIENT KISTOKY. 

siege to Haliar'tus, the latter encamped in the neighborhood of Platas'a?, 
The garrison of Haliar'tus, taking advantage of this division of the hos- 
tile forces, made a sudden sally, and defeated the Spartans with great 
slaughter, Lysan'der himself being slain (b. c. 394). Pausanias ob- 
tained leave to bury the dead, on condition of evacuating Boeotia ; and 
he returned disgraced to the Peloponnesus, where he soon died of a 
broken heart. 

The news of this event revived the courage of the enemies of Spar'- 
ta ; a league for mutual protection was formed by the republics of Ar- 
gos, Thebes, Athens, and Corinth, to which most of the colonies in 
Thrace and Macedon acceded. Agesilaus was immediately recalled 
from Asia, and he obeyed the summons with great promptitude, leaving 
his fleet, and a portion of the Asiatic army, under the charge of his 
kinsman Pisan'der. Conon, one of the ten admirals, who had been ex- 
posed to the anger of the Athenian populace after the seafight at Arginu- 
sae, found a generous protector in Evag'oras, king of Cy'prus, by whom 
he was introduced to the notice of Artaxer'xes. The Persian monarch, 
alarmed at the progress of Agesilaus, gladly supplied Conon with the 
means of fitting out a fleet which might cope with that of Spar'ta. 
Knowing the vanity and inexperience of Pisan'der, Conon sailed in 
quest of the Lacedaemonians to the Dorian shore ; and off the harbor 
of Cnidus gained a decisive victory, by which the Spartan navy was 
annihilated, and its empire over the maritime states irretrievably de- 
stroyed. With consummate skill Conon availed himself of this suc- 
cess to restore not only the independence of Athens, but her supremacy 
in the ^Egean sea. He conducted his victorious fleet to the principal 
islands and colonies, and, either by persuasion or menace, induced them 
to renew their allegiance to their ancient mistress. 

Agesilaus received the intelligence of this unexpected reverse just 
as he was about to engage a Theban army at Coroneia (b. c. 394). He 
animated his soldiers by falsely reporting that the Spartan fleet had been 
victorious ; but even this stratagem failed to gain him decisive success. 
He won the battle, indeed, but at such a heavy cost that his victory was 
nearly as calamitous as a defeat. The best and bravest of the Spartan 
veterans fell', and Agesilaus himself was dangerously wounded. The 
battles qf Cnidus and Coroneia were the only important engagements 
in this war, which lasted nearly eight years ; both parties exhausted 
their strength in petty skirmishes in the neighborhood of Corinth ; and 
that Avealthy city was almost wholly destroyed by the rivalry of the 
Argive and Spartan factions. 

Conon having employed the Persian money to rebuild the walls of 
Athens, and the Persian fleet to restore its maritime supremacy, became 
suspected by Artaxer'xes of designing to raise a revolt of the Greeks in 
Asia ; and this suspicion was fostered by Spartan emissaries, who offer- 
ed to abandon, in the name of their government, the cause of Grecian 
liberty, provided that the Persian monarch would grant favorable terms 
of peace. Artaxer'xes listened to the treacherous proposals ; Conon 
was seized and murdered in prison ; articles of peace were arranged 
with the Spartan Antal'cidas, by which the liberty of the Greek cities 
was sacrificed, and the independence of all the minor republics pro- 
claimed. The Persian monarch and the Spartan republic took upon 



GREECE. 125 

themselves to enforce the latter regulation, whicli was designed to pre- 
vent Athens from maintaining her superiority over the maritime states, 
and Thebes from becoming mistress of the Boeotian cities (b. c. 387). 
The disgraceful peace of AntaFcidas, by which the Spartans resigned 
the free cities of Asia to a barbarian, in order to gratify their unworthy 
jealousies, sufficiently proves that the selfish policy inculcated by the 
laws of Lycur'gus was as ruinous as it was scandalous. 

The city of Olyn'thus, in the Macedonian peninsula, having incurred 
the resentment of the Spartans, an army was sent to reduce it ; but 
this was found no easy task ; and it was not until after a war of four 
years, in which the Spartans suffered many severe defeats, that the 
Olynthians were forced to accept a peace on very humiliating condi- 
tions. In the course of this war, Phoe'bidas, a Spartan general, in vio- 
lation of the laws of nations, seized the Cadmeia, or citadel of Thebes, 
then enjoying a profound peace ; and his crime was justified and re- 
warded by Agesilaus (b. c. 383). The chief of the Theban patriots 
fled to Athens, where they were kindly received ; an oligarchy of trai- 
tors was established under the protection of the Spartan garrison ; and 
Thebes was doomed to the misery that Athens had endured under the 
thirty tyrants. 

Pelop'idas, one of the Theban exiles, stimulated by the recent ex- 
ample of Thrasyb'lus, concerted, with a friend who had remained in 
Thebes, a bold plan for the liberation of his country. The most licen- 
tious of the tyrants were invited to a feast ; and when they were hot 
with wine, the conspirators entered disguised as courtesans, and slew 
them in the midst of their debauchery (b. c. 378). The rest of the 
traitors met a similar fate ; and the patriots being reinforced by an 
Athenian army, vigorously besieged the citadel, and soon forced the 
Lacedeemonian garrison to capitulate. 

Cleombrotus was sent with a numerous army from Lacedsemon, in 
the depth of winter, to chastise the Thebans. The Athenians were 
beginning to repent of their having aided the revolters ; but a perfidious 
attempt having been made by one of the Spartan generals to seize the 
Peirse'us, as Phoe'bidas had the Cadmeia, the whole city of Athens was 
filled with just indignation, and the most vigorous preparations were 
made for war. Agesilaus himself repeatedly invaded Boeotia, without 
performing anything worthy of his former fame. Pelop'idas, who was 
chosen general by his grateful countrymen, won two splendid victories 
at Tanag'ra and Tegy'ra, though in the latter fight he had to encounter 
a vast disparity of force. The Athenians swept the Spartan navy from 
the seas, and infested the coasts of the Peloponnesus. The maritime 
states, disappointed in their expectations of independence, renewed 
their confederacy under the supremacy of Athens, and the invention of 
a new system of tactics by Iphic'rates, was fatal to the ancient supe- 
riority of the Lacedaemonian phalanx. Nothing, in short, could have 
saved Spar'ta from destruction, had not the Thebans, intoxicated with 
success, provoked hostility by their vaunting pride, and the cruelty with 
which they treated the cities of Boeotia. 

A convention of all the Grecian states was summoned to Spar'ta, at 
the request of the Persian monarch, who wished to obtain aid from the 
chief republics in subduing an insiurrection of the Egyptians (b. c. 



126 ANCIENT HISTOKY. 

372). The representative of the Thebans was Epaminon'das, the best 
military commander that Greece had yet produced, and the wisest 
statesman it had seen since the days of Per'icles. His eloquent de- 
nunciation of Spartan ambition produced a deep impression on the 
minds of the deputies, which all the ingenuity of Agesilaus could not 
remove ; the assembly was dissolved without coming to any conclusion ; 
but the influence of Sparta was destroyed for ever. Early in the fol- 
lowing spring, Cleombrotus, who, during the sickness of Agesilaus had 
been appointed to the chief command, invaded BcEotia with a powerful 
army. Epaminon'das met him on the memorable field of Leuc'tra, and 
by attacking the long lines of the Lacedaemonians with massy columns, 
won a decisive victory, in which Cleombrotus himself was slain. The 
consequences of this battle were more important than the triumph 
itself; for all the states previously under the yoke of Spar'ta began 
openly to aspire at independence. 

The Athenians, though justly enraged with the Spartans, were by 
no means satisfied with the result of the battle of Leuc'tra. They 
withdrew their friendship from the Thebans, who soon, however, found 
a more powerful ally in Jason, the captain-general of Thessaly. This 
noble prince, who had planned the union of all the Grecian states into 
a single monarchy, of which he designed himself to be the head, 
joined the Thebans after the battle, and meditated a truce between 
them and the Spartans. He was planning further schemes of empire, 
when he was murdered by seven assassins in the presence of his army 
(b. c. 370). Two of the murderers were slain on the spot ; five escaped 
by the fleetness of their horses, and were received in the Grecian re- 
publics as heroic assertors of liberty. 

No peril more imminently threatened Spar'ta than the revolt of the 
Peloponnesian states which had hitherto tamely submitted to her au- 
thority ; but it was dangerous to attempt their subjugation by force, lest 
they might combine together for mutual protection. These states were 
equally reluctant to encounter the hazards of war, until they had se- 
cured the support of a Theban army ; and they sent pressing messages 
for aid to Boeotia. After some delay, Epaminon'das and Pelop'idas 
were sent into the Peloponnesus at the head of a powerful army, and 
they advanced without interruption into Laconia, where the face of an 
enemy had not been seen for five centuries (b. c. 369). The whole 
country was laid desolate ; but what was more afflicting to the Spar- 
tans even than these ravages, Epaminon'das rebuilt the ancient city of 
Messene, placed a Theban garrison in its citadel, and called back the 
Wreck of the Messenian nation to their native land, where they watched 
every favorable occasion for wreaking their vengeance on their oppres- 
sors. Scarcely had this great enterprise been accomplished, when the 
Theban generals heard that the Athenians had not only entered into 
alliance with the Spartans, but had sent a large army to their aid, un- 
der the command of Iphic'rates. They immediately evacuated Laco- 
nia, and returned home laden with plunder through the isthmus of Cor- 
inth, meeting no interruption from Iphic'rates, who led his forces by a 
difierent road. The Thebans, instead of receiving their illustrious 
generals with gratitude, brought them to trial for having continued their 
command beyond the time limited by law. Pelop'idas lost his pres- 



GEEECE. 127 

ence of mitid, and escaped with difficulty ; but Epaminon'das, proudly- 
recounting his heroic deeds, awed his accusers into silence, and was 
conducted home in triumph. ♦ 

The Peloponnesian war lingered during the six following years. 
The Spartans were engaged in punishing their revolted subjects in La- 
conia ; the Thebans were involved in a difficult struggle against Alex- 
an'der, the tyrant of Pherae, who had succeeded to the influence of Ja- 
son in Thessaly, and Ptolemy, the usurper of the throne of Macedon. 
Pelop'idas was intrusted with the command of the army sent to regu- 
late these difficulties. He forced Alexan'der to submit to the terms of 
peace imposed by the Theban senate, and he restored Per'diccas, the 
legitimate heir, to the throne of Macedon. To secure the Theban in- 
terest in the north, he brought home with him several of the Macedo- 
nian princes and nobles as hostages, among whom was Philip, the 
younger brother of Per'diccas, and future conqueror of Greece. On. 
his return, Pelop'idas was treacherously seized by the tyrant of Pherae, 
and thrown into prison ; nor was he liberated until Epaminon'das, after 
the defeat of many inferior leaders, was sent into Thessaly, where he 
soon forced the tyrant Alexan'der to unconditional submission. Pelop'- 
idas, after his liberation, was sent as an ambassador to Persia, where 
his eloquence so charmed Artaxer'xes, that he broke off his alliance 
with Spar'ta and concluded a league with the Thebans. The greater 
number of the Grecian states refused to accede to this union, partly 
from their ancient hostility to Persia, partly from jealousy of Thebes. 
Epaminon'das was therefore sent a third time into the Peloponnesus 
with a powerful army, to revive the spirit of the former confederacy 
against Spar'ta (b. c. 366). He wasted much precious time in trying 
to obtain a naval power, and he was long prevented from undertaking 
any enterprise of importance by the jealousy and dissensions of his al- 
lies, especially the Arcadians. While he was thus employed, his col- 
league Pelop'idas fell in a battle against Alexan'der, the tyrant of Phe- 
rae (b. c. 364); and the Thebans, through sorrow for his death, made 
no public rejoicings for their victory. His loss was poorly compensa- 
ted by the destruction of the tyrant, who was soon after murdered by 
his own family. 

In the following year, Epaminon'das entered upon his last campaign, 
by marching against the Peloponnesian states which had separated 
from the Theban alliance. Knowing the unprotected condition of 
Spar'ta, he made a forced march, and appeared before the city while 
the army was at a considerable distance. His attack was fierce ; but 
it was repelled by the valor of Archid'amus, the son of Agesilaus, who, 
with a handful of men, compelled the Thebans to retreat. Foiled in 
this attempt, he resolved to surprise the wealthy city of Mantinae'a ; 
and would have succeeded, had not a squadron of Athenian cavalry 
accidentally reached the place a little before the appearance of the 
Thebans, and by their determined valor baffled the utmost efforts of the 
assailants. These repeated disappointments induced Epaminon'das to 
hazard a pitched battle. It was fought in the neighborhood of Man- 
tinae'a, and was the most arduous and sanguinary contest in which the 
Greeks had yet engaged. Epaminon'das fell in the arms of victory ; 
and the Thebans, neglecting to pursue their advantages, rendered this 



128 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

sanguinary struggle indecisive, and productive of no other consequence 
than a general languor and debility in all the Grecian states. The 
glory of Thebes perished w^ith the two great men who had raised her 
to fame : a general peace was established by the mediation of Artaxer'- 
xes (li. 0. 362), on the single condition, that each republic should re- 
tain its respective possessions. 

Spar'ta was anxious, to recover Messenia ; but this being opposed by 
the Persian king, Agesilaus, to punish Artaxer'xes, led an army into 
Egypt, where he supported one rebel after another, and acquired con- 
siderable wealth in this dishonorable war. On his return home, he 
died in an obscure port on the Cyreniac coast, at the advanced age of 
eighty-four years (b. c. 361). At the commencement of his reign, 
Spar'ta had attained the summit of her greatness ; at its close, she had 
§unk into hopeless weakness : and, notwithstanding all the praise be- 
stowed upon this monarch by the eloquent Xen'ophon, it is undeniable 
that most of Spar'ta's misfortunes were owing to the ambition, the 
obstinacy, and the perfidy of Agesilaus. 

Section VI. — The Second Sacred War. — Destruction of Grecian Freedom. 
FROM B. c. 361 TO B. c. 336, 

Scar GEL y had the third Peloponnesian war terminated, when the 
Athenians, by their tyranny and rapacity toward the maritime states, 
were deprived of all thfe advantages they had derived from the patriot- 
ism of Conon. Chares, a blustering, vulgar demagogue, raised to 
power by pandering to the passions of a licentious populace, exhorted 
his countrymen to supply their exhausted treasury by plundering the 
wealth of their allies and colonies. This counsel was too faithfully 
obeyed. The weaker states complained ; but the islands of Chios, 
Cos, and Rhodes, together with the city of Byzan'tium, prepared openly 
to revolt, and entered into a league for their mutual protection (b. c. 
358). Chares was sent to chastise the insurgents : he laid siege to the 
city of Chios, but was driven from its walls with disgrace and loss ; 
Chabrias, the best leader that the Athenians possessed, falling in the 
engagement. The insurgents, encouraged by this success, began to 
assume the offensive, and to ravage the islands that remained faithful to 
Athens. A new armament was prepared to check their progress, and 
it was intrusted to the joint command of Chares, Timotheus, and 
Iphic'rates ; but Chares, having been hindered by his colleagues from 
hazarding a battle off Byzan'tium under very favorable circumstances, 
procured their recall, and had them brought to trial upon a charge of 
treachery and cowardice. Venal orators conducted the prosecution ; 
and a degraded people sentenced the two illustrious commanders to 
pay an exorbitant fine. They both retired into voluntary exile, and 
never again entered the service of their ungrateful country. Chares, 
left uncontrolled, wholly neglected the commission with which he had 
been intrusted, and hired himself and his troops to the satrap Artabazus, 
then in rebellion against Artaxer'xes O'chus, king of Persia. This 
completed the ruin of the Athenians. O'chus threatened them with the 
whole weight of his resentment, unless they instantly recalled their 



GREECE. 129 

armament from the East ; and with this mandate the degraded repub- 
licans were forced to comply (b. c. 356). The confederate states re- 
gained complete freedom and independence, which they preserved for 
twenty years, when they, with the rest of Greece, feU under the domin- 
ion of the Macedonians. 

Spar'ta, Thebes, and Athens, having successively lost their suprem- 
acy, the Amphictyonic council, which for more than a century had 
been a mere pageant, began to exercise an important influence in the 
affairs of Greece. They issued a decree subjecting the Phocians to a 
heavy fine for cultivating some lands that had been consecrated to 
Apol'lo, and imposing a similar penalty on the Spartans for their treach- 
erous occupation of the Cadmeia (b. c. 357). The Phocians, anima- 
ted by their leader Philomelus, and secretly encouraged by the Spar- 
tans, not only refused obedience, but had recourse to arms. In defiance 
of the prejudices of the age, Philomelus stormed the city of Del'phi, 
plundered the sacred treasury, and employed its wealth in raising an 
army of mercenary adventurers. The Thebans and Locrians were fore- 
most in avenging this insult to the national religion ; but the war was 
rather a series of petty skirmishes than regular battles. It was chiefly 
remarkable for the sanguinary spirit displayed on both sides ; the 
Thebans murdering their captives as sacrilegious wretches ; the Phoci- 
ans retaliating these cruelties on all the captives that fell into their 
hands. At length Philomelus, being forced to a general engagement 
under disadvantageous circumstances, was surrounded, and on the point 
of being made prisoner, when he threw himself headlong from a rock, 
to escape falling into the hands of his enemies (b. c. 353). Onomar'- 
chiis, the lieutenant and brother of the Phocian general, safely conduct- 
ed the remnant of the army to the fastnesses of Del'phi. He proved 
an able and prudent leader. With the treasures of the Delphic temple 
he purchased the aid of Ly'cophron, the chief of the Thessalian prin- 
cess ; and, thus supported, he committed fearful ravages in the territo- 
ries of Bffiotia and Locris. The Thebans, in great distress, applied for 
aid to Philip, king of Macedon, who had long sought a pretext for inter- 
fering in the affairs of Greece (b. c. 352) : he marched immediately to 
their relief, completely routed the Phocians in the plains of Thessaly, 
and suspended from a gibbet the body of Onomar'chus which was found 
among the slain. He dared not, however, pursue his advantages fur- 
ther ; for he knew that an attempt to, pass the straits of Thermopylae 
would expose him to the hostility of all the Grecian states which he 
was not yet prepared to encounter. 

Phayl'lus, the brother of the two preceding leaders of the Phocians^ 
renewed the war, and again became formidable. Philip, under the pre- 
tence of checking his progress, attempted to seize Thermop'ylae ; but had 
the mortification to find the straits pre-occupied by the Athenians. He 
returned home, apparently wearied of Grecian politics ; but he had 
purchased the services of venal orators, whose intrigues soon afforded 
him a plausible pretext for renewed interference. The war lingered for 
two or three years ; the treasures of the Delphic temple began to fail, 
and the Phocians longed for peace. But the vengeance of the The- 
bans was insatiable : they besought Philip to crush the impious pro- 
faners of the temple ; and that prince, having lulled the suspicions of 



«. 



130 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

the Athenians, in spite of the urgent warnings of the patriotic Demos'- 
thenes, passed the straits without opposition, and laid the unhappy 
Phocians prostrate at the feet of their inveterate enemies (b. c. 347). 
Their cities were dismantled, their country laid desolate, and their vote 
in the Amphictyonic council transferred to the king of Macedon. 

A new sacred war was excited by the artifices of ^Es'chines, the 
Athenian deputy to the Amphictyonic council, a venal orator, who had 
long sold himself to Pliilip. He accused the Locrians of Amphis'sa of 
cultivating the Cirrhean plain, which had been consecrated with such 
solemn ceremonies in the first sacred war The Locrians, after the 
example of the Phocians, refused obedience to the sentence of the 
Amphic^tyons ; and the charge of conducting the war against them was 
intrusted to Philip (b. c. 339). He hastened to Del'phi, marched 
against Amphis'sa, took it by storm ; and soon after revealed his de- 
signs against the liberties of Greece, by seizing and fortifying Elateia, 
the capital of Phocis. The Athenians and Thebans instantly took up 
arms ; but they intrusted their forces to incompetent generals ; and 
when they encountered the Macedonians at Chaeroneia, they were 
irretrievably defeated. The independence of the Grecian communities 
was thus destroyed ; and in a general convention of the Amphictyonic 
states at Corinth (b. c. 337), Philip was chosen captain-general of con- 
federate Greece, and appointed to lead their united forces against the 
Persian empire. 



MACEDON. ISl 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE HISTORY OF MACEDON. 

Section I. — Geographical Outline. 

The range of Mount Hse'mus separates Thrace and Macedon from 
northern Europe, and the Cambdnian mountains on the south diAdde the 
latter country from Thessaly. The space intervening between these 
mountain-chains was, during a long succession of ages, distinguished by 
different appellations, according as the barbarous nations that tenanted 
these regions rose into temporary eminence. The most ancient name 
of Macedonia was iEmath'ia ; but the time and cause of the appellation 
being changed are unknown. It is difficult to describe the boundaries 
of a country whose limits were constantly varying ; but in its most 
flourishing state, Macedon was bounded on the north by the river ^Rj^ 

Strymon, and the Scardian branch of Mount Hae'mus ; on the east by 
the iEgean sea ; on the south by the Cambunian mountains ; and on 
the west by the Adriatic. It was said to contain one hundred and fifty 
different nations ; and this number will not appear exaggerated, when 
it is remembered that each of its cities and towns was regarded as an 
independent state. 

The western division of the country, on the coast of the Adriatic, was 
for the most part possessed by the uncivilized Taidant'ii. In their ter- 
ritory stood Epidam'nus, founded by a Corcyrean colony, whose name 
the Romans changed to Dyrac'chium (JDurazzo), on account of its ill- 
omened signification ; and Apollonia, a city colonized by the Corin- 
thians. South of the Taulant'ii, but still on the Adriatic coast, was the 
territory of the Alymiotae, whose chief cities were Elyma, and Bvd^lis. 
East of these lay a little inland district called the kingdom of Orestes, 
because the son of Agamem'non is said to have settled there after the 
murder of his mother. 

The southeastern part of the country, called iEmath'ia or Macedonia 
Proper, contained iEgse'a, or Edes''sa, the cradle of the Macedonian 
monarchy, and PeWa, the favorite capital of its most powerful kings. 
The districts of ^raath'ia that bordered the sea were called Pieria, 
and were consecrated to the Muses : they contained the important cities 
Pyd'na, Phylace, and DIum. Northeast was the region of Amphax'itis, 
bordering the Thermaic gulf: its chief cities were Ther'ma, subse- 
quently called Thessalonica {^Salomchi), and Staglra, the birthplace of 
Aristotle. 

The Chalcidian peninsula, between the Thermaic and Strymonian 
gulfs, has its coast deeply indented by noble bays and inlets of the 



132 ANCIENT HI3T0RY. • 

iEgean sea. It contained many important trading cities and colonies, 
the chief of which, Pallene, in the headland of the same name : Potidae'a, 
a Corinthian colony ; Torone, on the Toronaic gu\{; and Olyn'thus, 
famous for the many sieges it sustained. In the region of Edonia, 
near the river Strymon, was Amphip'olis, a favorite colony of the 
Athenians, Scotus'sa, and Crenides, whose name was changed to 
Philip'pi by the father of Alexander the Great. 

The most remarkable mountains of Macedon were the Scardian 
and other branches from the chain of Hae'mus ; Pangae'us, celebrated 
for its rich mines of gold and silver ; A'thos, which juts into the 
iEgean sea, forming a remarkable and dangerous promontory ; and 
Olym'pus, which partly belonged to Thessaly. Most of these, but 
especially the Scardian chain and Mount A'thos, were richly wooded, 
and the timber they produced was highly valued by shipbuilders. The 
principal rivers falling into the Adriatic were the Panyasus, the Ap'sus, 
the Laiis, and the Celyd'nus ; on the ^gean side were the Haliac'mony 
the E'rigon, the Ax'ius, and the Strymon, which was the northern 
boundary of Macedon, until Philip extended his dominions to the Nes'- 
sus. 

The soil bf Macedonia was very fruitful ; on the seacoast especially 
it produced great abundance of corn, wine, and oil, and most of its 
mountains were rich in mineral treasures. Macedonia was celebrated 
for an excellent breed of horses, to which great attention was paid ; no 
fewer than thirty thousand brood mares being kept in the royal stud at 
Pella. 



SECTroN II. — History of the Macedonian Monarchy. 
FROM B. c. 813 TO B. c. 323. 

An Argive colony, conducted by Car'anus, is said to have invaded 
(Emath'ia by the command of an oracle, and to have been conducted 
by a flock of goats to the city of Edes'sa, which was easily stormed 
(*B..c. 813). The kingdom thus founded was gradually enlarged at the 
expense of the neighboring barbarous nations ; and was fast rising into 
importance, when, in the reign of king Amyn'tas, it became tributary to 
the Persians (b. c. 513), immediately after the return of Darius from 
his Scythian campaign. After the overthrow of the Persians at Platse'ae, 
Macedon recovered its independence ; which, however, was never 
recognised by the Persian kings. Per'diccas II. (b. c. 554), on coming 
to the throne, found his dominions exposed to the attacks of the Illyri- 
ans and Thracians, while his brother was encouraged to contest the 
crown by the Athenians. He was induced by these circumstances to 
take the Spartan side in the first Peloponnesian war, and much of the 
success of Bras'idas was owing to his active co-operation. 

Civilization and the arts of social life were introduced into Macedo- 
nia by Archelaus, the son and successor of Per'diccas (b. c. 413). His 
plans for the reform of the government were greatly impeded by the 
jealous hostility of the nobles, who were a kind of petty princes, 
barely conceding to their kings the right of precedence. He was a 
generous patron of learning and learned men ; he invited Soc'rates to 



MACEDON. 133 

his court ; and munificently protected Eurip'ides when he was forced to 
depart from Athens. 

Archelaus was murdered by Crat'erus, one of his favorites 
(b. 0. 400) ; and his death was followed by a series of civil wars and 
sanguinary revolutions, which possess no interest or importance. They 
were terminated by the accession of Philip (b. c. 360), who, on the 
death of his brother Per'diccas III., escaped from Thebes, whither he 
had been sent as a hostage, and was chosen king in preference to his 
nephew, whose infancy disqualified him from reigning in a crisis of 
difficulty and danger. 

Philip found his new kingdom assailed by four formidable armies, 
and distracted by the claims of two rival competitors for the throne, 
one of whom had the powerful support of the Athenians. Educated 
in the arts of war and state-policy by the great Epaminon'das, Philip 
displayed valor and wisdom adequate to the crisis : he purchased, by 
large bribes, the forbearance rather than the friendship of the lUyrians, 
Peeonians, and Thracians ; he then marched with his whole force 
against Argse'us and his Athenian auxiliaries, whom he defeated in a 
general engagement. Argae'us was slain, and his supporters remained 
prisoners of war. Philip, anxious to court the favor of the Athenians, 
dismissed his captives without ransom, and resigned his pretensions to 
Amphip^olis. 

Having restored tranquillity to his kingdom, he began to prepare for 
its security by improving the tactics and military discipline of his sub- 
jects. Epaminon^'das, at Leuc'tra and Mantineia, had shown the supe- 
riority of a heavy column over the long lines in which the Greeks usu- 
ally arranged their forces ; and, improving on this lesson, he instituted 
the celebrated Macedonian phalanx. He soon found the advantage of 
this improvement : having been forced to war by the Peeonians, he 
subdued their country, and made it a Macedonian province ; and then, 
without resting, he marched against the lUyrians, whom he overthrew 
so decisively, that they begged for peace on any conditions he pleased 
to impose. 

While Athens was involved in the fatal war against the colonies 
Philip, though professing the warmest friendship for the republic, cap- 
tured Amphip''olis, Pyd'na, and Potidae'a ; and stripped Cotys, king of 
Thrace, the most faithful ally the Athenians possessed, of a great por- 
tion of his dominions. Thence he turned his arms against the tyrants 
of Thes^saly and Epirus ; and received from the Thessalians, in grati- 
tude for his services, the cession of all the revenues arising from their 
fairs and markets, as well as all the conveniences of their harbors and 
shipping. When the campaign was concluded (b. c. 357), he married 
Olym^pias, daughter of the king of Epirus, a princess equally remark- 
able for her crimes and her misfortunes. 

While Greece was distracted by the second sacred war, Philip was 
steadily pursuing his policy of extending his northern frontiers, and 
securing the maritime cities of Thrace. He was vigorously opposed 
by Kersoblep'tes and an Athenian army ; in spite, however, of these 
enemies, he captured the important city of Methone ; but he deemed 
the conquest dearly purchased by the loss of an eye during the siege. 
His attention was next directed to the sacred war, which he was invi- 



134 ANCIENT HISTORY. * 

teJ to undertake by the Thebans. Having subdued the Phocians, he 
made an attempt to seize Thermop'yloe (b. c. 352), but was baffled by 
the energetic promptitude of the Athenians. They were roused to this 
display of valor by the eloquent harangues of the orator Demos'thenes, 
whose whole life was spent in opposing Philip's designs against Gre- 
cian liberty. He was soon after doomed to meet a second disappoint- 
ment ; his troops being driven from the island of Euboe'a by the virtu- 
ous Phocion, the last and most incorruptible of the long list of generals 
and statesmen that adorned the Athenian republic. 

These disappointments only stimulated his activity. Having pur- 
chased, by large bribes, the services of several traitors in Olyn'thus, he 
marched against that opulent city (b. c. 349), while the venal orators at 
Athens, whom he had taken into his pay, dissuaded the careless and 
sensual Athenians from hastening to the relief of their allies. The 
noble exhortations, solemn warnings, and bitter reproaches of Demos'- 
thenes, failed to inspire his countrymen with energy : they wasted the 
time of action in discussions, embassies, and fruitless expeditions ; 
and when they began to prepare for some more serious interference, 
they were astounded by the intelligence that Olyn'thus was no more. 
It had been betrayed to Philip, who levelled its walls and buildings to 
the grovmd, and dragged the inhabitants into slavery. Tliis triumph 
was followed by the conquest of the whole Chalcidian peninsula, with 
its valuable commercial marts and seaports. His artifices and ' bribes 
disarmed the vengeance of the Athenians, and lulled them into a fatal 
security, while Philip finally put an end to the sacred war, by the utter 
destruction of the Phocians. They even permitted him to extend his 
conquests in Thebes, and to acquire a commanding influence in the 
Peloponnesus, by leading an armament thither, which completed the 
humiliation of the Spartans. 

For several years Philip was engaged in the conquest of the com- 
mercial cities in the Thracian Chersonese and on the shores of the 
Propon'tis, while the Athenians made some vigorous but desultory 
efforts to check his progress. At length the third sacred war against 
the Locrians of Amphis'sa gave him an opportunity of again appearing 
as the champion of the national religion of Greece. He entered Pho- 
cis, and thence marched to Amphis'sa, which he totally destroyed 
(b. c. 338). Before the southern Greeks could recover from their 
astonishment, he threw oft' the mask which had hitherto concealed his 
plans, and announced to the states his design of becoming their master, 
by seizing and fortifying Elateia. The Thebans and Athenians united 
in defence of Grecian liberty, but unfortunately they intrusted their 
forces to feeble and treacherous commanders. They encountered the 
Macedonians, headed by Philip and his valiant son Alexander, in the 
plains of Cheroneia, and were irretrievably ruined. They were forced 
to accept of peace dictated by the conqueror, who treated the Thebans 
with dreadful severity, but showed great forbearance and kindness to 
the Athenians. In the following year a general convention of the 
Grecian states was held at Corinth, where it was resolved that all 
should unite in a war against the Persians, and that Philip should be 
appointed captain-general of the confederate forces. While prepara- 
tions were making for this great enterprise, Philip was stabbed to the 



MACEDON. 135 

heart by Pausanias, a Macedonian nobleman (b. c. 336), whose motives 
for committing such an atrocious crime can not be satisfactorily ascer- 
tained, 

Alexan'der, deservedly sumamed the Great, succeeded his father, 
but on his accession had to contend against a host of enemies. The 
Thracians, the Illyrians, and the other barbarous tribes of the north, 
took up arms, hoping that they might easily triumph over his youth and 
inexperience. But they were miserably disappointed. Alexander, in 
an incredibly short space of time, forced their fastnesses, and inflicted 
on them so severe a chastisement, that they never again dared to 
attempt a revolt. But, in the meantime, a report had been spread in 
Greece, that Alexander had fallen in lUyr'ia. The different states 
began to make vigorous preparations for shaking off the yoke of Mace- 
don ; and the Thebans took the lead in the revolt, by murdering the 
governors that Philip had appointed, and besieging the garrison in the 
Cadmeia (b. c 335). Fourteen days had scarcely elapsed, when Alex- 
ander, eager for. vengeance, appeared before the walls of Thebes. 
After a brief struggle, the city was taken by storm, and levelled with 
the ground. The conqueror spared the lives of those who were 
descended from Pin'dar, of the priestly families, and of all who had 
shown attachment to the Macedonian interest ; but the rest of the 
inhabitants were doomed to death or slavery. It must, however, be 
remarked, that the Boeotians in Alexander's army were more active 
than the Macedonians in this scene of barbarity, and that the Thebans, 
by their previous treatment of the Boeotian cities, had provoked retali- 
ation. Alexander subsequently regretted the fate of Thebes, and con- 
fessed that its destruction was both cruel and impolitic. 

This dreadful calamity spread terror throughout Greece ; the states 
hastened to renew their submission ; and Alexander, whose whole soul 
was bent on the conquest of Asia, accepted their excuses, and renewed 
the confederacy, of which his father had been chosen chief. He then 
intrusted the government of Greece and Macedon to Antip'ater, and 
prepared to invade the great empire of Persia with an army not 
exceeding five thousand horse, and thirty thousand foot (b. c. 334). 
He led his forces to Sestus in Thrace, whence they were transported 
across the Hellespont without opposition, the Persians having totally 
neglected the defence of their western frontier. 

The Persian satraps rejected the prudent advice of Mem'non, who 
recommended them to lay waste the country, and force the Macedo- 
nians to return home by the pressure of famine ; but they collected an 
immense army, with which they took post on the Granicus, a river 
that flows from Mount Ida into the Propon'tis. Alexander did not hes- 
itate a moment in engaging the enemy, notwithstanding the vast supe- 
riority of the hostile forces. He forded the river at the head of his 
cavalry, and, after being exposed to great personal danger, obtained a 
decisive victory, with the loss of only eighty-five horsemen and thirty 
of the light infantry. This glorious achievement was followed by the 
subjugation of all the provinces west of the river Halys, which had 
formed the ancient kingdom of Lydia ; and before the first campaign 
closed, Alexander was the undisputed master of Asia Minor. 

The second campaign opened with the reduction of Phrygia, after 



136 ANCIENT HISTORY, 

•which the Macedonian hero entered Cilicia, and, marching through the 
pass called the Syrian Gates, reached the bay of Is'sus, where he 
expected to meet Darius and the Persian army. But that monarch, 
persuaded by his flatterers that Alexander was afraid to meet him and 
trembled at his approach, had entered the defiles in quest of the 
Greeks, and was thus entangled in the narrow valleys of the Syrian 
straits, where it was impossible to derive advantage from his vast 
superiority of numbers. Alexander instantly prepared to profit by this 
imprudence. He attacked the barbarian columns with his resistless 
phalanx, and broke them to pieces. The valor of the Greek mercena- 
ries in the pay of Persia for a time rendered the victory doubtful ; but 
the Macedonians, victorious in every other part of the field, attacked 
this body in flank, and put it to a total rout. Darius fled in the very 
beginning of the engagement, leaving his wife, his mother, his daugh- 
ters, and his infant son, to the mercy of the conqueror. The Persians 
entangled and crowded in the defiles of the mountains, suflfered so 
severely in their flight, that they made no effort to defend their camp, 
Avhich, with all its vast treasures, became the prey of the Macedonians. 
The conduct of Alexander after this unparalleled victory proved that 
he deserved success. He treated the captive Persian princesses with 
the greatest respect and kindness, and dismissed without ransom the 
Greeks whom he had made prisoners while fighting against their 
country. 

Before invading Upper Asia, Alexander prudently resolved to subdue 
the maritime provinces. He encountered no resistance until he 
demanded to be admitted into the city of Tyre, when the inhabitants 
boldly set him at defiance. It would be inconsistent with our narrow 
limits to describe the siege of this important place (b. c. 332). Suflice 
it to say, that, after a tedious siege and desperate resistance, TyTe was 
taken by storm and its inhabitants either butchered or enslaved. This 
success was followed by the submission of all Palestine, except Gaza, 
which made as obstinate a defence as Tyre, and was as severely pun- 
ished. From Gaza the Macedonians entered Egypt, which submitted 
to them almost without a blow. 

Having received, during the winter, considerable reinforcements 
from Greece, Macedon, and Thrace, Alexander opened his fourth cam- 
paign by crossing the Euphrates at Thap'sacus ; thence he advanced 
to the Tigris, and, having forded that river, entered the plains of As- 
syria. He found Darius with an immense army, composed not merely 
of Persians, but of the wild tribes from the deserts east of the Caspi- 
an, encamped near the village of Gaugamela ; but as this place is little 
known, the battle that decided the fate of an empire is more usually 
named from Arbela, the nearest town of importance to the plains on 
which it was fought (b. c. 331). Having halted for a few days to 
refresh his men, Alexander advanced early in the morning against the 
vast host of Darfus. Darius led his forces forward with so little skill 
that the horse became intermingled with the foot, and the attempt to 
disentangle them broke the line. Alexander, forming his troops into a 
wedge, occupied this gap, and pushing right forward, threw the Asiat- 
ics into irretrievable confusion. The Persian cavalry on the left wing 
continued to maintain the fight after the centre was broken, but when 



MACEDON. 137 

Alexander, with a select squadron, assailed tlieir flank, they broke their 
lines and fled at full gallop from the field. It was no longer a battle, 
but a slaughter ; forty thousand of the barbarians were slain, while the 
loss of the Greeks did not exceed five hundred men. The triumph 
was, however, sullied by the wanton destruction of Persep'olis, which 
Alexander is said to have burned at the instigation of an Athenian 
courtesan, when heated with wine during the rejoicing after the victory. 

The first intention of Darius after his defeat was to establish him- 
self in Media ; but hearing that Alexander was approaching Ecbatana 
he fled to Hyrcania with a small escort. Here he was deposed by the 
satrap Bessus, and thrown into chains. On receiving this intelligence, 
Alexander advanced against Bessus with the utmost speed ; but he 
came too late to save the unhappy Darius, who was savagely stabbed 
by the rebels, and left to expire at the roadside. His fate was soon 
avenged by his former enemy. Alexander continued the pursuit so 
vigorously, that Bessus was soon taken, and put to death with the most 
horrible tortures. Spitamenes, and several other satraps, still main- 
tained a desperate struggle for independence, assisted by the barbarous 
tribes of the desert. Four years were spent in subduing these chiefs 
and their allies ; in the course of which time Alexander conquered 
Bac'tria, Sogdiana, and the countries now included in southern Tar- 
tary, Khorassan, Kabul (b. c. 327). But, still desirous of further tri- 
umphs, he resolved to invade India. 

While Alexander was thus engaged, the Lacedaemonians, instigated 
by their warlike monarch A'gis, declared war against Macedon, but 
were speedily subdued by Antip'ater. They sent ambassadors into 
Asia to supplicate the clemency of the Macedonian monarch, and were 
generously pardoned by Alexander (b. c. 330). Another proof of the 
young hero's respect for the ancient Grecian states, was his permitting 
the Athenians to banish ^s'chines, the ancient friend of Macedon, 
after he had been conquered by Demos'thenes in the most remarkable 
oratorical contest recorded in the annals of eloquence. iEs'chines 
accused Ctes'iphon for having proposed that a golden crown should be 
given to Demos'thenes as a testimony to the rectitude of his political 
career. ^Es'chines assailed the whole course of policy recommended 
by Demos'thenes, declaring that it had caused the ruin of Grecian in- 
dependence. Demos'thenes defended his political career so trium- 
phantly, that jEs'chines was sent into banishment for having instituted 
a malicious prosecution. 

Alexander, having made all necessary preparations for the invasion 
of India (b. c. 327), advanced toward that country by the route of Kan- 
dahar, which is that generally used by caravans to and from Persia at 
the present day. One division of his army, having pushed forward to 
the banks of the In'dus, prepared everything requisite for fording the 
river, while the king was engaged in subduing such cities and fortresses 
as might be of service in forming magazines, should he advance, or se- 
curing a retreat, if he found it necessary to return. No opposition 
was made to the passage of the In'dus. Alexander received on its 
eastern bank the submission of Tax'iles, a powerful Indian prince, who 
supplied him with seven thousand Indian horse as auxiliaries. Continuing 
his march through the country now called the Punj-ab, or land of the 



138 ANCIENT HISTORY. * 

five rivers, lie reached the banks of the Hydas'pes (Jhihim), and found 
the opposite side occupied by an Indian prince, called Purus by the 
historians, though that name, like Bren'nus among the Gauls, and Da- 
rius among the Persians, more properly designated an office than an 
individual. 

The Indian army was more numerous than the Macedonian, and it 
had, besides, the support of three hundred war-chariots and two hun- 
dred elephants. Alexander could not pass the river in the presence of 
such a host without danger ; but by a series of stratagems he lulled the 
enemy into false security, and reached the right bank with little inter- 
ruption. A battle ensued, in which the Indians were totally defeated, 
and Porus himself made prisoner. The conqueror continued his march 
eastward, crossing the Aces'ines (Chundh) and the Hydraotes (Ravi) ; 
but when he reached the Hy'phasis [Sutleje), his troops unanimously 
refused to continue their march ; and Alexander was reluctantly forced 
to make the Punj-ab the limit of his conquests. He determined, how- 
ever, to return into central Asia by a different route from that by which 
he had advanced, and caused vessels to be built on the Hydas'pes to trans- 
port his troops down that stream to its junction with the In'dus, and 
thence to the ocean. His navigation employed several months, being 
frequently retarded by the hostilities of the natives, especially the war- 
like tribe of the Mal'li. After having wistfully surveyed the waters of 
the Indian ocean, Alexander determined to proceed toward Persepolis 
through the barren solitudes of Gedrosia (b. c. 325), while his fleet, 
under Near'chus, was employed in the survey of the Persian gulf, from 
the mouth of the Indus to that of the Euphrates. He endured many 
hardships, but at length arrived, with less loss than might reasonably 
have been anticipated, in the fertile provinces of Persia. His active 
mind was next directed to securing the vast empire he had acquired, 
and joining Europe to Asia by the bonds of his commercial intercourse. 
No better proof of the wisdom of his plans can be given than the fact 
that most of the cities he founded as trading marts are still the places 
of most commercial importance in their respective countries. But 
while he was thus honorably and usefully employed, his career was 
cut short by a fever, the consequence of excessive drinking — a vice in 
which all the Macedonians were prone to indulge after the fatigues of 
war (b. c. 324, May 28th). His sudden death prevented him from 
making any arrangements respecting the succession or a regency ; but 
in his last agony he gave his ring to Per'diccas, a Macedonian noble- 
man who had obtained the chief place in his favor after the death of 
Hephaes'tion. 

Section III. — Dissolution of the Macedonian Empire. 

FROM B. C. 324 TO B. C. 301. 

Per'diccas was the only one of Alexander's followers who refused 
a portion of his treasures when the young hero shared them among his 
friends, just before his invasion of Asia. Possessing no small share of 
the enthusiasm of his late illustrious master, tempered by policy and 
prudence, Per'diccas seemed the best fitted of all the generals to con- 



MACEDON. 139 

solidate the mighty empire which Alexander had acquired. But the 
Macedonian nobles possessed a more than ordinary share of the pride 
and turbulence that distinguish a feudal aristocracy ; they had formed 
several conspiracies against the life of the late monarch, by whose ex- 
ploits and generosity they had so largely profited ; and consequently 
they were not disposed to submit to one who had so recently been their 
equal. Scarcely had the regency been formed, when the Macedonian 
infantry, at the instigation of Meleager, chose for their sovereign Ar- 
rhidae'us, the imbecile brother of Alexander. The civil war conse- 
quent on this measure was averted at the very instant it was about to 
burst forth by the resignation of Arrhidae'us ; and as his incapacity 
soon became notorious, all parties concurred in the propriety of a new 
arrangement. It was accordingly agreed that Per'diccas should be re- 
gent, but that Arrhidae'us should retain the shadow of royalty ; provision 
was made for the child with which Roxana, Alexander's widow, was 
pregnant ; and the principal provinces were divided among the Mace- 
donian generals, with the powers previously exercised by the Persian 
satraps. 

During these dissensions the body of Alexander lay unburied and 
neglected, and it was not until two years after his death that his re- 
mains were consigned to the tomb. But his followers still showed 
their respect for his memory, by retaining the feeble Arrhidae'us on the 
throne, and preventing the marriage of Per'diccas with Cleopatra, the 
daughter of Philip ; a union which manifestly was projected to open a 
way to the throne. 

But while this project of marriage occupied the attention of the re- 
gent, a league had secretly been formed for his destruction, and the 
storm burst forth from a quarter whence it was least expected. Alex- 
ander, in his march against Darius, had been contented with receiving 
the nominal submission of the northern provinces of Asia Minor, in- 
habited by the barbarous tribes of the Cappadocians and Paphlagonians. 
Impatient of subjection, these savage nations asserted their indepen- 
dence after the death of Alexander, and chose Ariarathes for their 
leader. Per'diccas sent against them Eumenes, who had hitherto ful- 
filled the peaceful duties of a secretary ; and sent orders to Antig'onus 
and Leonatus, the governors of western Asia, to join the expedition 
with all their forces. These commands were disobeyed, and Per'dic- 
cas was forced to march with the royal army against the insurgents. 
He easily defeated these undisciplined troops, but sullied his victory 
by unnecessary cruelty. On his return he summoned the satraps of 
western Asia to appear before his tribunal, and answer for their disobe- 
dience. Antig'onus, seeing his danger, entered into a league with 
Ptolemy, the satrap of Egypt, Antip'ater the governor of Macedon, and 
several other noblemen, to crush the regency. Per'diccas, on the 
other hand, leaving Eumenes to guard Lower Asia, marched with the 
choicest divisions of the royal army against Ptolemy, whose craft and 
ability he dreaded even more than his power. 

Antip'ater and Crat'erus were early in the field ; they crossed the 
Hellespont with the army that had been left for the defence of Mace- 
don, and on their landing were joined by Neoptol'emus the governor 
of Phrygia. Their new confederate informed the Macedonian leaders 



140 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

that the army of Eumenes was weak, disorderly, and incapable of 
making the slightest resistance. Seduced by this false information, 
they divided their forces ; Antip'ater hastening through Phrygia in pur- 
suit of Per'diccas, while Crat'erus and Ncoptol'emus marched against 
tumenes. They encountered him in the Trojan plain, and were com- 
pletely defeated. Neoptol'emus was slain in the first onset, and Crat'- 
erus lay mortally wounded, undistinguished among the heaps of dead. 
Eumenes, having learned the state of Crat'erus, hastened to relieve 
him ; he found him in the agonies of death, and bitterly lamented the 
misfortunes that had changed old friends into bitter enemies. Immedi- 
ately after this great victory, Eumenes sent intelligence of his success 
to Per'diccas ; but two days before the messenger reached the royal 
camp the regent was no more. His army, wearied by the long siege 
of Pelusium, became dissatisfied ; their mutinous dispositions were se- 
cretly encouraged by the emissaries of Ptolemy. Py'thon, who had 
been formerly employed by the regent in the ruthless massacre of some 
Greek mercenaries for disobedience of orders, organized a conspiracy, 
and Per'diccas was murdered in his tent (b. c. 321). Had the news 
of the victory obtained by Eumenes reached the camp earlier, the re- 
gent's life might have been saved ; but now the news served only to 
aggravate the malice of the insurgent satraps. 

In the meantime a brief struggle for independence had taken place 
in Greece, which is commonly called the Lamian war, from the town 
in whose neighborhood the principal contests occurred. Instigated by 
the orators Hyper'ides and Demos'thenes, the Athenians boldly pro- 
claimed themselves the restorers of Grecian freedom, and called on the 
other states to second them in the great struggle for liberty. The 
iEtolians, and the hardy mountaineers of Doris and Phocis, eagerly re- 
sponded to the summons ; but of the other states, Thebes no longer 
existed, Spar'ta was too proud to act under her ancient rival, and the 
Achaeans and Arcadians too prudent to risk their present tranquillity 
for the doubtful chances of war (b. c. 323). Alarmed by the intelli- 
gence of this confederacy, Antip'ater marched to secure the straits of 
Thermop'ylae ; but he was met by the Athenians under Leos'thenes, 
and his forces put to the rout. The remnant of the Macedonian army 
sought refuge in Lamia, a strong fortress on the Malian gulf, which the 
victorious army closely besieged. Unfortunately for the Athenians, 
Leos'thenes was slain in a sally, and the command of the confederates 
intrusted to Ajitip'hilus, a general of great valor, but deficient in skill 
and discretion. Intoxicated by a second victory over the Macedonians, 
he kept careless guard, of which Antip'ater took advantage to break 
through the hostile lines, and form a junction with a fresh army from 
Macedon. Thus reinforced, he attacked the confederates, and com- 
pletely annihilated their army. The Athenians had no resource but 
submission : they were compelled to abolish the democracy, to receive 
garrisons into their fortresses, and to give up their patriotic orators to 
the conqueror's vengeance. The cruel Antip'ater put Hyper'ides to 
death, after having subjected him to insult and torture. Demos'thenes 
escaped a similar fate by committing suicide. Undismayed by these 
calamities, the iEtolians resolved to continue the war ; and Antip'ater, 



MACEDON. 141 

eager to marcli into Asia against Per'diccas, was forced to grant them 
peace on favorable conditions. 

As soon as Ptolemy had been informed of the murder of Per'dic- 
cas, he came to the royal army with a large supply of wine and pro- 
visions. His kindness and courteous manners so won upon these tur- 
bulent soldiers, that they unanimously offered him the regency ; but he 
had the prudence to decline so dangerous an office. On his refusal, 
the feeble Arrhidae'us and the traitor Py'thon were appointed to the re- 
gency, just as the news arrived of the recent victory of Eumenes. 
This intelligence filled the royal army with indignation. Crat'erus had 
been always a favorite with the soldiers ; Eumenes was despised on 
account of his former unwarlike occupation. They hastily passed a 
vote proclaiming Eumenes and his adherents public enemies, and de- 
nouncing all who afforded them support or protection. The advance of 
an army to give effect to these decrees was delayed by a new revolu- 
tion. Eurid'ice, the wife of Arrhidae'us, a woman of great ambition 
and considerable talent for intrigue, wrested the regency from her feeble 
husband and Py'thon, but was stripped of power on the arrival of An- 
tip'ater, who reproached the Macedonians for submitting to the govern- 
ment of a woman ; and being ably supported by Antig'onus and Seleii- 
cus, obtained for himself the office of regent. 

No sooner had Antip'ater been invested with supreme power, than he 
sent Arrhidae'us and Eurid'ice prisoners to Pel'la, and intrusted the 
conduct of the war against Eumenes to the crafty and ambitious Antig'- 
onus. Cassan'der, the son of Antip'ater, joined the expedition with a 
thousand horse, and, being himself a selfish and cunning statesmen, he 
soon penetrated the secret plans of Antig'onus, and vainly warned the 
regent of his dangerous designs. A quarrel soon took place between 
the worthy colleagues ; and Cassan'der returned to Europe, where he 
was about to commence a career as bold and bloody as that of Antig'- 
onus in Asia. Eumenes was unable to cope with the forces sent 
against him ; having been defeated in the open field, he took shelter in 
Nora, a Cappadocian city, and maintained a vigorous defence, rejecting 
the many tempting offers by which Antig'onus endeavored to win him 
to the support of his designs (b. c. 318). The death of Antip'ater pro- 
duced a new revolution in the empire ; and Eumenes in the meantime 
escaped from Nora, accompanied by his principal friends, on fleet 
horses that had been trained for this especial service. 

Antip'ater, at his death, bequeathed the regency to Polysper'chon, 
excluding his son Cassan'der from power on account of his criminal in- 
trigues with the wicked and ambitious Eurid'ice. Though a brave 
general, Polysper'chon had not the qualifications of a statesman : he 
provoked the powerful resentment of Antig'onus by entering into a 
close alliance with Eumenes ; and he permitted Cassan'der to strengthen 
himself in southern Greece, where he seized the strong fortress of Mu- 
nyc'hia. His next measures were of still more questionable policy : 
he recalled Olym'pias, the mother of Alexander, whom Antip'ater had 
banished on account of her turbulent disposition ; and he proclaimed 
his intention of restoring democracy in the Grecian states. The latter 
edict was received with the utmost enthusiasm at Athens ; an urgent 
embassy was sent to the regent, requesting him to send an army to 



142 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

protect the city from Cassan'der and his partisans. Polysper'chon sent 
his son Alexander with a considerable force into Attica ; and no sooner 
were news of his approach received, than the restoration of democracy 
was voted by a tumultuous assembly, and a decree passed for proceed- 
ing against all aristocrats, as capital enemies of the state (b. c. 317). 
Several illustrious individuals, and among others the virtuous Phocion 
fell victims to this burst of popular violence, which the regent made no 
effort to check or control. 

Cassan'der, however, remained master of the ports of Athens, and 
was thus enabled to fit out a considerable fleet, which he sent to the 
Thracian Bos'phorus, under the command of his friend Nicanor, to sec- 
ond the enterprises of Antig'onus. Nicanor was at first defeated by 
the royal na\y ; but being reinforced, he renewed the engagement, and 
captured all the enemies' ships except the admiral's galley. The 
news of this victory rendered the power of Antig'onus paramount in 
lower Asia, and gave Cassan'der possession of Athens. The Athe- 
nians, however, suffered no injury from the change, the government 
of their city having been intrusted to Demetrius Phalereus, who ruled 
them with justice and moderation during ten years. 

Polysper'chon, unable to drive Cassan'der from Attica, entered the 
Peloponnesus to punish the Arcadians, and engaged in a fruitless siege 
of Megalop'olis. In the meantime Olym'pias, to whom he had con- 
fided the government of Macedon, seized Arrhidae'us and Eurid'ice, 
whom she caused to be murdered in prison. Cassan'der hasted, at the 
head of his all forces, to avenge the death of his mistress : Olym'pias, 
unable to meet him in the field, fled to Pyd'na ; but the city was forced 
to surrender after a brief defence, and Olym'pias was immediately put 
to death. Among the captives were Roxana the widow, Alexander 
iE'gus, the posthumous son, and Thessalonica, the youngest daughter 
of Alexander the Great. Cassan'der sought and obtained the hand of 
the latter princess, and thus consoled himself for the loss of his be- 
loved Eurid'ice. By this marriage he acquired such influence, that 
Polysper'chon did not venture to return home, but continued in the 
Peloponnesus, where he retained for some time a shadow of authority 
over the few Macedonians who still clung to the family of Alexander. 

In Asia, Eumenes maintained the royal cause against Antig'onus, 
though deserted by all the satraps, and harassed by the mutinous dis- 
position of his troops, especially the Argyras'pides, a body of guards 
that Alexander had raised to attend his own person, and presented with 
the silver shields from which they derived their name. After a long 
struggle, both armies joined in a decisive engagement ; the Argyras'- 
pides broke the hostile infantry, but learning that their baggage had in 
the meantime been captured by the light troops of the enemy, they 
mutinied in the very moment of "idctory, and delivered their leader, 
bound with his owti sash, into the hands of his merciless enemy (b. c. 
315). The faithful Eumenes was put to death by the traitorous Antig'- 
onus ; but he punished the Argyras'pides for their treachery ; justly 
dreading their turbulence, he sent them in small detachments against 
the barbarians ; and thus sacrificed in detail the veterans that had over- 
thrown the Persian empire. 

Antig'onus, immediately after his victory, began openly to aim at the 



MACEDON. 143 

sovereignty of tlie entire Macedonian empire. The weight of his power 
Was first directed against the satraps whose rebellious conduct had en- 
abled him to triumph over Eumenes. Peuces'tes of Persia was ban- 
ished, Py'thon of Media put to death, and Seleuc'us of Bab'ylon could 
only escape a similar fate by a precipitate flight into Egypt. The Ma- 
cedonian governors in the west, instigated by Seleuc'us, formed a 
league for mutual defence, and sent an embassy to Antig'onus, who an- 
swered their proposals with menace and insult. But at the same time 
he prepared to wage a more effectual war than one of words : while 
his armies overran Syria and Asia Minor, he roused the southern 
Greeks, the ^Etolians, and Epirotes, to attack Cassan'der in Macedon. 
He bribed the mountaineers and northern barbarians to attack Lysim'- 
achus in Thrace, while his son Demetrius, afterward named Poliorce- 
tes, or the conqueror of cities, marched against the Egyptian Ptolemy. 

The first important operations of the war took place in southern 
Syria. Ptolemy overthrew Demetrius near Gaza, and in consequence 
of his victory, became master of Palestine and Phoenicia. But the 
Egyptians were defeated in their turn at the commencement of the 
next campaign ; their recent acquisitions were lost as rapidly as they 
had been gained ; and Demetrius would have invaded their country 
with great prospect of success, had he not been involved in an unwise 
contest with the Arabs. 

We have already mentioned that the excavated city of Petra was the 
great depot of the caravan-trade between the southern countries of 
Asia and northern Africa. Athense'us, a general in the army of Antig'- 
onus, was sent to seize its rich stores : he surprised the inhabitants by 
a rapid march and unexpected attack, and was returning laden with 
plunder to join the main army ; but the Nabathee'an Arabs, enraged by 
their loss, hastily collected their forces, and urging their dromedaries 
through the desert, overtook Athense'us near Gaza, where they not only 
recovered the spoil, but almost annihilated his army. Demetrius 
eagerly hasted to avenge this loss, but he was baffled by the fastnesses 
of Arabia Petrae'a ; and when he returned into Syria, he received intel- 
ligence that directed all his attention to the state of upper Asia. 

After Ptolemy's victory at Gaza, Seleuc^us, with a small but gallant 
band of attendants^ boldly threw himself into his ancient satrapy of 
Bab'ylon, and was received with so much enthusiasm, that he obtained 
possession of all his former power without striking a blow. The Per- 
sian and Median satraps appointed by Antig'onus hastened to destroy 
the dangerous enemy that had thus suddenly arisen ; but they were 
totally routed after a brief but ineffectual struggle (b. c. 312). This 
battle, from which a new dynasty may be dated, forms an important 
epoch in Grecian history, called the era of the Seleucidae. 

Alarmed by these occurrences, Antig'onus hastened to conclude a 
peace with his other opponents ; and a treaty was ratified which was 
pregnant with the elements of future war. Cassan^der agreed to re- 
store the freedom of the Grecian cities, without the slightest intention 
of performing his promise. Ptolemy consented that Antig'onus should 
retain his present possessions, while he was preparing a fleet to seize 
the Asiatic islands, previous to invading Syria ; Lysim'achus was re- 
solved to annex the northern provinces of Asia Minor to his satrapy 



144 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

of Thrace ; and all agreed to acknowledge the son of Alexander for 
their sovereign, though a resolution had been already formed for his 
destruction. Alarmed by the murmurs of the Macedonians, Cassan'- 
der caused Roxana, Alexander iE'gus, and Hcr'cules (the last survivor 
of the great conqueror), to be assassinated ; and soon after consigned 
the princess Cleopatra to the same fate, dreading that she might be- 
stow her hand on some of the rival satraps. 

It was not long before Antig'onus discovered that he had been de- 
ceived in the recent treaty by Cassan'der and Ptolemy. He sent his 
son Demetrius into Greece, under the pretence of restoring the liberty 
of the states ; and Athens, still enamored of the memory of its freedom, 
opened its gates to the young prince (b. c. 308). Thence he sailed to 
Cy'prus, and gained a decisive victory over the Egyptian fleet that came 
to protect the island. He was baffled, however, in an attempt to invade 
Egypt ; and when he went thence to besiege Rhodes, he was recalled 
to Greece by the prayers of the Athenians, who were exposed to immi- 
nent danger from the power of Cassan'der. 

The success of Demetrius induced his father to nominate him cap- 
tain-general of Greece — an injudicious measure, which led to the for- 
mation of a new confederacy against Antig'onus. Cassan'der renewed 
his attacks on southern Greece ; Ptolemy entered Syria ; Lysim'achus, 
with an army of veterans, invaded Thrace ; while Seleucus marched 
westward with the numerous forces of upper Asia, inchiding four hun- 
dred and eighty elephants. The junction of Lysim'achus and Seleu- 
cus in Phrygia necessarily brought on a decisive engagement, which 
Antig'onus, reinforced by his gallant son Demetrius, showed no anxiety 
to avoid (b. c. 301). The battle that decided the fate of an empire was 
fought at Ip'sus in Phrygia : it ended in the defeat and death of Antig'- 
onus, and the destruction of the power that he had raised. The conse- 
quences of this victory were, a new partition of the provinces, and the 
erection of the satrapies into independent kingdoms. Seleucus became 
monarch of upper Asia ; Ptolemy added Syria and Palestine to Egypt ; 
Lysim'achus obtained the northern provinces of Asia Minor as an 
appendage to his kingdom of Thrace ; and the services of Cassan'- 
der were rewarded, not only with the sovereignty of Macedon and 
Greece, but also of the rich province of Cilicia. Thus, in the course 
of a single generation, the mighty empire of Alexander had risen to 
unparalleled greatness, and fallen into hopeless ruin ; while not a single 
descendant of the illustrious founder was spared to transmit his name to 
posterity. The most enduring memorial of his policy was the city of 
Alexandria, founded during his Egyptian campaign, which became one 
of the greatest commercial marts of antiquity, and is still at the head 
of the trade between Europe and the Levant. 



MACEDON AND GREECE. 145 



CHAPTER XII. 

HISTORY OF THE STATES THAT AROSE FROM THE 
DISMEMBERMENT OF 

THE MACEDONIAN EMPIRE. 

Section I. — The History of Macedon and Greece from the Battle of Ipsus 
to the Roman Conquest. 

FROM B. C. 301 TO B. C. 146. 

After the fatal battle of Ip'sus, Demetrius fled to Greece, hoping to 
obtain a refuge from the Athenians, whom he had essentially served in 
the days of his prosperity ; but the harbors and gates of the city were 
closed against him. Having obtained, however, the restoration of the 
ships and money he had deposited there, he established himself in the 
Peloponnesus, and commenced a desultory naval war against Lysim'- 
achus. Seleucus,who now transferred to Lysim'achus the jealousy of 
which the fallen fortunes of Demetrius could no longer be an object, 
sought an alliance with his ancient enemy, and married Stratonice, 
the daughter of Demetrius, and this union was equally advantageous 
to both parties. 

Cassan'der did not long survive the establishment of his power : on 
his death (b. c. 296), he left Macedonia to his three sons, of whom 
Philip speedily followed his father to the grave. The survivors quar- 
relled about the division of their inheritance. Antipater murdered his 
mother Thessalonica, on account of the favor she showed to his brother 
Alexander. The vengeance of his brother being, however, supported 
by the general feeling of the Macedonians, he fled to the court of his 
father-in-law Lysim'achus, where he died prematurely. Dreading the 
resentment of the Thracian monarch, Alexander sought the aid of Pyr^- 
rhus, king of Epirus, and Demetrius Poliorcetes, who both entered Ma- 
cedon, in the hope of gaining some advantage. The ambition of 
Demetrius soon provoked the jealousy of the son of Cassan'der, he 
grew jealous of his ally, and attempted to remove so formidable a com- 
petitor by stratagem ; but he was counterplotted and slain. The va- 
cant throne was seized by Demetrius, who possessed, in addition to 
Macedon, Thessaly, a great portion of southern Greece, with the prov- 
inces of At'tica and Meg'aris, to which after a fierce resistance, he ad- 
ded Boeotia. He might have enjoyed this extensive realm in tranquillity, 
but his restless ambition led him to form plans for the recovery of his 
father's power in Asia. 

Seleucus and Ptolemy, in great alarm at the sudden appearance of a 

10 



146 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

rival, formidable by the revived innuen.ce of his father's claim, and still 
more by his personal qualities, roused Lysim'achus, king of Thrace, 
and Pyr'rhus, king of Epirus, to attack him at the same time. The 
Macedonians, territied by such a confederacy, mutinied ; and Demetrius 
fled, disguised as a common soldier, into the Peloponnesus, which was 
governed by his son Antig'onus (b. c. 287). Pyr'rhus obtained posses- 
sion of the vacant kingdom ; but after a brief reign of seven months, 
he was forced to yield to the superior power or popvilarity of Lysim'- 
achus, and retire to his native Epirus. Demetrius had, in the nteantime, 
sailed to Asia, with the hope of seizing the provinces belonging to 
Lysini'achus (b. c. 286) ; but he was driven into Cilicia, and forced to 
surrender to his father-in-law Seleucus, by whom he was detained in 
prison until the day of his death (b, c. 284). His son Antig'onus, how- 
ever, maintained himself in the Peloponnesus, waiting Avith patience a 
favorable opportunity of restoring the fortunes of his family. 

Lysim'achus was unfortunate in his domestic relations : at the insti- 
gation of his queen, the wicked Arsinoe, he put to death his gallant son 
Agathoc'les, upon which Cassan'dra, the widow of the young prince, 
with her brother Ptolemy Ceraunus, fled to the court of Seleucus, and 
stimulated that prince to war. Lysim'achus was defeated and slain 
(b. c. 282) ; but in the following year Seleucus was murdered by Ptole- 
my Ceraunus who availed himself of the treasures of his victim, and 
the yet remaining troops of Lysim'achus, to usurp the throne of Mace- 
don. In the same year that Seleucus fell (b. c. 281) ; Pyr'rhus invaded 
Italy as an ally of the Tarentines ; the Achaean league was revived in 
southern Greece ; and several Asiatic provinces, especially Cappado- 
cia, Armenia, and Pon'tus, in the north, and Par'thia and Bac'tria in the 
east, became independent kingdoms. 

The revolts in Asia against the successors of Alexander, appear to 
have arisen at least as much from religious as political motives. It was 
part of the great conqueror's plan to impress a unilbrm character on all 
the lands he subdued, and in every one of them to constitute society 
afresh on the Grecian model. This was called an effort to Hellenize 
the east. But the Asiatics clung obstinately to their institutions, whether 
good or bad, as they have done in all subsequent ages, and Alexander's 
successors in central and western Asia, by assailing the religion of the 
people, provoked fierce insurrections, which led to the entire loss of 
Persia and the perilous insurrection of the Jews under the gallant Mac- 
cabees. 

Ptolemy Ceraunus did not long retain the crown of Macedon, which 
he had procured by treachery and assassination. An innumerable mul- 
titude of Gauls, who had, about two centuries before, settled in Pan- 
nonia, driven by want, or perhaps instigated by their restless disposition, 
poured into Thrace and Macedon, desolating the entire country with 
the reckless fury of ferocious savages. Ceraunus led an army against 
them, but was defeated and slain (b. c. 279). In the following year, 
his successor Sosthenes met the same fate ; and the Gauls, under the 
guidance of their Brenn, or chief, advanced into southern Greece. 
The Athenians, aided by the ^tolians, made a brave defence at the 
straits of Thermop'yla; ; but the latter being called home to defend their 
own country, invaded by a Gallic division, the Athenians were unable 



MACEDON AND GHEECS!. 147 

any longer to defend the pass, and the main body of the Gauls, entering 
Phocis, marched to plunder Del'phi. Here, however, the success of 
the invaders ended : the detachment sent against JEtolia w^as cut to 
pieces by a nation scarcely less ferocious than the Gauls themselves ; 
and the main body, after suffering severely from cold and storms in the 
defiles of Mount Parnas'sus,was almost annihilated by the enthusiastic de- 
fenders of the national temple. The miserable remnant of the invaders 
fell back upon a fresh body of their countrymen, vv^ith virhom they passed 
over into Asia ; and after inflicting many calamities on the states of 
Anatolia, obtained possession of the province which received from them 
the name of Galatia. 

Antig'onus Gonatas, the son of Demetrius Poliorcetes, deriving his 
name from Goni in Thessaly, where he had been educated, obtained the 
vacant throne of Macedon, after a contest of three years with various 
competitors, and transmitted it to his posterity ; but he did not, like his 
predecessors, possess the sovereignty of southern Greece, whose inde- 
pendence had been secured by the Achaean league. This association 
had been originally revived by the towns of Pat'rae, Dy'me, Trite, and 
Pharae ; but it did not become formidable until it was joined by Sic^yon 
(b. c. 251), after the noble Aratushad freed that city from tyrants. 

The return of Pyr'rhus from Italy was followed by a new revolution 
in Macedon ; the mercenaries revolted to the Epirote monarch, and An- 
tig'onus was driven from the throne. He retired into southern Greece, 
whither he was soon followed by his rival, who had been solicited to 
place Cleon'ymus on the throne of Lacedae'mon. Pyr'rhus professed 
that his chief object in entering the Peloponnesus was to deliver the 
cities from the yoke of Antig'onus ; but his actions were inconsistent 
with his declarations, for he ravaged the lands of Laconia, and made an 
attempt to surprise Spar'ta. Being defeated in this enterprise, he turn- 
ed his arms against Ar'gos, and was admitted into the city by some of 
his secret partisans. But the Argives opened another gate to Antig'o- 
nus, who entered with a chosen body of troops. A fierce struggle en- 
sued, which was terminated by the death of Pyr'rhus. An Argive wo- 
man, whose son he was about to slay, struck him with a tile from the 
roof of the house ; he fell from his horse, and was trampled to death 
in the press (b. c. 271). After a short contest with Alexander, the son 
of Pyr'rhus, Antig'onus regained the throne of Macedon, and retained 
it to his death. 

The Achaean league was joined by Corinth, Trcezene, and Epidad- 
rus, when Aratus, by a bold attempt, had driven the Macedonian garri- 
son from the Corinthian citadel. It was finally joined by Athens (b. c. 
229), and continually grew in strength, though opposed by the Macedo- 
nians and jEtolians. So rapidly did the power of the confederacy in- 
crease, that the king of Egypt sought its alliance, and some of the states 
north of the Peloponnesus solicited to be admitted as members. 

On the death of Antig'onus Gonatas (b. c. 243), his son Demetrius 
II. became king of Macedon. The ten years of his reign were spent 
in war with the jEtolians, who had formed a confederacy similar to that 
of the Achseans. After his death (b. c. 233), Antig'onus Doson, cousin 
to the late monarch, succeeded to the throne, nominally as guardian of 
the infant prince Philip II., just as a revolution in the Peloponnesus 



148 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

was about to effect a great and important change in the political aspect 
of Greece. 

The ancient laws of Lycur'gus were only nominally observed in 
Spar'ta : the plunder of foreign countries had introduced wealth and 
luxury- ; a law sanctioning the alienation of landed estates had effaced 
the ancient equality of property ; and the gradual decrease of the ruling 
caste of Spartan families had rendered the oligarchy as weak as it was 
odious. A bold plan of reform, including a fresh division of landed 
property, an abolition of debts, and the weakening of the power of the 
Aph'ori, was brought forward by King A'gis III. (b. c. 244) : it was at 
first very successful, but the unsteadiness of Agis, and the opposition 
of the other king, Leon'idas, brought about a counter-revolution (b. c. 
241). A'gis was strangled by the order of the -Eph'ori, and his mother 
and grandmother shared the same fate. 

Leon'idas compelled the widow of A'gis to marry his youthful son 
Cleom'enes, not foreseeing that she was likely to inspire the prince 
with the principles of her former husband. Soon after his accession 
to the throne, Cleom'enes, relying on the reputation he had acquired by 
defeating the efforts of Aratus to force Sparta into the Achsean league, 
renewed the reforms of A'gis (b. c. 227) ; and, as he was unscrupulous 
in the use of the means requisite to effect his object, he speedily over- 
threw the Eph'ori, and opened the right of citizenship to all the La- 
cedcemonians. He then turned his arms against the Achaeans (b. c. 
224), compelled Ar'gos and Corinth to secede from the league, defeated 
the confederates at Dy'me, and reduced Aratus to such difficulties that 
he was forced to solicit assistance from the king of Macedon. Antig'- 
onus II. readily embraced so favorable an opportunity for restoring the 
influence of his family in southern Greece. He entered the Pelopon- 
nesus, and, after some minor operations, he obtained a complete vic- 
tory over Cleom'enes at Sellasia, on the borders of Laconia, which 
placed Spar'ta at his mercy (b. c. 222). Cleom'enes fled to Eg^'pt ; 
the Macedonians, advancing from the field of battle, took possession of 
Lacedaemon without a blow, but they used their victory moderately, and 
its ancient constitution was restored. Antig'onus did not long survive 
his victory ; he died generally lamented by the Greeks (b. c. 221), 
and waS' succeeded by Philip II., son of Demetrius. 

The iEtolians were greatly dissatisfied with the peace that followed 
the battle of» Sellasia. No sooner had they received intelligence of the 
death of Antig'onus, than, despising the youth and inexperience of his 
successor Philip, they commenced a series of piratical attacks on the 
Messenians and Macedonians, which speedily rekindled the flames of 
war. Aratus was sent to expel the ^Etolians from Messenia, and en- 
tered into a convention with their leaders for the purpose ; after which 
he imprudently dismissed the greater part of his anny. The ^Etolians 
took advantage of his weakness to attack him unexpectedly, and then, 
having ravaged the greater part of the Peloponnesus, they returned 
home laden with plunder. 

Philip, being invited to place himself at the head of the Achaean 
league, went to Corinth, where a general assembly of the states was 
held. A declaration of war against the ^tolians was voted by all the 
southern Greeks, except the Spartans and Eleans, who were both ad- 



MACEDON AND GREECE. 14'9 

verse to the league ; and active preparations for hostilities were made 
on both sides. While these affairs engaged attention throughout 
Greece, little regard was paid to the commerci?! war between the By- 
zantines and Rhodians, in consequence of the heavy tolls exacted by 
the former from all vessels entering the Euxine sea (b. c. 222). It 
terminated in favor of the latter, and the Byzantines were forced to 
abolish the onerous duties, 

Cleom'enes, in his exile, was a careful observer of the transactions 
in Greece, and perceiving that the Lacedaemonians, according to his 
original policy, were preparing to join the ^tolians against the Achse- 
ans, he believed that an opportunity was afforded for recovering his 
hereditary throne. The young king of Egypt, dreading his talents and 
his temper, was unwilling to see him restored to power, and therefore 
not only refused him assistance, but even detained him from attempting 
the enterprise with his own hired servants. But Cleom'enes was 
scarcely less formidable in Alexan^'dria, than he would have been if 
restored to his former power in Spar'ta, for he had won the favor of the 
Grecian mercenaries in the Egyptian service, who showed a strong at- 
tachment to his person. The ministers of the young Ptolemy caused 
him to be arrested, but he baffled the vigilance of his guards, and fol- 
lowed by his friends rushed through the streets of Alexan'dria, exhorting 
the multitude to strike for freedom. No one responded to his call ; the 
royal forces prepared to surround him, and Cleom'enes, dreading to 
encounter the tortures of the cruel Egyptians, committed suicide. 
Thus perished a king, Avho, in spite of many grievous faults, was the last 
hope of his country, and the only person capable of restoring the su- 
premacy of Spar'ta and the Peloponnesus. 

The war between Philip and the iEtolians was conducted with great 
obstinacy and cruelty on both sides ; Philip's progress was aided by 
his fleet, which soon rose into importance ; but it was also greatly 
checked by the intrigues of Apel'les and other wretches who envied 
Aratus, and weakened the influence of his prudent counsels. The in- 
creasing power of the Romans and Carthaginians, who were already 
contending for the empire of the world in the second Punic war, at 
length inclined all the Greeks to peace, for they felt that it would be 
soon necessary to defend the independence of Greece either against 
Rome or Carthage, whichever should prove victorious. A treaty was 
accordingly concluded between the general assembly of the iEtolian 
states at Naupac'tus and the representatives of the Achaean confederacy 
(b. c. 217); Philip attended in person, and greatly contributed to the 
success of the negotiations. 

The Macedonian monarch possessed the ambition, but not the milita- 
ry talents of Pyr'rhus- Like the great Epirote, he hoped to become 
the conqueror of Italy, and entered into a strict alliance with Han'nibal, 
who had already invaded the peninsula. About the same time, to get 
rid of the remonstrances of Aratus, who frequently warned the king of 
the dangers that would result from his indulgence in ambitious projects, 
he caused the old general to be poisoned : a crime which filled all 
Greece with horror and indignation. 

The Romans resolved to find Philip so much employment in Greece, 
that he should not have leisure to attack Italy. They prevailed on the 



150 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

^tolians to violate the recent treaty, promising them, as a reward, the 
possession of Acarnania and the Ionian islands. To this confederacy 
the republics of Sparta and Elis, and the kings of Per'ganius and E'lis, 
acceded (u. c. 211). Philip, on the other hand, was supported by the 
Acarnanians, the Boeotians, and the Achaeans. The Romans and their 
ally Al'talus, king of Per'gamus, became masters of the sea ; but the 
former were too much engaged by the presence of Han'nibal in Italy 
to continue their aid to the xEtolians ; and At'talus wns recalled home 
to defend his own kingdom from an invasion of the Bithynians. Nearly 
at the same time, Philopce'men, the Worthy successor of Aratus, as 
head of the x\cha;an league, defeated and slew wiih his own hand 
Machan'idas, the usurper of LacedBemon. 

The ^tolians, thus deprived of all their allies, made overtures of 
peace, which Avere readily accepted (b. c. 208). Tlie Romans made 
some efforts to interrupt the treaty ; But the ^tolians had suffered too 
severely to continue the war any longer. Scarcely had peace been 
restored, Avhen Philip entered into an alliance with Prusias, king of 
Bith'ynia, against xit'lalus, king of Per'gamus ; and with the Syrian 
monarch against the infant ruler of Egypt! As if these enemies were 
not sufficient, he declared war against the Rhodians ; but was soon 
punished by the overthrow and ruin of the Macedonian fleet at Chios 
(b. c. 202). The Athenians were next added to the number of his 
enemies ; and this once-powerful people, no longer able to protect their 
fallen fortunes, supplicated the Romans for aid. A fleet and army were 
sent to secure this illustrious city, and it reached Athens just ia time 
to save it from a sudden attack of the Macedonians. 

Having delivered iVthens, the Romans advanced into northern Greece, 
where they compelled the BcBotians to join in the league against Philip. 
The legions in Epirus at the same time marched into Macedon itself, 
and, though they gained no immediate advantages, they facilitated the 
passage of troops for a future and more decisive invasion. 

In the second campaign, when the conduct of the war was confided 
to the consul Flamin'ius, Philip's fortunes declined so rapidly, that his 
allies, especially the Achaeans, lost all courage, and accepted terms of 
peace. Though deserted, the Macedonian monarch did not resign all 
hope ; he assembled an army in Thessaly nearly equal to that of his 
enemies, but inferior in discipline and equipment, with wliich he took 
post on a range of low hills, called from their singular shape Cynos- 
ceph'alse, or " the dogs' heads." In tlie early part of the decisive bat- 
tle, the Macedonians at first had the advantage, their right wing having 
borne down the opposing divisions ; but the consul, observing that the 
left of the Macedonians had not been formed into order of battle, 
charged them with his cavalry and elephants, and scattered them in a 
few moments ; he then assailed the victorious Macedonian wing in 
flank and rear. The phalanx, admirable for attack, was an inconvenient 
body to manoeuvre ; the phalangites attempted to face about, broke their 
lines, and were in a moment a disorderly mass, unable to fight or fly. 
The route was complete : eight thousand Macedonians fell ; five thou- 
sand remained prisoners ; wliile the loss of the Romans did not exceed 
seven hundred men. Without an army and without resources, Philip 
was forced to beg a peace (b. c. 197) ; he purchased it by the sacrifice 



MACEDON AND GREECE. 151 

<of his navy and tlie resignation of his supremacy over the Grecian 
states. 

The Romans, thus successful, went through the farce of proclaiming 
the liberties of Greece at the Isthmian games, amid the wildest exulta- 
tion of the spectators. This extraordinary scene can not be viewed 
without gratification, even by those who have learned how large a pro- 
portion of history is occupied by fair professions unfulfilled, and hopes 
unworthily disappointed. The spectators were assembled from all the 
Grecian states and colonies, they were full of anxiety and busy in 
conjecture as to the conduct likely to be followed by the new arbiters 
of Greece, when the trumpet sounded, and proclamation was made to 
this effect : " The Roman senate and T. Quinc'tius the proconsul, 
having overcome King Philip and the Macedonians, leave free, ungar- 
risoned, unburdened with tribute, the Corinthians, Phocians, Thessa* 
lians, and others," specifying all the Greeks who had been subject to 
Philip. The voice of the crier was drowned in acclamations, so that 
many failed to hear the purport of the proclamation ; and others thought 
that what they heard must be spoken in a dream, so far did it exceed 
their expectation. The crier was called back, and the same words 
being repeated were followed by loud and reiterated shouts of ap- 
plause ; after which the various shows and trials of skill proceeded 
unregarded, the minds of the spectators being too full to heed them. 
When all these were finished, a general rush was made toward the 
Roman commander ; and it is said that, had he not been a man in the 
full prime and vigor of youth, his life might have been endangered by 
the multitude of those who thronged to see him, to address him as a 
savior, to take him by the hand, or to throw garlands upon him. " It 
was glorious that a state should exist in the world, which had will to 
contend for Grecian freedom, and power and fortune to achieve it." 
Such a praise may have been partly due to the present conduct of the 
Romans, but Flamin^ius showed his insincerity by secretly laboring to 
weaken the Achaean league ; which, however, was strengthened, after 
the murder of the tyrant Nabis (b. c. 192), by the accession of Sparta. 

Antiochus, king of Syria, instigated by Han''nibal, who had sought 
xefuge in his court when exiled from his native country, declared war 
against the Romans (b. c. 194) ; but instead of attacking their power in 
Africa or Italy, he passed over into Greece, and was gladly welcomed 
by the turbulent ^tolians. The Achseans, of course, joined the Ro- 
mans as soon as their ancient enemies had declared for Antiochus ; 
and Philip, notwithstanding his recent defeat, lent his interest to the 
same cause. The campaigns of Antiochus were mere repetitions of 
error and presumption ; at length he returned to Asia (b. c. 191), leav- 
ing his allies exposed to the vengeance of their enemies. The ^Eto- 
lians were the most severely treated ; the only terms of peace which 
the Romans would consent to grant reduced them to poverty, and 
deprived them of independence (b. c. 189) ; but Antiochus having been 
defeated utterly by the Scipios in Asia, they had no alternative, and 
were forced to bend their stubborn necks to the heavy yoke imposed 
upon them. About the same time Sparta was captured by the Achseans, 
under the command of PhilopcB'men, and the constitution of Lycur'gus 
finally abolished,. 



152 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

The Romans affected great indignation at the sufferings of the Spar- 
tans, and compelled the Achaeans to modify the terms they had imposed 
on the conquered. But tliis was a trifling calamity compared with that 
which the league sustained by the loss of Philopce'men, the last great 
general that maintained the glory of the Hellenic race (b. c. 183). 

The petty war between the Messenians and Achaeans would scarcely 
deserve notice but for its having proved fatal to the last of the long line 
of Grecian heroes and patriots. Philopce'men was surprised by the 
enemy, when passing with a small party of cavalry through a difficult 
defile. It was thought that he might have escaped by the aid of some 
light-armed Thracians and Cretans in his band ; but he would not quit 
the horsemen, whom he had recently selected from the noblest of the 
Achaeans ; and while he was bringing up the rear, and bravely cover- 
ing the retreat, his horse fell with him. He was seventy years old, 
and weakened by recent sickness ; and he lay stunned and motionless 
imder his horse, till he was found by the Messenians, who raised him 
from the ground with as much respect as if he had been their own 
commander, and carried him to the city, sending before them the news 
that the war was finished, for Philopce'men was taken. The first im- 
pression of those who heard, was that the messenger was mad ; but 
when others coming after confirmed the statement, men, women, and 
children, freemen and slaves, all crowded to see. So great was the 
throng, that the gates could scarcely be opened ; and as the greater 
part could not see the prisoner, there was a general cry that he should 
be brought into the theatre close by. The magistrates showed him 
there for a moment, and then hastily removed him, for they feared the 
effects Avhich might be produced by pity and reverence for so great a 
man, and gratitude for his merits. A long and anxious debate took 
place, which was protracted throughout the entire night. Finally, 
murderous counsels prevailed, and a cup of poison was sent to Philo- 
pce'men in his dungeon. He submitted to his fate with great forti- 
tude, and his only solicitude was respecting the safety of his compan- 
ions. A little before he expired he had the gratification of learning 
that they had succeeded in making their escape. His fate was soon 
avenged ; Messene was forced to surrender to the Achaean general 
Lycos'tas, and all who had a share in the murder of Philopce'men 
were put to death. 

Pliilip had in the meantime borne very impatiently the overbearing 
conduct of the Romans ; but the exertions of his son Demetrius, 
whom he had given as a hostage after his defeat at Cynos-ceph'alae, 
with the leading men at Rome, prevented a rupture. On this account 
Demetrius was enthusiastically received by the Macedonians on his 
return home — a circumstance of which his elder brother Per'seus took 
advantage, to accuse the young prince of treason. Philip delivered 
this promising young man to the executioner ; but soon after his death, 
discovering his innocence, he made an attempt to change the succes- 
sion, and have Antig'onus acknowledged as his heir ; but, before this 
coxdd be effected, the wretched monarch died of a broken heart 
(b. c. 179). Per'seus ascended the throne with the certainty that he 
was secretly hated by the Romans and his own subjects. One of his 
earliest acts was to put Antig'onus to death, and thus prevent the perils 



SYRIA. 153 

of competition at home when hostilities abroad were inevitable. Pre- 
tences for war were easily fomid : a Roman army crossed the sea, and 
passed through Epirus and Athamania into Thessaly. Per^seus neg- 
lected many opportunities of attacking his enemies at a disadvantage ; 
and when he asked for peace, after having triumphed in slight skir- 
mishes, he found that the Romans were more haughty after defeat than 
after victory. The alliance of Gen'tius, king of Illyria, might probably 
have turned the scale of war in favor of the Macedonian monarch ; but 
he defrauded his ally of the subsidy he had promised to enable him to 
levy an army ; and the Romans, landing in Illyr'ia, subdued the whole 
kingdom within thirty days. Soon afterward the consul Lucius ^mil- 
ius Patilus appeared in Macedon ; and his name gave confidence to the 
friends of Rome, while it filled the partisans of Per'seus with confu- 
sion (b. c. 169). After some indecisive skirmishes, the Macedonian 
monarch was forced to hazard a decisive engagement at Pyd'na, in 
which he was irretrievably ruined. Twenty thousand Macedonians 
■were slain ; Per'seus himself was taken prisoner, and was led in chains 
to Rome to adorn the triumph of his haughty conqueror. 

An eclipse of the moon had taken place on the eve of the battle. 
Such appearances were then superstitiously believed to be ominous of 
ill to states and kingdoms. C. Sulpic'ius Gal'lus, a Roman officer, 
had science enough to know their nature and foretell their occurrence : 
and he, lest the soldiers should be disheartened by the eclipse, called 
them together, declared that it would happen, and explained its cause. 
This changed the fear, which might otherwise have arisen, into wonder 
at the knowledge of GaFlus : while in the Macedonian camp the ap- 
pearance was apprehended by many to portend the extinction of the 
kingdom. 

By the victory at Pyd'na the fate of Macedon and Greece was 
sealed : the Romans permitted both, indeed, for a time to enjoy quali- 
fied independence ; but they exercised over them a galling supremacy, 
which rendered their freedom an empty name. Above a thousand of 
the most eminent Achaeans were summoned at one time to Rome, and 
detained there seventeen years in prison, without being admitted to an 
audience. Some of these, on their return, stimulated their countrymen 
to insult the Roman ambassadors at Corinth, who had come to arrange 
some disputes between the Achaeans and the Spartans (b. c. 148). 
This of course led to a war : the Achaeans were everywhere defeated, 
and at length Corinth was taken by Mum'mius, the Roman consul 
(b. c. 146), who razed that splendid city to the ground. Thencefor- 
ward, Greece, under the name of Achaia, became a Roman province, 
and Macedon had been reduced to the same condition some years pre- 
viously. The shadow of freedom, however, was left to some of the 
cities, but especially to Athens, which became the university of the 
Roman empire. 

Section II. — History of the Kingdom of Syria under the Seleucidee. 

FROM B. C. 312 TO B. C. 64. 

The victory of Seleucus over the satraps of Persia and Media, 
already mentioned (p. 143), gave that monarch possession of the prin- 



1S4 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

cipal part of upper Asia. In less than four years he became master 
of the countries between the Oxus, the Indus, and the Euphrates 
(b. c. 306) ; and, reviving the projects of Alexander, he invaded India. 
More fortunate than his iUustrious master, he penetrated as far as the 
Ganges, where he entered into a treaty with Sandracot'tus, the king 
of the rich country between the Sutlege and the Ganges. The great 
number of elephants which Seleucus obtained by this alliance enabled 
liini to turn the scale at the battle of Ip'sus : but a more important 
advantage was, the commercial intercourse established between his 
subjects and those of Sandracot'tus. After the death of Antig'onus at 
Ip'sus, Seleucus, having obtained the greater part of the late satrap's 
provinces, made Syria the seat of his government — an unfortunate 
choice, since it exposed his kingdom to the jealousy of Egypt, in- 
volved it in the troubled politics of the western world, and led the 
rulers to neglect the rich countries on the Tigris and the Euphrates. 
During the eighteen years of peace that followed the death of Antig'- 
onus, Seleucus founded or embellished several important cities, espe- 
cially Antioch in Syria, which he made the capital of his dominions, 
and two Seleucias ; one on the Tigris, the other on the Oron'tes. 
Anxiety to add Macedon to his dominions induced Seleucus to invade 
Europe ; but in the midst of his career he was murdered by Ptolemy 
Ceraiiuus (b. c.281). He was succeeded by his son Antiochus, sur- 
nanied Soter [the savior), who had for some time governed the provin- 
ces of upper Asia. 

Antiochus pursued his father's plans of conquest in Asia Minor : but 
he ceded his claims over Macedon to Antig'onus Gonnatus, and gave 
his step-daughter in marriage to that monarch. The northern states in 
Asia Minor that had asserted their independence rapidly attained matu- 
rity ; Antiochus was defeated by Nicomedes, king of Bith'ynia, who 
had obtained the support of the Gallic hordes after their defeat in 
Greece (b. c. 275), and he was similarly unsuccessful in a war with 
the king of Per'gamus (b. c. 263), whose complete defeat of the Syri- 
ans gave security to all the new states. Nor was Soter more fortunate 
in a war he undertook against Egypt : Magas, the brother of the 
Egj'ptian Ptolemy, having married into the Syrian royal family, hoped 
that by this alliance he would be enabled to establish a new kingdom 
in Gyrene. Antiochus united with the usurper, and both marched 
against Ptolemy. The Syrians were defeated in every engagement ; 
their coasts were laid waste by the Egyptian fleet; and Magas was. 
speedily hurled from his throne. On his return, Antiochus marched 
against the Gauls, who had advanced toward Eph'esus (b. c. 262), and 
in the neighborhood of that city he was defeated and slain. 

Antiochus II. avenged his father's death on the Gauls, and received, 
from the excessive adulation of his subjects, the surname Theos [god). 
In his reign, the provinces of upper Asia began to slip from the grasp 
of the Seleucidffi, owing to the progress of the Parthian tribes, the 
exactions of the provincial governors, and the unwise efforts of the 
monarch to force the Grecian customs and religion on his subjects. In 
order to encounter his eastern enemies with eflect, Theos deemed it 
necessary to tranquillize the west, and he accordingly made peace 
with the king of Egj^pt. In pursuance of the conditions of this treaty, 



SYRIA. 155 

Antiochus married Berenice, the daughter of Ptolemy, divorcing his for- 
mer wife Laodice, and excluding her children from the succession. 
On the death of Ptolemy, the divorced queen was restored to her sta- 
tion ; but she could not forget the insult she had received, nor conquer 
her dread of being sacrificed to some future arrangement. Influenced 
by these motives, she poisoned her husband (b. c. 247), and procured 
the murder of Berenice and her infant son. 

Seleiicus, surnamed Callinicus [illustrious conqueror), succeeded to 
the throne by his mother's crime, and was immediately engaged in war 
with Ptolemy Evergetes, who was eager to avenge his sister's murder. 
Crossing the Syrian deserts with a numerous army, Ptolemy overran 
rather than conquered Palestine, Babylonia, Persia, and the wealthy 
provinces of upper Asia. He returned, bringing with him enormous 
spoils, among which were the Egyptian idols which Camby'ses had 
taken from Mem'phis and Thebes. On his way back he encountered 
Seleiicus, whom he defeated with great slaughter, and forced to take 
refuge in Antioch. He then returned to Egypt, having gained immense 
treasure, but no additional territory, in his expedition. Eumenes, king 
of Per'gamus, took advantage of the Egyptian war to enlarge his 
dominions at the expense of the Syrian monarch ; and Hierax, the 
brother of Seleucus, aided by a body of Gauls, attempted to usurp the 
throne. The rebellion was at first successful ; but the ravages of the 
Gauls provoked such general indignation, that Seleucus foiind all his 
subjects rising in one body to support him ; and, thus strengthened, he 
assailed the army of the rebels and invaders in Babylonia. The battle 
was fierce ; but it ended in the total defeat of the Gauls, who were 
almost amiihilated in the pursuit. Hierax fled to the Egyptian court, 
but was thrown into prison by Ptolemy, where he languished thirteen 
years, and only escaped to perish by the hands of robbers in the Syrian 
desert. Callinicus then turned his arms against the Parthians (b. c. 
237), but was defeated by their king Arsaces ; and the Parthians date 
the origin of their monarchy from this battle. In a second campaign, 
Seleiicus fell into the hands of his enemies (b. c. 236), and was detain- 
ed a prisoner by the Parthians to the day of his death (b. c. 227). 

Seleucus III., surnamed Ceraunus [the thunderbolt), succeeded his 
father ; but, after a brief reign, was removed by poison (b. c. 224). 
The hopes of his murderers, however, were frustrated by the vigor of 
his cousin Achae'us, who secured the inheritance for Antiochus, the 
younger brother of the deceased monarch, who had been satrap of 
Bab'ylon. 

In the early part of his reign, Antiochus III., surnamed the Great, 
was brought into great danger by the intrigues of his prime minister 
Hermeias, a native of Caria. Deceived by the artifices of this crafty 
vizier, Antiochus quarrelled with Achae'us, to whom he was mainly in- 
debted for his crown, and set Molon and Alexander, the brothers of 
Hermeias, over the important provinces of Media and Persia. The 
new satraps raised the standard of revolt, and defeated the royal generals 
sent against them. At length Antiochus took the field in person, con- 
trary to the wishes and remonstrances of his minister. When the 
armies were about to engage, the rebel forces, by an almost intuitive 
movement, threw down their arms, and submitted themselves to their 



156 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

youthful sovereign. Molon and Alexander escaped a public execution 
by suicide, and Hermeias expiated his complicated treasons on the 
scaffold (b. c. 220). Whilst Antiochus was thus engaged in the re- 
mote east, Achce'us, whom he had forced into rebellion, had strengthen- 
ed himself in Asia Minor ; and the Egyptian monarch Ptolemy Phi- 
lop'ater was becoming formidable on the southern frontiers of Syria. 
Antiochus obtained possession of Coele-Syria by the treachery of 
Tlii?od6tus, its governor ; but he was soon after defeated by Ptolemy, 
at the battle of Raphia near Gaza (b. c. 217), and forced to purchase 
peace by the sacrifice of the newly-acquired province. This defeat 
was in some degree compensated, the following year, by the capture of 
Achee'us, whose ravages to support his troops having provoked the re- 
sentment of the kings of lesser Asia, he was besieged in the citadel 
of Sar'dis by the joint forces of Antiochus and At'talus, king of Per'- 
gamus, treacherously betrayed, and imgratefuUy put to death. 

Freed from the dangers of this war, Antiochus turned his attention 
to the affairs of upper Asia, and gained several victories over the Par- 
thians and Bactrians (b. c. 214). He Avas, however, forced to recog- 
nise the independence of both nations. To secure his dominions, he 
gave his daughter in marriage to Demetrius, the son of the Bactrian 
monarch, and joined that prince in an important expedition against 
northern India (b. c. 206). In return, he made some efforts to revive 
the commercial system of Alexander the Great, and paid particular atten- 
tion to the trade of the Persian gulf. On the death of Ptolemy Philop'- 
ater (b. c. 203), and the accession of his infant son, Antiochus entered 
into an alliance with Philip, king of Macedon, to wrest Egypt from the 
family of the Ptolemies. He conquered Ccele-Syria and Palestine ; 
but was prevented from pursuing his success by the interference of 
At'talus, the Rhodians, and the Romans. Checked in this direction, he 
revived the claims of his family on the northern states of Europe and 
Asia. While his generals besieged Smyr'na and Lamp'sacus, he con- 
quered the Thracian Chersonese, and prepared to invade Greece (b. c. 
196). The Romans again interfered; but the Syrian monarch, insti- 
gated by Hannibal, who had sought refuge at his court, treated their 
remonstrances with disdain. War immediately followed. Antiochus 
lost the faii-est opportunities of success by neglecting the advice of 
Hannibal : driven from Europe into Asia, he was forced to act solely 
on the defensive, until his total defeat at Magnesia, near Mount Sip'y- 
lus, laid him prostrate at the feet of his enemies. The Romans depriv- 
ed him of all his dominions in Asia Minor, the greater part of Avhich 
were annexed to the kingdom of Per'gamus. The unfortunate monarch 
did long survive his defeat : he was murdered by his servants (b. c. 
187) ; but the cause and manner of the crime are uncertain. 

Seleucus IV., sumamed Philop'ater (a lover of his father), succeeded 
to a throne fast falling into decay. His reign lasted eleven years, but was 
not distinguished by any remarkable event. Anxious to have the aid 
of his brother Antiochus, who had been given as an hostage to the 
Romans, Seleucus sent his son Demetrius to Rome in exchange. Be- 
fore Antiochus could reach home, Heliodorus poisoned Seleucus, and 
usurped the crown (b. c. 176). This is represented by many Jewish 



SYRIA. 157 

writers as a providential punishment of the king, who had employed that 
very minister to plunder the sacred treasury of Jerusalem. 

Antiochus IV. soon expelled the usurper, and assumed the surname 
of Epiphanes {illustrious) w^hich his subsequent conduct induced his 
contemporaries to change into that of Epimanes (madman). He sought 
to combine the freedom of Roman manners with the ostentatious luxury 
of the Asiatics, and thereby provoked universal hatred. His reign 
commenced with a war against Egypt, in consequence of the claim made 
by the Ptolemies to Ccele-Syria and Palestine. Antiochus was very 
successful : in two campaigns he penetrated to the walls of Alexandria, 
and gained possession of the person of Ptolemy Philom'eter, the right- 
ful heir of the Egyptian throne, who had been driven from Alexandria 
by his brother Phys'con. With this prince the Syrian monarch con- 
cluded a most advantageous peace ; but scarcely had he returned home, 
when Philom'eter entered into an accommodation with his brother, and 
both combined to resist the power of Syria. Justly enraged at this 
treachery, Antiochus returned to Egypt ; but his further progress was 
stopped by the interference of the Romans, at whose imperious command 
he found himself compelled to resign all his conquests (b. c. 169). 

The ambition of Antiochus was next directed against his own sub- 
jects : he resolved to establish uniformity of worship throughout his 
dominions, and to Hellenize all his subjects. His intolerance and rapa- 
city engendered a determined spirit of resistance (b. c. 168). The 
Jews, headed by the gallant Mac'cabees, commenced a fierce struggle, 
which, after much suffering, ended in the restoration of their former in- 
dependence ; and the Persians, equally attached to their ancient faith, 
raised the standard of revolt. Antiochus hasted to suppress the insur- 
rection in upper Asia; but being severely defeated (b. c. 165), he died 
of vexation on his road to Babylon. 

Eupator, the young son of the deceased monarch, was placed on the 
throne by the Syrians ; but Demetrius, the son of Seleucus Philop'ater, 
having escaped from Rome, no sooner appeared in Asia than he was 
joined by such numerous partisans, that he easily dethroned his rival 
(b. c. 162). With the usual barbarity of Asiatic sovereigns, he put the 
young prince to death, and found means to purchase the pardon of his 
crimes from the Roman senate. After an inglorious reign, he was slain 
in battle by Alexander Balas (b. c. 150), an impostor who personated 
the unfortunate Eupator, and was supported in his fraud by the Mac'- 
cabees and the Romans. Balas was in his turn defeated by Demetrius 
Nicator, the son of the late monarch (b. c. 145), and forced to seek 
refuge in Arabia, where he was murdered by his treacherous host. 

Nicator, having lost the affections of his subjects, was driven from 
Antioch by Try'phon, who placed the crown on the head of young An- 
tiochus, the son of Balas ; but in a short time murdered that prince, 
and proclaimed himself king. Demetrius was withheld from marching 
against the usurper by the hope of acquiring a better kingdom in up- 
per Asia, whither he was invited by the descendants of the Greek and 
Macedonian colonists, to defend them from the power of the Parthians 
(b. c. 140). He was at first successful, but was finally captured by 
his enemies, who detained him a prisoner for ten years. In the mean- 
time his brother Antiochus Sidetes, having overthrown Try'phon, seized 



158 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

the crown of Syria. He appears to have been a good and wise sover- 
eion ; but unfortunately he was induced, by the provincials of upper 
Asia, to wage war against the Parlhians, and was treacherously mur- 
dered by his own allies (b. c. 130). Demetrius, about the same time, 
escaped from prison, and was restored to the throne. But after a brief 
roio-n he was defeated and slain by Zebinus (b. c. 126), a pretended 
son of the impostor Balas. 

Seleucus, the son of Demetrius, was waging a successful war 
a^^ainst Zebinas, when he was treacherously murdered by his own 
mother Cleopatra, who wished to secure the crown for her favorite 
child Antiochus Gry'phus. She also prevailed on her relative, the 
king of Egypt, to declare war against the usurper ; and Zebfnas was 
soon defeated and slain. Gry'phus no sooner found himself secure on 
the throne than he put his mother to death for the murder of Seleucus 
(b. c. 122) ; and it must be added, that this measure was necessary to 
secure his own life. After some years, Cyzicenus, the half-brother of 
Gry'phus, attempted to usurp the throne ; and during the civil war that 
ensued, many cities and provinces separated from the Syrian kingdom. 
Gry'phus was assassinated (b. c. 97). His five sons and the son of 
Cyzicenus engaged in a dreary series of civil wars ; until the Syrians, 
weary of enduring the calamities and bloodshed of their protracted dis- 
sensions, expelled the entire family, and gave the crown to Tigranes, 
king of Armenia (b. c. 83). Tigranes, after a long and not inglorious 
reign, was involved in a war with the Romans, which ended in his 
complete overthrow ; and he was forced to resign Syria to the conquer- 
ors (b. c. 64.) Thus the kingdom of the Seleucidae was made a Roman 
province, and the family soon after became extinct in the person of Se 
leiicus Cybrosac'tes (b. c. 57). He was raised to the throne of Egypt 
by his wife, the princess Berenice, and afterward murdered by her 
ordeis. 

Section HI. — History of Egypt under the Ptolemies. 

FROM B. C. 301 TO B. C. 30. 

Ptol'emy, the son of Lagus, was the wisest statesman among the suc- 
cessors of Alexander. No sooner had the battle of Ip'sus put him in 
possession of the kingdom of Egypt, than he began to provide for the 
happiness of his new subjects by a regeneration of their entire social 
system. Unlike the Seleucidae, he made no attempt to Hellenize the 
Egj'ptians ; on the contrary, he revived, as much as altered circum- 
stances would permit, their ancient religious and political constitution ; 
the priestly caste was restored to a portion of its ancient privileges ; 
the division of the coimtry into nomes was renewed ; Memphis, though 
not the usual residence of the monarchs, was constituted the capital of 
the kingdom, and its temple of Phtha declared the national sanctuary, 
where alone the kings could receive the crown. But not less wise 
was the generous patronage accorded to literature and science : the 
Museum was founded in Alexandria as a kind of university for students, 
and a place of assembly for the learned ; the first great national library 
was established in another part of the city ; and the pliilosophers and 



EGYPT. 159 

men of letters were invited to seek shelter from tlie storms which 
shook every other part of the world in the tranquil land of Egypt. Im- 
pressed by the example of his illustrious master, PtoFemy paid great 
attention to trade and navigation. Colonists from every quarter of the 
globe were invited to settle at Alexandria, and the Jews flocked thither 
in great numbers, to escape the persecution of their Syrian masters. 
So many of that singular people became subjects of the PtoFemies, 
that the Septuagint version of the Old Testament from Hebrew into 
Greek was made for their use, and a Jewish temple erected in Egypt 
similar to that of Jerusalem. The double harbors of Alexandria, on 
the sea, and on the MarEEOt'ic lake, were constructed at the same time, 
and the celebrated Pharus, or lighthouse, erected at the entrance of the 
haven. 

The city of Alexandria, which had been begun before the death of 
Alexander, owed most of its splendor to Ptol'emy. But among all the 
public buildings he planned or erected, there is none better deserves 
our attention than the Museum, or College of Philosophy. Its chief 
room was a great hall, which was used as a lecture-room and common 
dining-room ; it had a covered walk or portico all round the outside, 
and there was a raised seat or bench on which the philosophers some- 
times sat in the open air. The professors and teachers of the college 
were supported by a public income. Ptol'emy 's love of art, his anxiety 
to reward merit, and his agreeable manners, brought to his court so 
many persons distinguished in science, literature, and the fine arts, that 
the Museum of Alexandria became the centre of civilization for the 
known world. The arts and letters thus introduced, did not bear their 
richest fruit in the reign of the founder : they flourished most in the 
age of his son ; but this does not detract from the merit of the first 
Ptol'emy, who gave the institutions he planted such permanence, that 
they struck deep root in the soil and continued to flourish under all his 
successors, unchoked by the vices and follies which unfortunately grew 
up around them. 

In return for the literature which Greece then gave to Egypt, she 
gained the knowledge of papy'rus. Before that time books had been 
written on linen, wax, or the bark of trees : and public records on 
stone, brass, or lead : but the knowledge of papy'rus was felt by all 
men of letters like the invention of printing in modern Europe ; books 
were then known by many for the first time, and very little else was 
afterward used in Greece and Rome ; for when parchment was invent- 
ed about two centuries later, it was found too costly to be generally used 
so -long as papy^rus could be obtained. The papy'rus reed is only 
found in Egypt and a small district in Sicily. Successful attempts 
have been made to manufacture it in modem times, but the process is 
too tedious and uncertain to be remunerative, and the papy'rus is only 
prepared as a matter of curiosity. 

The external security of Egypt was strengthened by the conquest of 
the Syrian frontiers, the ancient kingdom of Cyrene, a considerable 
part of Ethiopia, and the island of Cyprus. Hence, during the ad- 
ministration of Ptol'emy I., Egypt was free from the fear of foreign in- 
vasion, and its inhabitants, for the first time during several centuries, 
were free to develop the great internal resources of the country. Few 



160 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

sovereigns were more deservedly lamented than the son of Lagus (b. c. 
284) : his death spread universal sorrow among his subjects, who at 
once lamented him as a father, and worshipped him as a god. 

The reign of Ptol'emy II., surnamed Philadel'phus (a lover of his 
bretlirru), was disturbed only by the rebellion of Magas, which was 
supported by Antiochus II., as has been mentioned in the preceding 
section. Under the peaceful administration of Philadel'phus, Egyptian 
commerce made the most rapid strides ; ports for the Indian and Ara- 
bian trade were constructed on the Red sea, at Arsinoe [Sup.z), My'os 
Hor'mus (Cossfiir), and Berenice. From the two latter stations cara- 
van roads were made to the Upper Nile, and the lower river was united 
to the Red sea by a canal, which was further continued to the lesser 
harbor of Alexandria, on the Maraeotic lake. The Ethiopian trade was 
revived with great spirit ; and remote countries of central and southern 
Africa were opened to the enterprise of the Alexandrian merchants. 
Unfortunately, the luxury of the court increased in the same proportion 
as the wealth of the country. Philadel'phus fell into all the effeminate 
dissipation of the Asiatic sovereigns, and adopted their pernicious 
habits of intermarriages between near relations. He set the example 
by repudiating his first wife, and marrying his own sister Arsinoe, who 
exercised the greatest influence over her husband. She brought him 
no children, but she adopted the offspring of her predecessor. 

It was during the reign of Ptol'emy Philaderphus that Pyr'rhus was 
driven out of Italy by the Romans (b. c. 274) ; and this event induced 
the Egyptian king to send an ambassador to the senate, to wish them 
joy of their success, and to make a treaty of peace with the republic. 
The Romans received the envoy with great joy, and in return sent four 
ambassadors to Egypt to seal the treaty. Ptol'emy showed the Roman 
deputies every kindness, and explained to them those processes of 
Greek art with which they were acquainted. Subsequently two of the 
ambassadors, Quin'tus Ogul'nius and Fabius Pic'tor, having been elected 
consuls, introduced a silver coinage at Rome, the advantages of Avhich 
they had been taught in Egypt. 

Philaderphus was succeeded by his son Ptol'emy III., surnamed 
Evergetes [the benefactor) (b. c. 246). Unlike his father, he was a 
warlike, enterprising prince, and his conquests extended into the re- 
mote regions of the east and south. His war with Seleucus II., in 
which the Egyptian army penetrated as far as Bactria, has been de- 
scribed in the preceding section ; but the result of the Asiatic cam- 
paigns was plunder, not any permanent acquisition of territory ; very 
different was the result of the southern wars, by which a great part of 
Abyssinian and the Arabian peninsula was added to the Egyptian do- 
minions, and new roads for trade opened through these remote coun- 
tries. 

With the death of Evergetes (b. c. 221), ended the glory of the 
Ptol'emies. His son Ptol'emy, surnamed Philop'ater (a lover rf his 
father), was a weak, debauched prince, who was, during his whole life, 
under the tutelage of unworthy favorites. At the instigation of his first 
minister, Sosib'ius, he put to death his brother Magas, and Cleom'enes, 
the exiled king of Spar'ta. Antiochus the Great, who then nded in 
Syria, took advantage of Philop'ater's incapacity to wage war against 



EGYPT. 161 

Egypt ; but was defeated at Raphia, as already mentioned in the pre- 
ceding section. After his victory, Ptol'emy visited Jerusalem, and 
made an attempt to enter the sanctuary of the temple ; but being pre- 
vented by the priests, he was so indignant, that on his return to Egypt 
he prepared to exterminate all the Jews that had settled in the king- 
dom. Tradition says that his cruel project was miraculously frustrated, 
and that the Jews were again restored to favor. Soon afterward the 
king murdered his wife and sister, and transferred his affections to 
Agathoclea, whose brother, the infamous Agathocles, succeeded to the 
power of Sosib'ius. At length his continued dissipation broke down 
his constitution, and he died of premature infirmity, though in the very 
prime of life (b. c. 204). He left behind him only one son, a child 
about five years old. 

The guardians of PtoFemy V., surnamed Epiphanes {illustrious), 
proving unworthy of their trust, the regency was transferred to the Ro- 
man senate, a circumstance which saved Egypt from being involved in 
the Macedonian or Syrian war. Epiphanes was a weak, debauched 
prince, and before he attained his thirtieth year, he died, the victim of 
dissipation or poison (b. c. 181). He left behind him two sons, Ptol'- 
emy, surnamed Philom'eter (a lover of his mother), and Phys'con, both 
of immature age. 

The claims of the Egyptians on Ccele-Syria led to a war between 
the regents and the king of Syria, in the course of which Philom'eter 
fell into the hands of Antiochus Epiphanes, as has been related in the 
preceding section. After the retreat of the Syrians, Philom'eter, being 
a second time expelled by Phys'con, appealed to the Romans, who di- 
vided the Egyptian dominions between the two brothers. He sup- 
ported the pretender Balas against Demetrius, and mainly contributed 
to the placing of that imposter on the Syrian throne ; but being un- 
gratefully treated, he led an army against Balas, and defeated him 
(b. c. 145). But the victory was fatal to Philom'eter; he died of the 
wounds that he had received in the engagement. 

Phys'con, by marrying Cleopatra, who, according to the infamous 
practice of the Ptol'emies, was Philom'eter's wife and sister, succeeded 
to the Egyptian throne. On the very day of his marriage he murdered 
his infant nephew ; and his conduct toward every class of his subjects 
was in accordance with this atrocious crime. At length he was com- 
pelled by the Alexandrians to abandon his kingdom, and the crown 
was given to his sister Cleopatra, whom he had previously divorced 
in order to marry her daughter, who had the same name. He was 
subsequently restored by the aid of a mercenary army, and retained the 
sceptre to the day of his death (b. c. 116). He left behind him two 
sons by his niece Cleopatra, Ptolemy, surnamed Lathyrus, from the 
resemblance of a wart on his face to a small pea ; and Ptolemy, sur- 
named Alexander. 

Cleopatra endeavored to secure the crown for her younger son, but 
was compelled by the Alexandrians to allow Lathyrus to. ascend the 
throne. She however compelled him to exchange Egypt for Cy'prus 
with Alexander. The new king, unable to bear the tyranny of his 
mother, caused her to be murdered, upon which his subjects revolted, 
and restored Lathyrus. The remainder of this prince's reign was 

11 



162 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

passed in tranquillity. He died b. c. 81, leaving behind him one le- 
gitimate daughter, Berenice, and two natural sons, Ptolerriy of Cyprus 
and Ptolemy Auletes {t/ie Jiute-playr.r). A long series of obscure civil 
wars, and uninteresting intrigues with the Roman senate, followed. 
They ended in placing Ptolemy Auletes on the throne, which, however, 
he retained only three years. 

Auletes left four legitimate children ; but his daughter, the too-cel- 
ebrated Cleopatra, set aside the claims of her brothers and sister, by 
the influence which her personal charms gave her with Julius Caesar, 
and afterward with Mark Antony. The battle of Actium was fatal to 
her and her protector. In the year following that decisive engagement 
she was taken prisoner by Augustus Caesar, and poisoned herself to 
avoid being led in triumph (b. c. 30). Egj^pt thenceforth became a 
Roman province, but it preserved its commercial importance ; and 
Alexandria long continued to be the most wealthy and busy city of 
trade in the world. 

Section IV. — History of the Minor Kingdoms in Western Asia. 

FROM B. C. 301 TO THE BIRTH OF CHRIST. 

The principal kingdoms formed from the fragments of the Macedo- 
nian monarchy in western Asia were: 1, Per'gamus ; 2, Bith'ynia ; 
3, Paphlagonia ; 4, Pon'tus ; 5, Cappadocia ; 6, Greater Armenia ; 
7, Lesser Armenia ; 8, Judaea ; to which may be added, 9, the com- 
mercial state of Petra and the republic of Rhodes. A very brief notice 
will suffice for these petty states, with the exception of Petra, the cap- 
ital of the Idumeans, and Judaea, which are so important as to require 
separate sections. The little kingdom of Per'gamus, in Mysia, was 
founded by Philelae'rus, the lieutenant of Lysim'achus, during the wars 
of that monarch with Seleucus. It did not attain any eminence before 
the accession of At'talus I. (b. c. 24), whose alliance with the Romans 
during the jEtolian and Macedonian wars was rewarded by the protec- 
tion of the republic. He was a generous patron of literature and sci- 
ence, as w^ere his immediate successors, Eumenes and At'talus II. 
The latter was the most faithful ally the Romans had in the east, and 
liis services were rewarded by a gift of the rich provinces that had 
been taken from Antiochus. His nephew, At'talus III., bequeathed 
his dominions to the Romans, who made this inheritance their first 
Asiatic province (b. c. 130). Brief as was the duration of this little 
kingdom, the patronage of its enlightened sovereigns conferred the 
most important benefits on letters. To them we owe the invention of 
parchment [charta Pergamena), and the establishment of a library that 
rivalled the library of Alexandria ; to which city, indeed, it was trans- 
ferred by Anthony, as a present to Cleopatra. 

Bith'ynia was created into a kingdom about the same time as Per'- 
gamus. Its most remarkable sovereign was Prusias, a devoted ally of 
the Romans, who offered to resign Hannibal to their vengeance, and 
had the meanness to style himself a freedman of that republic (b. c. 82). 
He was murdered by his own son Nicomedes ; and the parricide was, 
in his turn, assassinated by Soc'rates, a son that trod in his father's 



WESTERN ASIA. 163 

footsteps. Soc'rates was placed on the throne by the aid of Mithri- 
dates, king of Pon^tus ; but on the defeat of that monarch, he was de- 
posed by Syl'la, and the crown given to Nicomedes III. This mon- 
arch died after a brief reign (b. c. 75), and bequeathed his dominions 
to the Romans. 

Paphlagonia was, for the most part, subject to the kings of Pon'tus, 
and shared the fortunes of that country. Even under the Persian em- 
pire the kings of Pon'tus enjoyed a qualified independence, and were 
said to be descended from the royal family of the Ach2emen'id8e, as 
well as the Persian kings. Pon'tus became independent after the bat- 
tle of Ip'sus ; but the first of its monarchs remarkable in history was 
the last that sw^ayed its sceptre, Mithridates VII., deservedly surnamed 
the Great. He came to the throne while yet a boy (b. c. 121) ; by de- 
voting himself to manly sports, and inuring his body to support extreme 
hardships, he acquired such great personal strength, that he defeated 
all the plots formed for his assassination by his treacherous guardians. 
As he grew up, he became formidable to the neighboring princes, from 
whom he wrested several important provinces. He then directed his 
attention to the countries around the Black sea, conquered the kingdom 
of Col'chis, and delivered the Greek cities in the Tauric Chersonese 
frbm their Scythian oppressors. His rising greatness excited the 
jealousy of the Romans, who had good reason to suspect that he was a 
deadly enemy of their power. To strengthen himself for the coming 
contest, Mithridates gave his daughter in marriage to Tigranes, king 
of Armenia, and invited that monarch to attack the allies of the repub- 
lic. At length war was openly declared (b. b. 89), and Mithridates, 
in the first two campaigns, became master of lesser Asia. He made 
a cruel use of his victory, by ordering all the Italian merchants resident 
in Asiatic cities to be murdered, and secured the execution of his san- 
guinary edict, by giving up their properties as rewards to the assassins. 
From Asia he passed into Greece, and having captured several of the 
islands, made himself master of Athens. At length Syl'la was sent 
against him : he defeated the Greek partisans of Mithridates in three 
successive battles, all fought within the confines of Boeotia ; while 
Fim'bria, another Roman general, was equally successful in Asia. 
Mithridates was thus forced to beg terms of peace, which Syl'la readily 
granted (b. c. 85), because he was jealous of Fim'bria, who belonged 
to a rival faction, and was, besides, anxious to return to Italy, in order 
to rescue his party from the destruction with which it was threatened 
by Marius. 

The large forces raised by Mithridates, under the pretence of subdu- 
ing the Colchians and other nations on the eastern shores of the Black 
sea, gave umbrage to Murae'na, the Roman proconsul of Asia, as the 
ancient kingdom of Per'gamus was rather ostentatiously named by the 
senate (b. c. 83). Without any fonnal declaration of war, he invaded 
Pon'tus, but was severely defeated by Mithridates, and compelled to re- 
new the peace by command of Syl'la. Taking advantage of the civil 
wars that raged in the Roman territories between the partisans of Mir 
rius and Syl'la, the king of Pon'tus made several large additions to his 
kingdom, and finally seized on Bith'ynia, which Nicomedes had recently 



164 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

bequeathed to the Romans (b. c. 75). He even attacked the Roman 
province ; but he was driven out by juhus Caesar, then a young student 
in the island of Rhodes, who, without any orders from the government, 
assembled a few troops, and defeated the king's lieutenants. 

When the Roman senate heard of the state of affairs in Asia, they 
appointed Lucul'lus to undertake the management of the war ; but the 
soldiers placed under his command were so mutinous, that Mithridates 
was at first victorious both by land and sea. Encouraged by this suc- 
cess, the king laid siege to Cyz'icus ; but scarcely had he completed 
his lines, when he found himself blockaded in turn by Lucul'lus, and, 
after enduring the most dreadful hardships, was forced to purchase a re- 
treat by the sacrifice of the greater part of his army. His fleet was, 
soon after, almost wholly annihilated in a naval engagement, and several 
of his best towns taken. Finally, his army mutinied, and he was forced 
to abandon Pon'tus, and seek refuge with his son-in-law, Tigranes, in 
Armenia. 

Tigranes readily joined Mithridates in renewing the war ; but was 
defeated by Lucullus (b. c. 70). His courage, however, was soon re- 
animated by a great victory which the king of Pon'tus gained over 
Triarius, a lieutenant of LucuHus, who, contrary to his better judg- 
ment, had been forced to hazard an engagement by the impetuosity of 
his soldiers. The main army mutinied against Lucullus when they 
heard of this defeat, and his enemies at home made it the pretext for 
procuring his recall. Glabrio, his successor, remained inactive during 
his year of office ; and at length the celebrated Pom'pey was appointed 
to conduct the Mithridatic war, and extraordinary powers were conter- 
red on him by the Manilian law — a law that announced too plainly the 
speedy downfall of the Roman republic. Pom'pey, after some mmor 
successes, blockaded the king in his camp, and reduced him to gieat 
distress ; but Mithridates, by an imexpected sally, broke, with his army, 
through the hostile lines, and took the road to Armenia. He was hotly 
pursued, overtaken, and his army routed with great slaughter. The un- 
fortunate monarch, at the head of eight hundred horse, cut his way 
through the Roman army ; but being closely pressed, he abandoned these 
faithful followers, and, with only three attendants, continued his flight 
to Armenia. Tigranes gave no welcome reception to the fugitive, and 
Mithridates was forced to seek shelter in the wilds of Scythia. Pom'- 
pey followed the enemy of Rome into the deserts ; but after two years 
spent in warring against the barbarous nations round the Black sea, he 
was unable to hear any tidings of Mithridates, and returned fully con- 
vinced of his death. 

Scarcely had the Romans rested from the fatigues of this expedition, 
when they were astounded by the intelligence of Mithridates having re- 
turned into Pon'tus at the head of a considerable army, and recovered 
several important fortresses. But the unfortunate monarch found in his 
kingdom and family worse enemies than his open foes. His daughters 
were betrayed to the Romans by a faithless escort ; his army mutinied ; 
and, finally, his own son revolted, and was acknowledged king by the 
soldiers. 

Borne down by this complication of misfortunes, the aged monarch 
attempted to commit suicide, but weakness prevented him from giving 



WESTERN ASIA. 165 

himself a mortal wound ; in the meantime the Roman anny broke into 
his retreat. He was found languid, bleeding and deserted, by a Gallic 
soldier, who compassionating his misery, put an end to his pain and life 
together (b. c. 64). Thus ended the kingdom of Pon'tus : after some 
years it was permitted to have nominal sovereigns ; but even the shadow 
of independence was removed by the emperor Nero, and the country be- 
came a Roman province, 

Cappadocia was one of the Asiatic kingdoms founded after the battle 
of Ip'sus ; none of its monarchs were remarkable in history, and the 
countr}^ itself was proverbial for the infamy of its inhabitants. • Some 
of the Cappadocians were and continue to be Troglodytes, or dwellers 
in caves; but the period when the excavated habitations, were first con- 
structed is uncertain. 

The two Armenias did not become kingdoms until after the defeat 
of Antiochus the Great by the Romans (b. c. 190), when the lieutenants 
of the king of Syria proclaimed their independence. The only Arme- 
nian monarch requiring notice was Tigranes, the son-in-law of Mithri- 
dates. He was involved in the fate of the king of Pon'tus, and his 
dominions were subjected to the Romans, under whose sway both the 
Armenias continued until near the commencement of the Christian era, 
when they were seized by the Parthians, For several centuries the 
possession of Armenia was contested by the Romans and Parthians ; and 
when the latter power was overthrown, the same country continued to 
be a constant source of war between the eastern empire and the restored 
kingdom of Persia. 

After the death of Alexander, Rhodes first became remarkable by 
its gallant resistance when besieged by Demetrius Poliorcetes. Thirty 
thousand men were employed in the labors of this siege. When the 
first wall crumbled under the blows of the helepolis [taker of cities), a 
formidable engine of destruction invented by Demetrius during the siege, 
the brave garrison erected a second with the materials of their temples, 
their theatres, and their houses ; and when that was demolished, they 
erected a third. Fifty deputies from the states of Greece came to the 
besieger's camp as mediators : Demetrius granted peace on condition of 
receiving one hundred hostages and a small auxiliary force (b. c. 305). 
During the siege he had shown his respect for the works of art that 
ornamented this splendid city, by preventing his engines from playing 
upon the buildings in which the most celebrated paintings of Protogenes 
were preserved. It was in memory of this siege that the wonderful 
Colossus was erected. 

In the war between Antiochus and the Romans, the Rhodians joined 
with the latter : though at first defeated in a naval engagement, they ex- 
erted themselves so strenuously, that they soon became masters of the 
eastern sea, and obtained a decisive victory over the Syrian fleet, even 
though it was commanded by the illustrious Han'nibal. But jealousies 
soon arose between the two republics ; and in the second Macedonian 
war the Rhodians preserved a strict but suspicious neutrality. The 
Roman senate sent ambassadors to the islanders, who acted as supreme 
magistrates rather than as envoys ; and thenceforward the Rhodian in- 



166 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

dependence existed only in name. Mithridates attacked the island when 
he invaded Greece ; but he was repulsed by the inhabitants, whose 
fidelity was rewarded by the constant protection of Syl'la. 

During the great civil war of Rome between Pompey and Caesar, the 
Rhodiau fleets fought sometimes on one side and sometimes on the 
other ; but maintained under all circumstances, a very high character. 
Pompey was refused admittance into the island after his defeat at Phar- 
salia ; and the murderers of Caesar was similarly excluded during the 
great civil war that followed his assassination. Cassius, in consequence, 
besieged the city of Rhodes, into which he obtained admittance by the 
treachery of some of the inhabitants : he resigned the unfortunate citi- 
zens to the discretion of his licentious soldiery, and extorted from the 
inhabitants all that he could obtain by violence or threats. In the reign 
of the emperor Claudius Csesar, the Rhodians were deprived of their 
liberties for having crucified two Roman citizens ; but their privileges 
were subsequently restored. At length the island was made a Roman 
province by Vespasian (a. d. 70). 

Section V. — History of Bactria and Parthia. 
FROM B. c. 256 TO B. c. 226. 

The Bactrian kingdom differed from those whose history was de- 
scribed in the preceding section, in being a Grecian state, although es- 
tablished at the extreme western verge of the ancient Persian empire. 
It was formed into a state by Diodatus, the Grecian governor (b. c. 
254), who threw off his allegiance to the Syrian king, Antiochus II. 
The Bactrian monarchs made extensive conquests in India, and at one 
time (b. c. 181) their dominions extended to the banks of the Ganges 
and the frontiers of China. The nomad hordes of the desert that re- 
side to the east of the Caspian sea, and who, both in ancient and mod- 
em times, have frequently changed the political aspect of the western 
world, poured down on the descendants of the Macedonian colonists, 
and forced them to retreat toward the south. The Greeks, driven from 
Bac'tria, appear to have ascended the Ox'us (b. c. 126) and to have 
maintained their independence in the fastnesses of the lofty mountains 
called the Indian Caucasus {Hindu Kush) to a very late period, while 
their ancient territory was annexed to the Parthian empire. It is not 
yet determined whether any traces can be found of this Greek colony 
at the present day ; but it is to be hoped that some of the enterprising 
travellers now exploring northern India will direct their attention to the 
subject. 

The Parthian kingdom was founded about the same time as the Bac- 
trian, by some of the nomad hordes that subsequently overthrew the 
latter. Its general limits were the Euphrates, the In'dus, and the Ox'- 
us ; but its dominions were sometimes extended beyond these streams. 
Though thus holding the ancient empire of Persia, the Parthian mon- 
archs never regarded themselves as descendants of Cy'rus ; they pre- 
ferred the Greek religion, manners, and customs, to those of the Persians, 
and they conferred gTeat privileges on the Grecian colonies that were 
established in their dominions. To the modem Persians tliis dynasty. 



BACTRIA AND PARTHIA. 167 

which ruled their country for more than four centuries, is scarcely- 
known even by name ; a clear proof that the Parthians and their reign- 
ing family, the Arsac'idae, must have been foreigners. In one import- 
ant respect they imitated the exclusive policy of the Tartar rulers of 
China, excluding strangers from their dominions, and sacrificing com- 
merce to their w^atchful jealousy. Their establishment in the Persian 
empire consequently effected a great revolution in the lines of traffic 
between the eastern and western world. The East India trade, stop- 
ped in its passage through Babylonia, was thrown further to the south, 
and began to shape its course through northern Arabia and the Red 
sea. To this change, the great wealth and splendor obtained by the 
great commercial cities Palmy'ra and Alexand'ria must be chiefly at- 
tributed. 

Arsaces I. commenced the war of independence (b. c. 256) by put- 
ting to death the Syrian governor of upper Asia, who had offered a 
grievous insult to his brother. The heads of the Parthian tribes that 
supported him formed a government similar to the feudal aristocracy 
of Europe in the middle ages, giving to the monarch little more than 
nominal authority, and making the crown elective, under the restriction, 
however, that the monarch should be chosen from the family of the 
Arsac'idae. War with the Syrian kings, of course followed ; but the 
light cavalry of the Parthian troops, which have always formed the 
main strength of the armies of central Asia, by their rapid evolutions 
disconcerted the steady discipline of the Syrians and Macedonians. It 
was a remarkable peculiarity of the Parthian tactics, that their armies 
were never so formidable as in flight : when the enemies advanced in 
pursuit, as if to assured victory, these active horsemen turned on their 
steeds, and assailed them with a flight of arrows which invariably 
threw them into confusion. The wars between the Parthians and 
Syrians terminated (b. c. 131) in the total annihilation of the Syrian 
army led by Antlochus Sidetes. 

During half a century after their deliverance from the rivalry of the 
Syrians, the attention of the Parthian monarchs was chiefly engrossed 
by the eastern nomad tribes, whom the fall of the Bactrian kingdom had 
set at liberty to attack the rich provinces of southern Asia. These 
hordes were either subdued, or incorporated with the Parthian army ; 
and scarcely had this danger been averted, when the Romans, being 
brought into contact with the Parthians by their occupation of the king- 
dom of Mithridates, prepared to contend with them for the empire of 
Asia. 

The war commenced by Cras'sus, the Roman triumvir, invading 
Par'thia (b. c. 53) : his incapacity led to the utter annihilation of his 
army and the loss of his own life. In the Roman civil wars the Par- 
thians supported the cause of Pom'pey, and afterward that of Brutus and 
Cas'sius. Subsequently, alarmed at the great power to which Augus'- 
tus Caesar attained, they sought terms of peace, and purchased it by 
surrendering the arms and standards which had been taken from the 
army of Cras'sus. The wars between the Parthians and the succeed- 
ing Roman emperors were almost incessant ; but none of them pro- 
duced any decisive result. After Christianity began to spread, its prog- 
ress was tolerated, if not directly encouraged, by the Parthian mon- 



168 ANCIENT HISTORY, 

archs, wlio liberally afforded shelter to Christians flying from the per- 
secutions of the pagans, and we must add, from those of their brethren 
who belonged to a different sect. But unfortunately the Arsac'idae 
never gained the affections of their Persian subjects : after the lapse 
of more than four centuries, the Parthians continued to be an army of 
occupation, separated by habits, prejudices, and feelings, from the great 
bulk of the nation. At length Ardeshir Bab'egan, called by the Greeks 
Artaxer'xes, a native Persian, of the illustrious house of Sassan, de- 
scended, or claiming to be descended, from the ancient line of Cy'rus 
and Jemshid, raised the national standard of Persia, and drove the 
Parthians into the northern mountains and deserts (b. c. 226). Iran, 
the ancient national name of Persia, was revived ; the religion of Zer- 
dusht restored in its pristine splendor ; the progress of Christianity 
eastward was checked, and it was thrown back on the western world, 
bearing unfortunately too many marks of its having been brought into 
close contact with oriental mysticism and superstition. The destruc- 
tion of the Partliian kingdom, in Asiatic annals, holds the same place 
as the overthrow of the Roman empire in European : it forms the epoch 
which separates ancient from modern history. We shall resume Per- 
sian history under the princes of the house of Sassan in the second 
part of this work. 

Section VI. — History of Idumea, and its capital, Petra. 

FROM B. C. 1048 TO B. C. 133. 

While the Israelites were detained in bondage in Egypt, the Edom- 
ites, descended from Esau, became a rich and powerful nation, posses- 
sing a rampart of impregnable fortresses in the fastnesses of Mount 
Seir, a country generally fruitful, and a command of the great roads by 
which the earliest commercial caravans travelled. Its capital city, 
called Bozrah in the Old Testament and Petra by the Greeks, was 
situated at the foot of Mount Hor, in a deep valley ; the only means of 
access to this metropolis was through a defile partly natural, and partly 
cut through the solid rocks, which hung over the passage, and often in- 
tercepted the view of the heavens. The breadth of this pass is barely 
sufficient for two horsemen to ride abreast, and near the entrance, a 
bold arch is thrown across at a great height connecting the opposite 
cliffs. The pass gradually slopes downward for about two miles, the 
mountain-ridge still retaining its level, until at the close of the dark 
perspective, a multitude of columns, statues, and graceful cornices, burst 
upon the view, retaining at the present day their forms and colors as 
little injured by time and exposure as if they were just fresh from the 
chisel. The sides of the mountains are covered with countless exca- 
vations, of which some are private dwellings and some sepulchres. 
To this extraordinary peculiarity the prophet Jeremiah probably alludes 
in his denunciation of God's vengeance against Edom. " Thy terrible- 
ness hath deceived thee, and the pride of thine heart, O thou that dwel- 
lest in the clefts of the rock, that boldest the height of the hill : though 
thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee 
down from thence, saith the Lord." 

When David ascended the throne of Israel, the Edomites had greatly 



IDUMEA. l'©9 

extended their dominions ; they possessed the ports of Elath and Ez'ion 
Geber on the Arabian sea (gulf of Akaba), and through these places had 
opened a flourishing trade with India and Ethiopia. They also had an 
extensive commerce with Phoenicia, Egypt, and Babylonia. David's 
general, Abishai, invaded Idumea, routed the Edomites with great 
slaughter in the valley of salt, and compelled them to receive garrisons 
into their cities. In the reign of Sol'omon, Hadad, an Edomite prince 
who had sought shelter in Egypt when his native country was subdued, 
returned to E'dom and headed a formidable revolt. 

The only account we have of Hadad is contained in the first Book of 
Kings, and is too remarkable to be omitted. " God stirred up an adver- 
sary unto Solomon, Hadad the Edomite : he was of the king's seed in 
Edom. For it came to pass, when David was in Edom, and Joab the 
captain of the host was gone up to bury the slain, after he had smitten 
every male in Edom (for six months did Joab remain there with all 
Israel, until he had cut off every male in Edom) ; that Hadad fled, he 
and certain Edomites of his father's servants with him, to go into 
Egypt ; Hadad being yet a little child. And they arose out of Midian, 
and came to Paran : and they took men with them out of Paran, and they 
came to Egypt, unto Pharaoh, king of Egypt ; which gave him a 
house, 'and appointed him victuals, and gave him land. And. Hadad 
found great favor in the sight of Pharaoh, so that he gave him to wife 
the sister of his own wife, the sister of Tahpenes the queen. And the 
sister of Tahpenes bare him Gen'ubath his son, whom Tahpenes wean- 
ed in Pharaoh's house : and Gen'ubath was in Pharaoh's household 
among the sons of Pharaoh. And when Hadad heard in Egypt that 
David slept with his fathers, and that Joab the captain of the host was 
dead, Hadad said to Pharaoh, Let me depart, that I may go to mine 
own country. Then Pharaoh said unto him, But what hast thou lacked 
with me, that, behold, thou seekest to go to thine own country 1 And 
he answered. Nothing; howbeit let me go in any wise." The native 
traditions of the country in some degree preserve the memory of 
Hadad's reign, for one of the ruined edifices at Petra is still called by 
the Arabs, " the Palace of Pharaoh's daughter." 

It seems probable that Hadad's efforts were only partially successful, 
for we find that the Edomites continued subjects to the kings of Judah, 
until the reign of Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat (b. c. 888). " In his 
days," says the sacred historian, " Edom revolted from under the hand of 
Judah, and made a king over themselves. So Joram went over to Zair, 
and all the chariots with him : and he rose by night, and smote the 
Edomites which compassed him about, and the captains of the chariots : 
and the people fled into their tents. Yet Edom revolted from under 
the hand of Judah unto this day. Then Lib'nah revolted at the same 
time." Lib'nah was one of the cities of refuge belonging to the king- 
dom of Judah, and its adherence to' Edom tended to perpetuate the 
hereditary animosity between the two nations. Amaziah, the son of 
Joash, severely punished the hostility of the Edomites, for we read in the 
second Book of Chronicles, that " Amaziah strengthened himself, and 
led forth his people, and went to the valley of salt, and smote of the 
children of Seir ten thousand. And other ten thousand left alive did 
the children of Judah carry away captive, and brought them unto the 



170 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

top of the rock, and cast them down from the top of the rock, that they 
were all broken in pieces." 

When Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians, the Edomites 
took an active part in the calamities inflicted upon the Jews. The 
prophet Obadiah declares that Edom " stood on the other side in the 
day that the strangers carried away captive Judah's forces, and for- 
eigners entered into his gates and cast lots upon Jerusalem. Edom 
rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction, spoke 
proudly in the day of their distress, and laid hands on their substance 
in the day of their calamity." The Edomites also " stood in the cross- 
way, to cut off those that did escape, and to deliver up those that re- 
mained." Edom (says the prophet A'mos), " did pursue his brother 
with the sword, and did cast off all pity, and his anger did tear per- 
petually, and he kept his wrath for ever." During the captivity of the 
Jews, the Edomites conquered the southern part of Palestine and seized 
the city of Hebron ; the name of Idumeans was thenceforth given to 
those who occupied the frontiers of Palestine, while those who re- 
mained in Petra were called Nabatheans. Against this people Athe- 
nae'us, the general of Antig'onus, was sent during the wars between the 
successors of Alexander ; the greater part of the Nabatheans having 
gone to a neighboring fair to meet a caravan from the south to receive 
spices in exchange for the woollen goods of Tyre, had left their passes 
lightly guarded ; Athense'us therefore surprised the magazines at Petra, 
and returned laden with plunder to the borders of Syria. The Naba- 
theans, enraged at the tidings of this calamity, collected their forces, 
and urging their dromedaries with incredible velocity through the desert, 
overtook Athenae'us near Gaza, and almost annihilated his army. 
Demetrius hasted to avenge this loss, but the fastnesses and deserts of 
Arabia bafHed his intentions ; we are told that an Arab chief addressed 
the Grecian general from a rock, and set before him in such lively 
terms the danger of the enterprise in which he was engaged, that 
Demetrius, convinced of the great hazard of his undertaking, imme- 
diately returned to Syria. 

The Idumeans who had settled in Judea, exhibited their ancient 
aversion to the Jews during the wars of the Maccabees ; but they were 
severely punished by Judas Maccabseus, who took and sacked their 
chief city Hebron, destroyed more than forty thousand of their soldiers, 
and levelled their strongholds to the ground. Their subjugation was 
completed by John Hyr'canus (b. c. 130), who reduced them to the 
necessity of embracing the Jewish religion or quitting their country. 
They chose the former alternative, and submitting to be circumcised, 
became so completely incorporated with the Jews, that they were re- 
garded as one people, so that during the first century after Christ, the 
name of Idumean was lost and quite disused. 

The Nabatheans long maintained their independence. Petra, their 
capital city, was vainly besieged by the Romans under Pompey and 
Trajan ; but it sunk by gradual decay when the commerce which had 
caused its prosperity was directed into other channels. So completely 
was ancient E'dom cut off from the rest of the world, that the very exist- 
ence of the once flourishing Petra fell into oblivion, and its recent dis- 
covery in the loneliness of its desolation seemed as if the earth had 



HISTORY OF THE JEWS. 171 

given up the dead. No human habitation is in it or near it, and the 
fearful denunciation of the prophet Isaiah is literally fulfilled : " The 
cormorant and the bittern shall possess it ; the owl also and the raven 
shall dwell in it : and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, 
and the stones of emptiness. They shall call the nobles thereof to the 
kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing. 
And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the 
fortresses thereof; and it shall be a habitation of dragons, and a court 
for owls. The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild 
beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow ; the screech 
owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest. There 
shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under 
her shadow : there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with 
her mate." 

Section VII. — The History of the Jews from their return out of the Babylonish 
Cajptivily to the Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. 

FROM B. C. 536 TO A. D. 73. 

When Cy'rus, as God had foretold, issued a decree permitting the 
return of the Jews to their native land (b. c. 536), he intrusted the ex- 
ecution of it to Zerubbab'el, who was the grandson of the last king of 
Judah. The number of those who returned appears not to have ex- 
ceeded fifty thousand persons ; and hence the Jewish traditions declare 
that " only the bran came out of Babylon, while the fllour stayed behind." 
When the returned exiles began to rebuild their city, the Samaritans, 
who were descended from the mixed multitude which had occupied the 
country around Samaria when the ten tribes were carried away captive 
by the Assyrians, applied to Zerubbab'el to receive them into commu- 
nion, and thus form a single nation. The application was peremptorily 
refused, and hence arose the grievous feuds between the Jews and the 
Samaritans which continued to rage during the six succeeding cen- 
turies. 

The Samaritans, after their repulse, successfully exerted themselves 
to impede the progress of the work, representing to the Persian court 
that the Jews sought to erect a fortress, which might become the focus 
of a general insurrection, and sending out armed detachments to harass 
those who were employed in collecting materials. Darius Hystas'pes, 
however, renewed the decree of Cy'rus (b. c. 518), and the Jews 
taking courage, labored so strenuously, that in three years the temple was 
completed. Under the reign of Xer'xes, the Jews appear to have been 
treated with great respect : they furnished a contingent to the army 
which that monarch led into Greece, and are said to have shown more 
bravery than any other division of the host. 

Artaxer'xes, the Ahasuerus of Scripture, was induced by his wicked 
vizier, Haman, to issue an edict for the extirpation of the Jews ; but his 
queen, Est'her, who was of Jewish descent, revealed to the monarch 
the wickedness of his minister, and obtained from him a second procla- 
mation, permitting the Jews to stand upon their defence. Soon after- 
ward, probably through the queen's influence, Ez'ra received a com- 



172 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

mission from Artaxer'xes to return to Jerusalem, with as many as chose 
to accompany him, and there to regulate all matters of church and state 
as he should deem most expedient. 

Ez'ra continued to rule the Jews for about thirteen years, during which 
lime he collected all the sacred books, arranged them in order, and 
thus formed the canon of the Old Testament. He restored the worship 
of the temple, according to its ancient form before the captivity, adding 
particular prayers and thanksgivings for the festivals, which were added 
to commemorate the dedication of the new temple, and the deliverance 
of the Jews from the malice of Haman. On account of these services, 
the Jews regarded him as a second Moses, and assert that the blessings 
he conferred on their nation were not inferior to those derived from their 
great legislator. 

Ez'ra was succeeded in the government by Nehemiah, who had been 
cup-bearer to the king of Persia (b. c. 445). Under his administration 
the fortifications of the city were completed, in spite of the opposition 
made by the Samaritans and other adversaries ; several evils which had 
arisen in the government were corrected, and the observance of the 
Sabbath strictly enforced. After Nehemiah's death, Judea appears to 
have been joined to the satrapy of Syria, and the government to have 
been administered by the high-priests under the Persian prefect. When 
Alexander invaded the Persian empire, the Jews, faithful to their obliga- 
tions, resisted him while they could ; but when the conquest of Tyre 
left them exposed to the victor, the high-priest Jaddua made offers of 
submission, which were graciously accepted. 

After the death of Alexander, and the division of his empire among 
his generals, Judea was exposed to great calamities ; being situate be- 
tween Syria and Egypt, it was coveted by the rulers of both, and suf- 
fered severely from alternate invasions. Ptolemy Soter besieged 
Jerusalem, and stormed it on the sabbath-day ; he carried away one 
hundred thousand captives ; whom he dispersed through Egypt, Lib'ya, 
and the country round Gyrene, where their posterity continued to exist 
as a separate people for several centuries. During this anxious period, 
Simon surnamed the Just, possessed the high-priesthood ; he was em- 
inent for his virtues as a prince and governor, but he was still more 
remarkable for his piety. It was under his direction that the canon of 
the Old Testament was completed, and thenceforward received and 
transmitted to future generations without further revisal or correction 
(b. c. 292). It was about this time that the sect of the Sadducees was 
formed, which denied the doctrines of the resurrection and a future 
state. This creed was chiefly embraced by the rich and powerful, 
while the opposite doctrine of the Pharisees was more popular with the 
lower orders. In the reign of Ptolemy Philadel'phus, and under his 
patronage, the Hebrew Scriptures were translated into Greek, for the 
benefit of the Jews residing in Egypt. This version is usually called 
the Septuagint, because, according to tradition, its preparation was in- 
trusted to seventy persons. In general the Egyptian monarchs proved 
kind sovereigns to their Jewish subjects, and it was with equal folly 
and ingratitude that they abandoned the cause of Ptolemy Epiphanes, 
and placed themselves under Antiochus the Great, king of Syria. 
The descendants of Seleiicus, who possessed the kingdom of Syria, 



mSTOEY OF THE JEWS. 173 

were anxious to establish a uniformity of customs throughout their do- 
minions, and to frame all institutions, civil and religious, on a Grecian 
model. We have already seen hov^^ their effort to Hellenize the Per- 
sians led to their being deprived of the empire of upper Asia ; but this 
loss did not hinder them from making similar attempts on the Jews. A 
pretext for interference was afforded during the high priesthood of 
Onias, who expelled Simon, the governor of the temple. Simon sought 
refuge with the Syrians, and informed them that there were vast treas- 
ures preserved in the sanctuary of Jerusalem ; and the Syrian monarch 
Seleucus, whose own resources were exhausted, sent his servants to 
bring them to Antioch. Onias had sufficient energy to prevent this 
profanation ; he went in person to Seleucus, and afforded him such sat- 
isfactory explanations that Simon was banished. 

Antlochus Epiphanes, soon after succeeding to the throne of his fa- 
ther Seleucus, was bribed to deprive Onias of the priesthood ; he 
conferred it on Jason, who had already so far conformed to Greek cus- 
toms as to abandon his original name, Jesus. Under Jason's rule a 
general apostacy overspread the nation, the service of the temple was 
neglected, academies on the Greek model were opened in Jerusalem, 
and the high-priest himself publicly sent an offering to the Tyrian Her'- 
cules. Jason was, in his turn, supplanted by his brother Menelaus, 
who stripped the temple of all its ornaments to pay the large bribe he 
had promised to the king. Onias, who since his deposition had lived 
at Antioch, remonstrated against this sacrilege ; his denunciations 
alarmed the wicked Menelaus, and he procured the murder of the wor- 
thy priest, who fell regretted even by the idolators. Menelaus now 
pursued his iniquitous course without restraint, until the multitude, un- 
able to endure his exactions, raised a formidable riot in the city, and 
killed the captain of the Syrian guard, which had been brought to pro- 
tect the high-priest. The sanhedrim, or Jewish council, allayed the 
tumult, and sent three deputies to represent the state of affairs to the 
king, Antiochus, and expose the crimes of Menelaus. But the crafty 
priest was prepared to meet the danger ; he had won the royal favor- 
ites by large bribes, and at their instigation the deputies, when they 
presented themselves to Antiochus, instead of being heard were hur- 
ried to execution. This atrocity was so revolting, that the Tyrians, 
though generally hostile to the Jews, showed their sense of the injus- 
tice that had been committed by giving the bodies of the unfortunate 
deputies an honorable burial. 

Antiochus invaded Egypt (b. c. 170), and while he was engaged in 
the conquest of that country, a report was spread through Syria and 
Palestine, that he had been killed before Alexandria. Jason, believing 
that this was a favorable opportunity for recovering the authority of 
which he had been deprived, mustered a small army, marched to Jeru- 
salem, and being admitted into the city by some of his partisans, butch- 
ered all whom he suspected of opposing his claims. The return of 
Antiochus soon induced Jason to seek shelter in exile ; he wandered 
about from city to city, detested by all who knew him, as a betrayer of 
his country, and monster of mankind. 

Antiochus was highly provoked by Jason's rebellion, especially as he 
was informed that the Jews had made public rejoicings on hearing the 



174 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

report of his death. He marched against Jerusalem, and, after en- 
countering a sharp resistance, forced his way into the city. He spared 
no cruelty against the unhappy inhabitants ; in three days forty thousand 
were shiin, and as many more sold as slaves to the neighboring nations. 
Nor did his fury stop here : he entered into the Holy of Holies, offered 
unclean animals upon the altar of burnt-offerings, polluted the whole 
building by sprinkling it with water in which flesh had been boiled, 
dedicated the temple itself to Jupiter Olympius, and erected the statue 
of that dei-ty, " the abomination of desolation," foretold by the prophet 
Daniel, on the altar of the Lord in the inner court of the temple. All 
who refused to worship the idol were cruelly tortured until they either 
complied or sunk under the hands of the executioner. An edict was 
issued, forbidding the observance of the sabbath, or of the rite of cir- 
cumcision ; and two women having been found guilty of circumcising 
their children on the eighth day according to the law of Moses, were 
led round the city with the infants hung from their necks, and then cast 
headlong from the highest pinnacle of the city walls. To escape 
these cruelties, many of the Jews fled to the craggy rocks and caverns 
which abound in Palestine, living upon wild roots and herbs, to avoid 
the dangers of death or apostacy. 

Even in these desolate places of refuge they were pursued by the 
emissaries of the cruel king ; in one cave more than a thousand Jews, 
who had assembled to celebrate the sabbath, were massacred by the 
soldiers of the provincial governor. The noble constancy exhibited by 
many Jewish martyrs of every age, sex, and condition, frequently com- 
pelled the idolators to yield them involuntary admiration, and many of 
the Syrian ofiicers secretly evaded the orders of their tyrannical mas- 
ter, and tried to win the Jews by gentleness and persuasion instead of 
persecution and torture. 

Mattathias, the head of the Asmonean family, which was the first in 
the classes of the hereditary priesthood, unable to endure the scenes 
of cruelty and profaneness which were displayed at Jerusalem, retired 
to his native place, the village of Modin, where for some time he was 
permitted to follow the religion of his fathers. At length a Syrian ofli- 
cer was sent to this remote place ; he assembled the inhabitants, and 
offered the king's favor and protection as a reward for apostacy. Some 
miserable wretches complied, but as one of them was about to offer 
sacrifice to the idol, Mattathias slew the renegade upon the spot. His 
sons, imitating his example, overthrew the altar, and broke the idol. 
But as they were aware that their conduct would be regarded as trea- 
sonable, they abandoned their village, and withdrew into the Jewish 
deserts, whither they were soon followed by bands of brave followers, 
determined at all hazards to vindicate the law of Moses. Mattathias 
restored the worship of the Lord in several of the cities from which he 
had expelled the Syrian garrisons, and he would probably have recov- 
ered Jerusalem itself, had he not been prevented by death (b. c. 166). 
In his last moments he appointed his son Jiidas to command the army 
of the faithful, and exhorted his sons to persevere in their heroic efforts 
for restoring the purity of Divine worship. 

The contest between the Syrians and the Jewish insurgents now as- 
sumed the form and importance of regular war. The latter were named 



HISTORY Of THE JEWS, I'J'S 

Maccabees, because they engraved on their standards the four Hebrew 
letters i;^^)^) being the initial letters of the words in the eleventh verse 
of the fifteenth chapter of Exodus, Mi Kamoka B'elohim Jehovah. 
Under the command of Judas, the Maccabees gained several great vic- 
tories over the Syrians, and reduced some of the strongest fortresses in 
Palestine. The defeat of the Syrians at Bethzura was the most signal 
and decisive of his exploits ; the garrison at Jerusalem fled from their 
posts, and the Maccabees recovered the sanctuary and metropolis of 
their nation without meeting any resistance. When they came to 
Mount Zion, and beheld the desolation of the city and temple, they rent 
their clothes, and gave vent to their sorrow in loud lamentations. Ju- 
das waited until their first emotions of sorrow had abated, and then, 
having secured the avenues to the city by sufficient guards, he employed 
his men in purifying the temple, and restoring its ruined altars. Three 
years after its profanation, the holy place was restored, and the feast of 
its dedication celebrated with all possible solemnity. But his religious 
duties did not divert Judas from his exertions to maintain the indepen- 
dence of his country ; he secured the frontiers by fortresses, repulsed 
many successive invasions of the Syrians, and gained a signal triumph 
over the Idumeans, who had joined the oppressors of the Jews, At 
length, having engaged the Syrian army under Bacchides against fear- 
ful odds, Jiidas was abandoned by his followers, and slain, after having 
destroyed a multitude of his enemies (b. c. 161). His body was re- 
covered by his brethren, and buried in the sepulchre of his father at 
Modin ; his loss was universally mourned, and as he was borne to the 
tomb, the Jews sung a funeral hymn, in imitation of that which David 
had composed on the death of Jon'athan, exclaiming, " How is the 
mighty fallen ! How is the preserver of Israel slain !" 

Bacchides easily recovered Jerusalem, after which he marched 
against the remnant of the Maccabees, who still held together under 
the command of Jon'athan, the brother of Jiidas. After several inde- 
cisive engagements, a treaty of peace was concluded, and Jon'athan 
soon after was elevated to the high-priesthood by Alexander Balas, the 
competitor with Demetrius for the Syrian crown. Under the adminis- 
tration of Jon'athan, Judea soon became a flourishing and powerful 
state ; he entered into alliance with the Romans and the Spartans, and 
at the same time won the friendship of the Syrian kings by his un- 
shaken fidelity. He was at length treacherously murdered by Try'- 
phon, who dreaded that Jon'athan would oppose his usurpation of the 
Syrian throne (b. c. 143). 

Simon, the last surviving son of Mattathias, succeeded to the priest- 
hood, and obtained from the Syrian king the privilege of coinhig money, 
which in the East is regarded as an acknowledgment of independence. 
One of his coins has been preserved ; it bears on the front an inscrip- 
tion in the old Samaritan character, which signifies " the fourth year," 
and on the reverse " from the deliverance of Jerusalem." 

After a glorious administration of eight years, Simon and his two 
eldest sons were treacherously murdered by his son-in-law Ptol'emy ; 
but Hyr'canus, the younger son, escaped, and was immediately recog- 
nised head of the nation. He succeeded in finally shaking ofl" the 
Syrian yoke, and at the same time he incorporated the Idumeans with 



176 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

the Jews, as has been related in the preceding section. Hyr'canua 
was a zealous friend of the Pharisees in the early part of his reign, 
and they in turn exalted him as the only prince who had ever united 
the three offices of prophet, priest, and king ; but toward the close of 
his reign he quarrelled with this haughty sect, and was in consequence 
subjected to so many annoyances, that he died of sheer vexation. He 
•was succeeded by his son Aristob'ulus, a weak and feeble-minded 
prince, who died of remorse for having put his brother to death on 
groundless suspicion. 

The crown and priesthood next devolved on Alexander Jannae'us, 
whose reign was disturbed by the intrigues of the Pharisees. Several 
insurrections were raised against him, which he suppressed, and pun- 
ished the revolters with great severity. He was a brave and skilful 
warrior, but unfortunately devoted to licentious pleasures. Fatigues 
and debauches soon brought him to the grave (b. c. 79) ; at his death 
he bequeathed the regency to his queen Alexan'dra, and the crown to 
whichever of her sons, Hyr'canus and Aristob'ulus, she should find 
most worthy of the succession. 

Alexandra gave herself up completely to the Pharisaic faction, and 
through the influence of that party soon established her authority. 
Anxious to retain power, she conferred the high-priesthood on her eld- 
est son Hyr'canus, because he was of a less enterprising spirit than 
his brother, and kept Aristob'ulus carefully secluded in private life. On 
her death Aristob'ulus, in spite of the Pharisees, deposed his eldest 
brother, and Hyr'canus, who had little ambition, gladly acquiesced in 
the new arrangement. But Antip'ater, an Idumean proselyte, beUeving 
that he might easily reign in the name of Hyr'canus, conveyed that 
prince to Petra, and having levied a numerous army of Arabs, invaded 
Judea, and besieged Aristob'ulus in Jerusalem. Aristob'ulus appealed 
to the Romans, who had now extended their empire into Asia; and 
both parties agreed that the succession should be decided by the victo- 
rious Pompey, who had just concluded the Mithridatic war. 

Aristob'ulus soon had reason to fear that Pompey would decide in 
favor of his brother ; he therefore stood upon his defence, and fortified 
Jerusalem. Getting alarmed at the advance of the Romans, he went 
as a suppliant to Pompey's camp ; but the Jews during his absence 
closed the gates of their city, and refused to admit a Roman garrison, 
upon which Pompey ordered Aristob'ulus to be kept in chains, and laid 
siege to Jerusalem. After a siege of three months the city was 
stormed, and twelve thousand of the inhabitants slain. The walls and 
fortifications were levelled to the ground, but the temple and its treas- 
ures were spared by the conquerors. 

Hyr'canus was nominally restored, but all the real power of the state 
fell into the hands of Antip'ater. This crafty politician supported the 
cause of Pompey during the Roman civil wars until that general was 
slain, and then won the favor of Caesar by rendering him effective aid 
when he was blockaded in Alexandria. In reward for these services, 
Her'od, the second son of Antip'ater, was appointed governor of Gali- 
lee, where he signalized himself by extirpating the bands of robbers 
that infested the country. In the civil wars after the death of Caesar, 
Judea was not less distracted than the Roman empire ; Antip'ater was 



HISTORY OF THE JEWS. 177 

poisoned, Ms eldest son Phas'ael put to death, and Her'od driven into 
exile. Through the influence of Mark Antony, however, Herod was 
not only restored to his former power, but created king of Judea 
(b. c. 40). He had to conquer his kingdom ; for the Jews were reluct- 
ant to submit to an Idumean, and were not conciliated by his marriage 
with Mariam'ne, a princess of the Asmonean race. 

Herod's rule was tyrannical and oppressive ; he put to death the 
high-priest Hyr'canus, his own wife Mariam'ne, and several of his 
sons, and massacred all whom he suspected of being discontented with 
his dominion. While he thus lived in constant dread of being hurled 
from his throne by his discontented subjects, " there came wise men 
from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born king of the 
Jews 1 for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship 
him." Herod was greatly troubled by this annoimcement ; he assem- 
bled the chief-priests and scribes, and inquired of them where Christ 
should be bom. Having heard that Bethlehem was the place foretold 
by the prophets, he sent the wise men thither, " and said, Go and 
search diligently for the young child ; and when ye have found him, 
bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also." Our 
Lord Jesus Christ, whose birth was thus wondrously announced, was 
miraculously saved from the wrath of the cruel king, for the wise men, 
" being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, 
they departed into their own country another way. And when they 
were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a 
dream, saying. Arise and take the young child and his mother, and flee 
into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word : for Herod will 
seek the young child to destroy him. When he arose, he took the 
young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt : and 
was there until the death of Herod." When Herod found that the 
wise men did not return, he was exceeding " wroth, and sent forth, and 
slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts 
thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he 
had diligently inquired of the wise men." 

Herod did not long survive this atrocious cruelty; he died in the 
seventieth year of his age, to the great joy of all his subjects, and was 
succeeded by his son Archelaus. Several insurrections were raised 
by the Jews against their new ruler, which were not suppressed with- 
out great bloodshed. At length all parties appealed to Caesar, who 
divided the dominions of Herod among his children, giving Archelaus 
Judea, with the title of Eth'narch. But Archelaus proved so unworthy 
a governor, that the Roman emperor, wearied by the complaints urged 
against him, deprived him of power, and banished him into Gaul, 
Judea was now formally made a Roman province, and subjected to 
taxation. It was about this time that our blessed Lord, being twelve 
years of age, was brought by his parents to celebrate the passover, 
according to the Jewish custom, which obliged all males who had 
attained that age to repair to the temple on the three great festivals. 

The Jews were very reluctant to submit to taxation, and frequently 
took up arms against the publicans, or tax-gatherers : but when Pilate 
was appointed to the government (a. d. 20) they were still more 
alarmed for their religion, because Pilate, on entering the city, brought 

12 



178 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

with him the Roman standards, which, from their bearing images, the 
Jews regarded as idols. 

With great difficulty Pilate was induced to remove the offensive 
ensi'i'ns, but he soon provoked a fresh insurrection by attempting to 
plunder the sacred treasury. He ordered his soldiers to fall on the 
riotous mob that resisted the attempt, and many innocent lives were 
sacrificed in the confusion. The state of society in Judea became very 
corrupt during Pilate's administration ; there was no class that escaped 
the demoralizing effects of profligacy in the government, and discontent 
in the people. John the Baptist, a prophet, the forerunner of the Mes- 
siah, appeared in the wilderness of Judea, preaching the necessity of 
repentance, and announcing that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. 
The austerity of his life, and the novelty of his doctrines, induced 
great numbers to become his disciples, who were " baptized of him in 
Jordan, confessing their sins" (a. d. 30). Many believed that he was 
the Messiah ; the Evangelist declares, " the people were in expecta- 
tion, and all men mused in their hearts of John, whether he were the 
Christ, or not ; John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize 
you with water ; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose 
shoes I am not worthy to imloose : he shall baptize you with the Holy 
Ghost and with fire : whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly 
purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner ; but the 
chaff he will burn with fire imquenchable." But the preaching of John 
was only designed to prepare the way for a greater teacher. Our Lord 
Jesus Christ having attained the thirtieth year of his age presented 
himself to be baptized, and as he Avent up out of the water a remarka- 
ble miracle attested his divinity, for " the heavens were opened unto 
him, and John saw the spirit of God descending like a dove, and light- 
ing upon him : and lo, a voice from heaven saying. This is my beloved 
Son, in whom I am well pleased." Immediately after his baptism our 
Lord entered on his mission, and " preaching the gospel of the king- 
dom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease 
among the people." But in spite of his many stupendous miracles, 
the great body of the Jews refused to believe in his mission, and 
plotted against his life. 

Herod An'tipas, and his brother Philip, still held the provinces 
which had been granted them after the death of their father, Herod the 
Great. The former was married to the daughter of an Arabian, the 
latter to his own niece Herodias. Herod An'tipas sent away his own 
wife and married his sister-in-law, though she had children by his 
brother Philip, which was contrary to the Mosaic law. The whole 
nation exclaimed against this incestuous union ; John the Baptist, espe- 
cially, had the courage to reprove both the king and his paramour in 
the severest terms. Herodias, stung by his reproaches, induced her 
husband to throw his faithful monitor into prison, and subsequently, by 
means of her daughter, obtained an order for his execution. John was 
beheaded in prison, but his disciples gave his body an honorable burial, 
and the whole nation lamented his death. 

When our Lord Jesus Christ had fulfilled the object of his mission, 
by preaching the glad tidings of salvation, God permitted him to be 
delivered into the hands of his enemies and put to a cruel death, in 



HISTORY OF THE JEWS. 179 

order that his sufferings should make atonement for the sins of man- 
kind. The Jews falsely accused him before Pilate of a design to sub- 
vert the government ; Pilate, though convinced of his innocence, pro- 
nounced sentence of condemnation, and Jesus was crucified between 
two malefactors (a. d. 33) ; but God did not " suffer his, Holy One to 
see corruption ;" on the morning of the third day Christ was raised 
from the dead, and after continuing forty days with his disciples ascend- 
ed into heaven. Previous to his departure he promised his disciples 
that they should receive another Comforter, and this was fulfilled by 
the descent of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost. 

The murder of our blessed Lord did not prevent the spread of his 
doctrines ; on the day of Pentecost three thousand persons were con- 
verted by the preaching of Peter, and every succeeding day fresh addi- 
tions were made to the church. In the wicked and distracted condi- 
tion of Jewish society, the conduct of the Christian community afforded 
a remarkable example of purity, harmony, and self-denial. " The mul- 
titude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul : nei- 
ther said any of them that aught of the things which he possessed was 
his own ; but they had all things common." In consequence of the 
great increase of the church, seven deacons were appointed to take 
charge of " the daily ministration," of whom the most remarkable was 
Stephen, who, " full of faith and power, did great wonders and mira- 
cles among the people." The rulers of the synagogue, unable to con- 
fute Stephen, accused him to the sanhedrim, or council, of having 
blasphemed Moses and God. False witnesses were suborned to sup- 
port the accusation, and Stephen was subjected to the mockery of a 
trial. He easily refuted the charges brought against him, but Avhen he 
repeated his belief that Jesus was the Messiah, his enemies were filled 
with fury ; " they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, 
and ran upon him with one accord, and cast him out of the city, and 
stoned him ; .and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young 
man's feet, whose name was Saul. And they stoned Stephen, calling 
upon God, and saying. Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled 
down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their 
charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep." 

Saul, who was subsequently called Paul, had consented to the death 
of Stephen, and was so eager a persecutor, that he obtained a commis- 
sion to search after the Christians who sought shelter in Damas'cus. 
On his way to that city, he was miraculously struck to the earth, and 
God was graciously pleased to convince him of the truth of the gos- 
pel. Thenceforward he became a zealous apostle of the faith, speak- 
ing boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus. The continuance of the 
persecution at Jerusalem was, by divine providence, turned into a 
means of propagating the gospel ; for the disciples, being dispersed, 
carried their doctrines into every city where the Jews had synagogues. 

In the meantime, Pilate was stripped of his government, and sent to 
answer charges of tyranny and misgovernment before the emperor ; 
his defence was so unsatisfactory, that he was banished to Gaul, 
where, unable to endure the stings of a guilty conscience, he killed 
himself with his own sword. Herod Agrip'pa, the grandson of Herod 
the Great, had been kept in prison during the reign of the emperor 



180 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

Tiberius, but on the accession of Calig'ula he was not only restored to 
liberty, but obtained the proA'inces that had belonged to his uncle 
Philip, with the title of king (a. d. 41). Through his influence, Calig'- 
ula was induced to recall his edict for desecrating the temple of Jeru- 
salem by erecting his own statue in it, and to pardon the Jews for 
resisting the imperial commands. In the reign of the emperor Clau- 
dius, Agrip'pa obtained the government of all the territories which had 
belonged to his grandfather, Herod the Great. He returned to his 
kingdom, where he showed an extraordinary attachment to the Jewish 
religion ; and, to please the Pharisees, he began to persecute the 
Christians. St. James, the brother of John, sometimes called the 
Less, to distingaii.sh him from St. James the first bishop of Jerusalem, 
was beheaded, and St. Peter cast into prison ; but Peter was miracu- 
lously delivered by an angel, and Herod Agrip'pa soon after died in 
great misery from a painful and loathsome disease. 

On the death of Herod Agrip'pa, Judea Avas once more reduced to 
the condition of a Roman province. The cruelty and rapacity of the 
provincial governors filled the land with wretchedness ; bands of rob- 
bers not only infested the roads, but even ventured to attack the towns ; 
certain pretended zealots, called Sicarii, or assassins, committed the 
most horrid murders, in the name of religion and liberty ; while false 
prophets and messiahs raised repeated insurrections, which were pun- 
ished with dreadful severity. All these evils were aggravated under 
the administration of Felix, whose avarice was unbounded, and who 
never hesitated to commit any crime by which he might gratify his 
depraved passions. Before this wicked governor the apostle Paul was 
brought, when falsely accused by the Jews of disturbing the public 
peace. On the public trial nothing could be proved against the apos- 
tle, but Felix detained him in custody. After some time he privately 
sent for Paul, to hear him concerning the faith in Christ,'" and as he 
reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment |*' come, Felix 
trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time ; when I have a 
convenient season I will call for thee. He hoped also that money 
should have been given him of Paul, that he might loose him ; where- 
fore he sent for him the oftener, and communed with him. But after 
two years Por'cius F^r.-s'tus came into Felix's room : and Felix, willing 
to show the Jews a pleasure, left Paul bound." Fes'tus, on assuming 
the government, found the priests at war with each other respecting 
their shares of the tithes. To such a height did their rancor rise, that 
the rival parties hired troops of assassins, and filled both city and 
country, and even the very temple, with blood. Seditions against the 
Romans were also frequent, and the bands of robbers plundered and 
massacred everywhere without mercy. While Fes'tus was endeavor- 
ing to provide some remedy for these disorders, Paul was brought 
before him for trial ; the apostle observing the vindictive temper of the 
Jews, and having little confidence in the firmness of Fes'tus, appealed 
to Caesar, and was of course sent to Rome. 

Fes'tus was succeedecl by Albinus, and afterward by Florus, the last 
and worst governor the Jews ever had (a. d. 64). Florus resolved to 
drive the Jews into open rebellion, to prevent any inquiry into his 
manifold oppressions. The unhappy nation seemed blindly to second 



HlSTOaY OF THE JEWS. 181 

Ms eflorts by taking up arms to drive the Syrians out of Caesarea, and 
by raising seditions in almost every city where they were settled. At 
length the zealots attacked the Romans in the fortresses which had 
been erected to secure Jerusalem, and put all who opposed them to 
the sword, including even the garrisons that capitulated. The governor 
of Syria marched into Judea to punish these disorders, but he was 
compelled to retreat, and the Jews now resolved to brave the entire 
strength of the empire (a. d. 67). The Christians of Jerusalem, re- 
membering our Savior's warning, retired to Pel'la, beyond the Jordan, 
whither the war did not reach, and their example was followed by 
several Jews in the higher classes. 

Vespasian, a Roman general, who had already distinguished himself 
in Germany and Britain, was appointed by Nero to conduct the war 
against the Jews. He encountered everywhere a fierce resistance, and 
at length, when he reached Caesarea, he halted his army, trusting that 
the Jews, by their intestine tumults, would become so weakened as to 
afford him an easy victory (a. d. 70). Such an expectation was but 
too reasonable ; the zealots, who had fled before the Romans, were 
now collected in Jerusalem, under the command of a vile demagogue, 
John of Gis'chala, and being joined by the Idumeans, committed the 
most horrid butcheries, and polluted the temple itself with horrid mur- 
ders. Another party was formed by Simon, the son of Gorias, whose 
atrocities in the country rivalled those of John in the city ; he was in- 
vited to Jerusalem, as a counterpoise to John and the zealots, but the 
remedy was worse than the disease, for Simon proved the worse 
scourge of the two. A third faction was formed by Eleazar, who 
seized the upper part of the temple, and thus, while the enemies were 
advancing against the devoted city, its garrison and its citizens were 
engaged in mutual slaughter. 

In the meantime, Vespasian, having been raised to the empire in- 
trusted the command of the army to his son Titus, who entered Judea 
with a very numerous and well-appointed army (a. d. 73). He ad- 
vanced against Jerusalem, meeting no resistance in the open country, 
a circumstance which led him to believe that the Jews had repented 
of their rebellion, and were preparing for submission. Under this mis- 
taken impression, he exposed himself negligently in the difficult defile 
called the valley of Jehosh'aphat, where he was separated from his 
cavalry. In this situation he was suddenly assailed by the factions, 
and was exposed to such danger that his escape was regarded as little 
short of a miracle. The siege was now formally commenced ; the 
Jews, shut up in the city, suffered dreadfully from famine and pesti- 
lence, but the factions did not lay aside their mutual fury ; they con- 
tinued to slaughter each other, even while their walls were shaken by 
the battering engines of the Romans. Language would fail to describe 
the horrid sufferings of the besieged ; hunger reduced them to the ne- 
cessity of using the most revolting and unnatural substances for food, 
while the zealots made the miseries and groans of their starving breth- 
ren the subject of their cruel mirth, and carried their barbarity even to 
the sheathing their swords on these poor wretches, under pretence of 
trying their sharpness. 

At length the walls of the city were battered down, and the Romans 



182 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

besieged the temple, where the desperate factions still maintained an 
energetic resistance. Titus was very anxious to save the sacred ed- 
ifice, but one of his soldiers tlirew a lighted brand into one of the win- 
dows, and the whole building was soon in flames. A fearful massacre 
followed ; the Romans refused all quarter, and many thousands perished 
by the fire, the sword, or by throwing themselves headlong from the 
battlements. This scene of butchery was continued for several days, 
until Jerusalem was left utterly desolate. The number of prisoners 
reserved for a fate worse than death amounted to ninety-seven thousand, 
eleven thousand of whom were starved to death by the neglect or cu- 
pidity of their keepers. According to Josephus, there perished at Je- 
rusalem during the siege, by famine, pestilence, and the sword, more 
than a million of Jews and proselytes ; but this statement appears to be 
exaggerated. 

When the soldiers had ended their destructive work of burning and 
slaughter, Titus ordered that the entire city should be razed to the 
ground, with the exception of a portion of the western wall, and three 
towers, which he left as memorials of his conquest. So punctually 
were his orders executed, that, except these few buildings, nothing was 
left save shapeless ruins, which would indicate that the place had ever 
been inhabited. The victory of Titus was celebrated at Rome by a 
splendid triumph ; a triumphal arch, which still exists, was raised to 
commemorate the event ; and a medal struck, in which the captured 
land of Judea was significantly represented as a disconsolate female 
sitting beneath a palm-tree, while a soldier, standing by, laughed at her 
misery and mocked at her calamity. 



ANCIENT ITALY. 183 



CHAPTER XIII. 

IISTORY OF ANCIENT ITALY. 

Section I. — Geographical Outline. 

Italy, m its earliest signification, was the name given to the small 
tongue of land between the Syllet'ic and the Nepetic gulfs, that is, the 
southern portion of Brut'tium ; but it was gradually extended to include 
more northern provinces, until, in the reign of the Emperor Augustus, 
it was applied to the great peninsula included between the Alps, the 
Adriatic, the Tyrrhenian and the Mediterranean seas. It was also 
called Hesperia, from its western situation ; Satur'nia, from the fable 
of Saturn's flight thither ; Aus'onia and CEnotria, from some of the 
most ancient tribes of inhabitants. 

The most convenient division of the peninsula is into three portions : 
Cisalpine Gaul in the north, Italy Proper in the centre, and Magna 
Graecia in the south. 

Subalpine Italy received the name of Gaul from the Gallic hordes 
that settled in the northern and western districts ; it was called for dis- 
tinction Cisalpine, or Citerior, because it lay on the side of the Alps 
next to Rome, and Togata, because in a late age, its inhabitants began 
to use the toga, or national dress of the Romans. From the Alps, this 
province at first extended to the city of An'cona, in the province of 
Picenum ; but, in the later ages of the Roman republic, the river Ru- 
bicon (Rugone), between Ravenna and Arim'inum, was considered the 
limit of its frontiers. 

The principal Subalpine tribes were the Vedian'tii, inhabiting the small 
tract lying on the east bank of the Varus {Var), and extending from 
the territory of Nicse (Nice), to the Maritime Alps, or that branch of 
the mountain-chain which joins the Western Mediterranean : the Va- 
gaen'ni, north of the Maritime Alps near the source of the river Padus 
(Po) ; and the Taurini, at the other side of the Padus, on which stood 
their capital, Taurasia, subsequently called Augus'ta Taurinorum 
{^Tnrin). 

North of the Taur'ini, and among the mountains, was the kingdom 
of Cottius, who gave his name to the Cottian Alps. Thence to the 
Greek Alps, which extended to Mons Jovis {Great St. Bernard), there 
were several warlike Gallic tribes, but none of any particular note in 
history. 

Liguria lay south of the river Padus, extending to the Mediterranean 
sea, between the rivers Macra and Varus. Its chief cities on the sea- 
coast were Nicae'a (Nice or Nizza), erected by the Massilians to pro- 
tect their frontier against the Ligurian mountaineers : Portus Her^culis 



184 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

MoncB'ci (Monaco), Al'bium Intemelium (Vintimiglia), Alliium Ingan'- 
num (Alben^ia), Sab'ata (Savona), Gen'ua or Jan'ua (Genoa), Por'tus 
Delphini (Porto Fino), and Por'tus Lunee (Golfo delle Spezie). Of 
these Gen'ua was the most important, being the great emporium of Li- 
gurian commerce. The principal towns in the interior were Pollentia 
iPollenza), As'ta (Asti), and Indus'tria (Tortona). This last city was 
called Bodencomagum by the earlier Ligurians, because it stood on the 
Po, which they named Boden'cus, a word in their language signifying 
" bottomless." Next to Liguria lay the district named Gallia Cispa- 
dana, or Gaul south of the Po ; it was chiefly inhabited by the Boii, 
the Lingones, and the Senones. The principal towns of the Boii were 
Placentia, Par'ma, Mutina (Moclena), and Bononia (Bologna). The Lin- 
gones possessed Raven'na, Faven'tia (Faenza), Solona (Citta di Sole), 
and Cae'sena ; and to the Senones belonged Arimin'um (Rimini), Pisau- 
rum (Pesaro), Sena Gal'lica (Sinigaglia), and An'cona. 

Gal'lia Transpadana, or north of the Padus, had the great Alpine 
chain on the north and west, between which and the Po it extended to 
the river Formio (// Risano), which separated it from Istria. It was 
inhabited by the Orobii, the In'subres, the Lae'vi, the Cenoman'ni, the 
Euganei, and the Ven'eti. The principal cities in the territory of the 
Orobii were Con'rum (Conro), Ber'gamum (Bergamo), and Forum Li- 
cin'ii (Berlasina) ; the In'subres possessed Mediolanum (Milan), Laus 
Pompeii (Lodi), and Forum Intuntonnn (Crema) : to the Cenoman'ni 
belonged Brix'ia (Brescia), Cremona, Man'tua, and Ver'ona : the Eu- 
ganei, OAvned Sabium, Vobern'a, Ed'rum, and Van'nia, cities long since 
demolished : and the Ven'eti were masters of Patavium (Padua), Vi- 
cen'tia (Vicenza), Ates'te (Este), Forum Allieni (Ferrara), Tar'visum 
(Treviso), Aquileia (Aquilea), Forum Julii (Friuli), and Tergeste (Tri- 
este). In later ages, a horde, called the Cami, wrested from the Ven^- 
eti the cities and country between the rivers For'mio and Talaven'tura 
(Piave). 

Central or Proper Italy extended along the Adriatic coast from the 
city of An'cona to the river Fren'to (Fortore), and on the Mediterranean 
side was limited by the rivers Macra and Sil'arus (Scle). It compre- 
hended Etriiria, Um'bria, Sabin'ium, Latium, Picenum, with the coun- 
tries of the Vestini, Marrucini, Pelig'ni, Mar'si, Fret'ani, Samnites, 
Hirpini,' Campani, and Picentfni. 

Etruria was inhabited by two distinct races, that seem to have very 
slowly amalgamated, the Tyrrheni and the Hetrus'ci. It was bounded 
on the east by the river Tiber, on the west by the Macra, on the north 
by the chain of the Apennines, and on the south by that portion of the 
Mediterranean commonly called the Tuscan sea. It was divided into 
a dodccarchy, or government of twelve tribes and cities. These ruling 
cities in the most flourishing period of Etrurian history were, Volsin'ii 
(Bolsena), Clusium (Chiusi), Perusia (Perugia), Cortona, Aret'ium 
(Arezzo), Falerii (Civita Castellana), Volater'ree ( Fo/ferra), Vetulonium 
(Grosseto), Rusel'la (Cerveteri), and the cities of Veii, Tarquinii, and 
Cae're, which at present lie in ruins. There were many other places 
of importance in Etruria: on the seacoast were Luna {UErice), Pisae 
(Pisa), Por'tus Her'culis Libur'ni (Livorno or Leghorn), Papulonia now 
in ruins, Tal'amon (Telamone), Centumcel'las (Civita Vecchia)^ and 



" ANCIENT ITALY. 185 

Al'sium (Palo). There were besides, in the interior, Nep'ete [Nepe), 
Sutrium (Sutri), Faniim Voltum'nse {Viterbo), Hortanum (Orti), Her- 
banum (Orvieto), Senee Julise [Saona), Floren'tia {Fiorenza, Firenze, or 
Florence), Pistoria (Pistoia), and Luca (Lucca). 

Umbria was bounded on the south by the river Nar [Nera), on the 
north by the Adriatic sea, on the east by the iEsis {Fiumicino), and on 
the west partly by the Tiber, and partly by the Bedesis (II Roneo), which 
falls into the Adriatic near Ravenna. But the maritime part of Umbria 
having been early conquered by the Senonian Gauls, the cities it con- 
tains have been already mentioned in the account of Gallia Cispadana. 
The Umbrian cities on the Adriatic side of the Apennines were Sarsina, 
Urbimmi (Urbino), Metauren'se (Castel Durante), Sentinum (Sentimo), 
and Cam'ers (Camerino). On the other side of these mountains were 
Iguvium (Us^ubio), Mevania (Bagagna), Spolefium (Spoleti), Tifer'num 
(Citta di Castella), Nuceria (Nocera), Assis'ium (Assist), Hispellum 
(Ispello), Fulgin'ium (Foligno), Interam'nium (Terni), Narnia (Narni), 
and Ocric'ulum (Ocricoli). 

The territory of the Sabines lay between the Nar, which divided it 
from Umbria, and the A'nio (Teverone), by which it was separated 
from Latium. It contained the city of Cures, whose inhabitants, migra- 
ting to Rome, are said to have given its citizens the name of Quirites ; 
Reate (Rieti), Nur'sia (Norcia), E'retum (Monte Rotondo), and Amiter'- 
num [Lamentaria) . 

Latium was at first restricted within very narrow limits, being bound- 
ed by the Tiber, the A'nio (Teverone), and the Circsean promontory 
(Monte Cercilli) ; but after the subjugation of the ^E^qui, Hernici, Vol'sci, 
and Ausones, it was extended to the Liris (Garigliano) ; and hence 
arises the distinction between Old and New Latium. The chief cities 
of Old Latium were Rome, Tibur (Tivoli), Prsenes'te (Palestrina), Tus'- 
culum (Frascati), Aric'ia, Lanuvium (Citta Lavina), Al'ba Lon'ga 
(Albano), Lauren'tura (Paterno), and Os'tia. There were, besides, four 
Latin towns, of which the ruins can now scarcely be traced, Gabii, 
Antem'nse, CoUatia, and Ar'dea. The chief cities of the iEqui were 
Car'sula {Arsuli), Valeria (Vico Varo), Sublaqueum (Subiaco), and 
Al'gidum, now in ruins. To the Hernici belonged Anag'nia (Anagni), 
Alatrium (Alatri), Ver'ulas (Veroli), and Ferentinum (Ferentino). In 
the country of the Yolsci were An'tium, Cir'cas, and Sues'sa Pometia, 
all three long since ruined ; Anx' ur (Terracina), Vel'itrse (Veletri), Pri- 
ver'num (Piperno), xlquinum (Aquino), Casinum (Monte Cassino), 
Arpinum (Arpino), Fregel'lse (Ponte Corvo), and Interam'na (Vlsola). 
The Ausones possessed Careto (Gaeta), Fun'di (Fondi), and For'mise 
(Mola). 

Picenum extended from the Adriatic to the Apennines, between the 
jE'sis (Esino) and the Atemus (Pescara). The chief cities of the 
Picen'tes were Ancona, As'culum (Ascoli), Interam'nium (Teramo), 
and A'tria (Atri). Several other nations besides the Picen'tes were 
included within the boundaries of Picenum. Of these, the Vestini 
possessed An'gulus (Civita di Sancto Angela) and Avel'la ; the Mar- 
rucini owned but one city, Teate (Chiete) ; the Peligni possessed Cor- 
fin'ium, now in ruins, and Sul'mo (Sulmona) ; the Mar'si, in the interior 
of the country, close to the Apennines, had only one important town, 



18G ANCIENT HISTORY. • 

Marrubium (Morrf^a). On the southern seacoast were the Frentani, 
whose chief cities were Ortona, Anax'onuni [Lanzano), and Histonium 
{Gitaxto dWmone) : the Samnites possessed the country between the 
territory of the Frentani and the Apennines ; their chief cities were 
Bovianum (Boiano), iEser'nia {Isfmui), Sepinum (Sf^pina), AUifse 
{Alifi), and Tel'esia {Telesi). Finally, the Hirpini held the south 
western side of the Apennines, and possessed Beneven'tum [Benevento), 
Equotuticum {Ariano), and Comp'sa [Conza). 

Campania, the most pleasant and fruitful division of Italy, extended 
between the territories of the Samnites and Herpini and the Mediter- 
ranean from the river Liris to the promontry of Minerva. On its coast 
were Liter'num [Torre di Patria), Baia3 [Baia), Misenum (Monte 
Miseno), Parthen'ope or Neap'olis (Naples), and Sorren'tium (Sorrento), 
together with the cities of Herculaneum and Pom'peii, overwhelmed by 
an eruption of Mount Vesuvius. In the interior of the country were 
Capua, Sues'sa Aurun'ca (Sessa), Venafrum (Venafrc), Casilinum 
(Nova Capua), Tednum Sidicinum [Tiaiio), Calatia (Cajazzo), Cales 
(Cahi), Atel'la (Aversa), Acer'rse (Acerra), Nola and Nuceria (Nocera). 
Between the promontory of Minerva and the river Sil'arus (Sele) was 
a small district inhabited by a Picentine colony, whose chief city was 
Saler'num (Salerno). 

Magna Grsecia, so called from the number of Greek colonies that 
settled in it, comprised Apulia, Lucania, and the territory of the Brut'tii. 

Apulia {La Puglia) extended from the river Fren'to (Fortore) to the 
Japygian promontory (Capo di Leuca), at the southeastern extremity of 
Italy. It was divided into three portions : Daunia, lying between the 
Fren'to and the Aufidus (Ofanto) ; Peucetia, stretching from the Aufidus 
to the isthmus between Brundusium and Taren'tum ; and Japy'gia, or 
Calabria, comprising the southeastern peninsula of Italy, or the heel of 
the boot to which Italy has been fancifully compared. 

In the first two divisions were Teanum Ap'ulum (Civitate Tragonara), 
Sipuntum [Siponto) Luceria (Lucera), Ar'pi [Foggia) As'culum Ap'u- 
lum (Asicli), Venusia (Venosa), Acheron'tia (Acirenza), Canusium 
(Canosa), Can'nae (Canna), Salapia (Salpe), Barium [Bari), and Egnatia 
{Terra d'Anazzo). The chief cities of Calabria were Brundusium 
{Brindisi), Hydruntum (Otranto), Callip'olis {Gallipoli), Ner'itum 
{Nardo), and Aletium (Lezze). 

Lucania lay between the Silarus and the Laiis {Laino). It was 
divided from Peucetia by the Bran'danus {Brandano), and from Calabria 
by the upper part of the Tarentine gulf. On the Mediterranean, or 
Tyrrhenian sea, stood Pses'tum or Posidonia (Pesto), Velia {Pisciotta), 
and Buxen'tum {Policastro). On the Tarentine gulf were Metapon'tum 
{Tere di Mare) and Heraclea, called also Syb'aris and Thurii (Policore). 
The inland cities were Poten'tia (Potenza), and Grumen'tum {Clari' 
monte). 

Greek colonies occupied the southwestern peninsula of Italy. Theii 
chief cities on the western coast were Ceril'li (Cirella), Clamp'etia 
(Amantea), Tom'sa (Torre Lappa), Lametia {Sant Euphemia), Scyllse'- 
um (Sciglia), and Rhegium {Reggie). On the eastern coast stood Locri 
Epizephy'rii {Jeraces), Caulonia (Castel Veteri), Scylaceum {Squillaci), 
Croto (Crontone), Petil'ia (Belicastro), and Ruscianum (Rossana), 



* ANCIENT ITALY. 187 

The chief cities of the interior were Consen'tia {Cosenza) and Hip- 
ponium, called by the Romans Vibo Valen'tia {Mont Leone). 

The chief Italian mountains are the Alps, which extend round the 
north of the peninsula in an irregular chain about eight hundred miles 
in length ; and the Apennines, which go through Italy from the Mari- 
time Alps to the straits of Sicily. The Massic, Gaurian, and Garganian 
mountains are detached ridges, celebrated for theiy fertility ; and Vesu- 
vius, near Naples, has been long remarkable for its volcano. 

From the Alps flow the Padus (Po), the Druria (Dora), the Sessites 
(Sessia), the Ticinus (Tessino), the Ad'dua {Adda), the Ol'lius {Oglio), 
the Min''crus {Mincio), the Tan'arus {Tanaro), the Trebia, and the 
Rhenus Bononien'sis (iJewo di Bologna) : all these are tributaries of the 
Padus. The Ath^esis {Adige) has also its source in the Alps, but it 
falls into the Adriatic. The Ar'nus (Arno) and the Tiber flow from the 
Apennines into the Mediterranean : the tributaries of the latter river are 
the Clanis (Chiana), the Nar {Nera), and the A'nio {Teverone). Be- 
sides these, there are the Liris {Garigliano), separating Latium from 
Campania ; the Vvfltur'nus ( VoUorno), in Campania ; the Sil'arus 
{Silaro), severing the territories of the Pincentini and Lucani ; the 
Syb'aris (Cochile), and the Crathis (Crati), in Lucania ; the Aufidus 
(Ofanto), in Apulia ; and the Ater'nus {Pescara) and Metaurus {Metauro), 
in Picenum. 

Italy has ever been celebrated for its fertility and beauty ; its inhab- 
itants were once the triumphant conquerors and lords of the known 
world ; but ages of misgovemment have blighted this lovely peninsula, 
and it is now among the most degraded and miserable countries in Eu- 
rope. 

Section II. — Historical Notices of the early Inhabitants of Italy. 

^ CHRONOLOGY UNCERTAIN. • 

The earliest inhabitants of Italy appear to have been branches of 
the great Pelasgic nation. Of these, the CEnotrians occupied the south 
of the peninsula, the Sicilians possessed the plain of the Tiber, and the 
Tyrrhenians were settled in Etruria. In process of time, the CEno- 
trians were subjugated by Hellenic colonies, the Sicilians subdued by 
some mountain-tribes who took the name of Latins, and the Tyrrheni- 
ans conquered by the Hetrusci, a people that probably descended from 
the Rhaetian Alps. 

Between (Enot'ria and Tyrrhenia was the territory of the Opicans 
or Oscans, called also Ausonians. Their language was intelligible to 
the Latins ; for the Latin tongue is compounded of Greek and Oscan. 
To this race the ^E'qui and VoFsci appear to have belonged. 

The Latins, according to tradition, were driven down the A'nio by 
the Sabines, and they in their turn expelled a great portion of the Si- 
culians from their habitations, who proceeded southward, and passed 
over the strait of Messina into the island which took from them the 
name of Sicily. In the old legends these Latin conquerors are called 
Sacrani ; they were also named Priscans and Cascans. From the lat- 
ter name, and the similarity of language, they must have been a branch 



188 ANCIENT HISTORY. * 

of the Oscan nation. The agreement between the Greek and Latin 
languages in words that relate to agriculture and the arts of social life, 
while they difler wholly in the names of objects belonging to war or 
the chase, is a strong proof that the agricultural laborers or serfs were 
of Pelasgian origin, and the warriors a superior caste of Oscan de- 
scent. Little is known of the religion of the ancient Latins, or the 
deities they worshipped. Janus, or Dianus, was the god of the sun, 
Saturn the vivifying power of nature, and his wife Ops the productive 
energy of the earth ; but the distinctive character of these deities was 
lost when, in a late age, the native legends of Latium were blended 
and confounded with the mythology of Greece. 

The Sabines and their cognate tribes are included under the common 
name of Sabellians ; they were the most widely extended and the 
greatest people in Italy when th^ Romans advanced beyond the fron- 
tiers of Latium. Their original home was in the neighborhood of Ami- 
ter'nium, among the highest of the Apennines that are now included in 
Abruzzo Ultra. From these they descended at a very remote age, dri- 
ving the Cascans before them in one direction, and the Urabrians in 
another. Their colonies were sent out according to a singular religious 
institution called the " Ver Sacrum," or sacred spring. Every twenty 
years the children and cattle born within the twelvemonth were conse- 
crated and set apart for founding a colony ; and, as soon as they reached 
mature age, were sent forth for the purpose. One of these occupied 
Picenum, then inhabited by the Pelasgians ; another passed into the 
land of the Opicans, or Oscans, and became the founders of the great 
Samnite race. To the Sabellan race belonged also the Frentanians on 
the coast of the Adriatic, the tribes that conquered Campania, the pow- 
erful nation of the Lucanians, and the four confederate tribes of Mar- 
sians, Manucinians, Pelignians, and Vestinians. The Hernicans were 
a sub-colony of the Marsians. 

The Lucanians, pushing their conquests into (Enotria, were soon in- 
volved in war with the Greek colonies, most of which they subdued. 
They were joined by the Samnites from Campania (b. c. 437), who 
gained possession of Vultui"^num. They soon advanced to the Laus 
(b. c. 423), and confirmed their power by the total defeat of the Thu- 
rians (b. jc. 387). At length they were brought into hostile contact 
with the Romans, and soon stripped of all their power. 

The Sabellian tribes, more especially those in the north, were dis- 
tinguished lor their love of divination, the rigid severity of their mor- 
als, and their cheerful contentedness. In other respects their charac- 
ters differed. The Sabines and most of the northern tribes lived in 
open villages ; the Samnites fortified the hills on which they dwelt ; 
and the Lucanians became attached to residence in cities. The want 
of union between the Sabellian tribes prevented that race from becom- 
ing predominant in Italy. The Samnites owed their doAvnfall to the 
want of a central metropolis, and the unity it confers. It was only in 
time of war that they elected a commander-in-chief, called emherator ; 
a term which the Latins borrowed, and changed into imperator, using it 
instead of their old words dictator and prcEtor. 

The Etrurians or Etruscans, who conquered the Tyrrhenian Pelasgi, 
were called in their own tongue " Rasena :" they established a kind of 



ANCIENT ITALY. 189 

feudal supremacy over the subjugated nation, and deprived the Tyr- 
rhenians of all political privileges. All public affairs were decided in 
the general council of the Lucumones, a sacerdotal caste whose privi- 
leges descended by inheritance. From the want of a free and respec- 
table Commonwealth, the Etruscans, though possessed of great wealth 
and power, having been at one time masters of the commerce and nav- 
igation of the western Mediterranean, proved imequal to cope with the 
Romans, whose infantry was composed of free citizens. The regal 
office was not hereditary, but elective, and the power of the kings was 
very limited. Before the conquest the Tyrrhenians were remarkable 
for their piracies, and the Etruscans followed the same course! Their 
corsairs were the terror of the western Mediterranean, until their navy 
was almost annihilated, in a sea-fight off Ciimae, by Hiero, king of Syra- 
cuse. About two centuries afterward, they partially recovered their 
power, and extended their piracies even into the iEgean sea ; but they 
were finally subdued by the Rhodians. 

The Etruscans had made great advances in the arts and sciences. 
The ruins of their public works rival those of ancient Egypt in magni- 
tude, and surpass them in utility, especially the dikes for fencing the 
delta of the Po, and the tunnels for draining the lakes that formed in 
the craters of extinct volcanoes. Their pottery and metal works, if 
not of Greek origin, were certainly improved by Grecian artisans, and 
may therefore be attributed to the Pelasgic Tyrrhenians. No Italian 
nation was so religious, or rather superstitious, as the Etrurians : from 
them the Romans borrowed most of their ritual and ceremonies, the 
rules of augury and divination, and the solemnities in the declaration of 
peace or war. At a very early age Greek literature supplanted the na- 
tive literature of Etruria, and the ancient lore of the Tuscans fell into 
what seems to have been unmerited oblivion. 

The Umbrians were a nation consisting of several distinct races, the 
most remarkable being the Camer'tes and the Sarsinates. Their lan- 
guage appears to have been a mixture of Etrurian and Oscan. It is 
the misfortune of the Umbrians that their greatness had disappeared 
before the age of certain history ; their glory seems to have passed 
away when the rich countries bordering on the seacoast were occupied 
by the Gauls. 

The southeast of Italy, or Japy'gia, was occupied by the Messapians, 
the Peucetians, and the Daunians. The Messapians are said to have 
been an old Pelasgian colony from Crete ; they were a very powerful 
people until the city of Tarentum had acquired sufficient strength to 
contend for the supremacy of southern Italy, when, after a tedious 
struggle, they were compelled to enter into an alliance of inferiority 
with the Tarentines. 

The Peucetians appear to have been a Libumian colony from lUyria ; 
the Daunians, a Pelasgic colony from iEtolia. The latter were sub- 
dued by the Apulians, an Oscan horde, and their name was lost in that 
of their conquerors. The language of the inhabitants of that part of 
Italy called Japy'gia was Greek. 

The Ligurians and Venetians appear to have been branches of the 
great Libumian nation, which at one time possessed both sides of the 
northern Adriatic. The former were a brave, warlike people ; for more 



IS^ ANCIENT HISTOEY. 

than forty years they resisted the Roman arms, and it is perhaps on this 
account that they are stigmatized as liars and deceivers by classical wri- 
ters. On the other hand, the Venetians submitted without a struggle ; 
but it is probable that the evils they had suffered from the invasion 
made them anxious to obtain the protection of some powerful state. 

Section III. — The Greek Colonies in Italy. 
FROM B. c. 1030 TO B. c. 277. 

The earliest Greek settlement in Italy, of which we have any cer- 
tain histoTrical information, came from Chalcis in the island of Euboea, 
and settled at Cumae (b. c. 1030). This city soon attained a high de- 
gree of prosperity, established a powerful navy, and founded flourishing 
colonies, of which Neap'olis and Zan'cle (afterward called Messana) 
were the chief. Its form of government was aristocratic ; but this con- 
stitution was subverted (b. c. 544) by the tyrant Aristodemus. Free- 
dom was restored after his assassination ; but the Cumans, weakened 
by internal dissensions, suffered severely in a war with the Eretrians 
and Daunians (b. c. 500), and were finally subdued by the Campanians. 
Cumae was annexed to the Roman dominions (b. c. 345) ; but in con- 
sequence of its harbor at Puteoli, it retained a considerable share of its 
importance even after the loss of its independence. 

Tarentum was founded by the Parthenii from Spar'ta, under Phalan'- 
tus (b. c. 707), as has been already mentioned. The colonists had to 
maintain long wars against the Italian tribes in their neighborhood, 
especially the Messapians and Lucanians ; but they prevailed over 
these uncivilized barbarians, and made their city one of the most flour- 
ishing maritime states in western Europe. Luxury, however, finally 
brought effeminacy and weakness. To escape from the grasping am- 
bition of the Romans, the Tarentines invited Pyr'rhus, king of Epirus, 
into Italy ; but after the departure of that monarch, the city became de- 
pendant on Rome (b. c. 277). 

Croton was founded by the Achaeans (b. c. 710). Even in the first 
century of its existence the city attained such power as to be able to 
raise an army of one hundred and twenty thousand men. The consti- 
tution was, in a great degree democratic, and continued so until the 
philosopher Pythag'oras came to reside in Croton (b. c. 540). He 
established a secret association among his disciples, the chief object 
of which was to secure a monopoly of political power to the members 
of the Pythagorean society. In a few years three hundred men, all 
Pythagoreans, held the sovereignty of Croton ; and the influence of the 
new sect was established not only in the Greek cities of Italy and 
Sicily, but over a great part of ancient Greece and the islands of the 
,/Egean. The Crotonians soon after engaged in war with the Sybarites, 
and destroyed their city. Success proved ruinous ; the inferior ranks 
of men in Crotona, intoxicated with prosperity, and instigated by the 
artful and ambitious Cy'lon, whose turbulent manners had excluded him 
from the order of Pythag'oras, into which he had repeatedly attempted 
to enter, became clamorous for an equal partition of the conquered ter- 
ritory of Syb'aris, which being denied, as inconsistent with the nature 
of the oUgarchy established by the Pythagoreans, they secretly con- 



ANCIENT ITALY. 191 

spired against their magistrates, attacked them by surprise in the senate- 
house, put many to death, and drove the rest from their country. Py- 
thag'oras himself died soon afterward at Metapon'tum, in Lucania, hav- 
ing lived just long enough to v^^itness the ruin of the structure he had 
labored so anxiously to raise. Croton never perfectly recovered from 
the fatal effects of this civil war ; it was repeatedly captured by the 
kings of Syracuse ; and after the departure of Pyr'rhus from Italy, it 
became dependant on Rome. 

Syb'aris was founded by an Achaean colony (b. c. 720). The ex- 
treme fertility of the soil, and the generous admission of all strangers 
to the right of citizenship, caused the population to increase so rapidly, 
that, in a war against the Crotonians, the Sybarites are said to have 
brought three hundred thousand men into the field. Its vast wealth, de- 
rived chiefly from an extensive trade in wine and oil with northern 
Africa and Gaul, rendered it the most extensive, populous, and luxurious 
city in Europe from about b. c. 600 to b. c 550 ; so that the debauchery 
and effeminacy of the Sybarites became proverbial. Disputes arose be- 
tween the aristocratic and democratic factions, which led to a civil war. 
At length, Telys, the leader of the multitude, obtained possession of the 
supreme power, and expelled five hundred of the principal nobles, who 
fled for refuge to Crotona. The Sybarites sent to demand these refu- 
gees, and, meeting with a refusal, put to death the Crotonian ambas- 
sadors. Such an outrage naturally led to a war between the two 
cities (b. c. 510). With far inferior forces the Crotonians defeated the 
Sybarites in the field, took their city by storm, and razed it to the ground. 

The Sybarites, driven from their habitations, besought the Lacedae- 
monians and the Athenians to restore them, requesting them, at the same 
time, to send a colony to share in the new city they had resolved to 
build. The ambassadors were rejected at Spar'ta ; but the Athenians, 
who delighted in such applications, cheerfully granted their aid (b. c. 
446). .A squadron of ten ships, having a considerable number of troops 
onboard, was sent to Italy, under the command of Lam'po and Xenoc'- 
rates ; and, at the same time, proclamation was made throughout Greece, 
that all persons willing to emigrate to the new colony should receive the 
protection of the Athenian fleet. Great numbers availed themselves of 
the proposition, and the Sybarites, aided by the new settlers, soon re- 
covered their former possessions, and founded Thurium, near the site of 
their ancient city. Peace did not long inhabit these new dwellings ; 
the inhabitants, coming from so many various quarters, could not for- 
get their old animosities, and began to dispute which section among 
them could claim to rank as founders of the city. An appeal was made 
to the Delphic oracle (b. c. 433) : the priests of that temple declared 
the city to be a colony of Apol'lo. But this did not put an end to dis- 
cord ; the Sybarites, believing that they had the best right to their own 
country, began to exclude the foreign colonists, who were by far the 
majority, from all honors and employments ; this provoked a civil war, 
which ended in a second expulsion of the Sybarite families. The Thu- 
rians then invited fresh colonists from Greece, and formed themselves 
into a commonwealth, choosing Charon'das, of Catana, for their legis- 
lator. They soon sunk under the enervating effects of luxury, and, 
being unable to defend themselves against the Lucanians, placed them- 



192 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

selves under the protection of the Romans. This afforded the Taren- 
tines an excuse for attacking the city, of which they made themselves 
masters, and thus brought upon themselves the vengeance of Rome, 
At the close of the Tarentine war, Thurium became a Roman depend- 
ancy. It suflercd very severely in the second Punic war, and, ha^dng 
been almost depopulated, was occupied by a Roman colony (b. c. 190), 

'J'he city of Locri Epizephy'rii was inhabited by the people of the 
same name. The original colonists were sent out by the Locri O'zolae 
(b. c. 683) ; but these were joined by a great variety of settlers, chiefly 
from western Greece. Zaleiicus, one of their own citizens, became the 
legislator of the Locrians, and his wise institutions remained unchanged 
for nearly two centuries. The constitution appears to have been a ju- 
dicious mixture of aristocracy and democracy. The Locrians contin- 
ued to be honorably distinguished by their peaceful condition, quiet 
conduct, and good manners, until Diony'sius IL, tyrant of Syracuse, 
having been expelled by his subjects, sought refuge in Locri, which 
was the native country of his mother (b. c. 357). His insolence, his 
licentiousness, and the excesses of his followers, brought the state to the 
verge of ruin; and, when he returned to Syracuse (b. c, 347), the Lo- 
crians revenged their wrongs on his unfortunate family. When Pyr'rhus 
invaded Italy, he placed a garrison in Locri (b. c. 277) ; but the Lo- 
crians rose in revolt, and put the intruders to the sword. The king of 
Epirus, in revenge, stormed and plundered the city. After his return 
home, it submitted to the Romans, and was one of the places that suf- 
fered most severely in the second Punic war. 

Rhegium was colonized jointly by the Chalcidians and Messenians 
(b. c. 668) ; but the 'chief power was possessed by the Messenian aris- 
tocracy. This oligarchy was subverted by Anaxilaus (b. c. 494), and 
an absolute despotism established. After some time the Rhegians re- 
covered their freedom, and attempted to secure tranquillity by adopting 
from the Thurians the constitution of Charon'das. Thenceforward 
Rhegium enjoyed tranquillity and happiness, until it was captured and 
destroyed by Dionys'ius I., of Syracuse (b. c. 392). It was partially 
restored by Dionys'lus II. ; but, during the wars of Pyr'rhus in Italy, 
it was still so weak as to require the protection of a Roman garrison, 
A legion, raised in Campania, was sent to Rhegium, under the command 
of Decius Jubel'lus. These soldiers having been used to a life of hard- 
ship, began soon to envy the luxurious ease and wealth of the citizens 
they had come to protect, and they formed a perfidious plan for- their 
destruction (b. c. 281). They forged letters from the Rhegians to Pyr'- 
rhus, offering to put that monarch in possession of the cit)'-, and, under 
this pretence, they put the principal part of the citizens to death, and 
drove the rest into exile. The Roman senate was not slow in punishing 
this atrocious outrage ; they sent an army against the guilty Campani- 
ans, who had been reinforced by several bands of profligate plunderers, 
and, after a severe struggle, obtained possession of the city. The sur- 
vivors of the wicked legionaries were beaten with rods, and beheaded 
in bands of fifty at a time ; and a few Rhegians who sundved were re- 
instated in possession of their estates, liberties, and laws. But the city 
was too weak to maintain its independence, and it became thenceforth 
subject to Rome. 



SICILY. 



193 



CHAPTER XIV. 
HISTORY OF SICILY. 

Section I.— Geographical Outline. 

The fertile island of Sicily was known by various names to the an- 
cients. It was called Triquet'ra, or Trinac'ra, from its triangular shape ; 
Sicania and Sicilia from the Sic'ani and Sic'uli, Italian hordes who 
peopled a great part of the country. Its three extreme promontories 
were named Pelorum (^Faro), Pachy'num {Passaro), and LilybBe'um 
{Bocco) ; the first of these faces Italy, the second Greece, and the third 
Africa. From the narrowness of the strait opposite Pelorum, it has 
been supposed that Sicily was broken off from Italy by some convulsion 
of nature ; and the Greek city Rhegium, which stood on the Italian side 
of the strait, derives its name from this common opinion.* The strait 
is remarkable for the rapidity of its current, and for the rock Scyl'la, 
and whirlpool Charyb'dis, the passage between which was accounted 
very dangerous. These places are frequently described by the Latin 
poets. Ovid thus alludes to the opinion of Italy having been joined to 
Sicily near the city of Zan'cle, or Messana : — 

" So Zan'cle to the Italian earth was tied, 

And men once walked, where ships at anchor ride ; 

Till Neptune overlooked the narrow way. 

And in disdain poured in the conquering sea." 

The most remarkable cities on the eastern coast of Sicily were Zan'- 
cle, or Messana {Messina), deriving its first name from the old Sicilian 
word Zan'clos signifying a reaping-hook, to which its curved shore 
bears some fanciful resemblance ; and its second from the Messenian 
exiles, who conquered the city : Tauromin'ium ( Taormina), on the river 
Tauromin'ius ( Cantara), near which was the coast called Cop'ria, or 
" the dunghill," from the number of wrecks cast upon it by the whirl- 
pool of Charyb'dis : Cat'ana, a Chalcidian colony on the river Amenes 
(Judicello) : Morgan'tium, a city of the Italian Sic'uli, near the mouth 
of the Sigmaj'thus (La Jarctta) : Leontini, a flourishing Chalcidian col- 
ony : Hyb'la, celebrated for its honey, founded by the Sicanians, and 
subsequently colonized by the Megarians : and Syracuse, the ancient 
capital of the island. 

Syracuse contained within its walls, which were eighteen miles in 
circumference, four very considerable cities united into one, like Lon- 

• From ^hyvvjii, to break. 
13 



194 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

don, Westminister, Southwark, and Lambeth, Acradina, the largest of 
4he four, contained the principal public buildings, such as the Prytane- 
um, the palace of justice, and the temple of Jupiter Olympius. Ty'che,* 
which stood between Acradina and the hill Epip'olae, contained the 
Gymnasium for the exercise of youth, and several temples, especially 
one dedicated to Fortune, from which this division of the city derived 
its name. The third quarter, called Orty'gia, was an island, connected 
with the other parts by a bridge ; it contained two beautiful temples, one 
sacred to Diana, and the other to Minerva, the tutelary deities of Syra- 
cuse. Neap'olis, or the new city, was the latest erected : it contained 
the temples of Ceres and Proserpine, and the statue of Apollo Tem- 
en'ites, celebrated by Cicero as the most valuable monument of Syra- 
cuse. 

Near Syracuse was a steep hill named Epip'olae, defended in the later 
ages by a fort called Lab'dalon. On this hill was the famous prison 
called Latom'ise, on account of its being partly excavated from the liv- 
ing rock.* It was a cave one hundred and twenty-five paces long and 
twenty feet broad, constructed by order of Dionys''ius the tyrant, who 
imprisoned there those whom he suspected of being opposed to his usur- 
pation. A winding tube, constructed on the model of the human ear, 
ascended from the cavern to a private apartment, where the tyrant used 
to sit and listen to the conversation of his unhappy captives. 

The celebrated fountain of Arethusa, now dried up, arose in the is- 
land of Orty'gia. The poets fabled that the Al'pheus, a river of E'lis, 
in the Peloponnesus, rolled its waters either through or under the waters 
of the sea, without mixing with them, as far as the fountain of Arethvi- 
sa ; which gave occasion to the following lines of Virgil : — 

Thy sacred succor, Arethusa, bring, 
To crown my labor ; 'tis the last I sing ; 
So may thy silver streams beneath the tide, 
Unmixed with briny seas, securely glide ! 

On the African side of Sicily stood Camarina, between the rivers 
O'anus (^Frascolari) and Hip'paris {Camarana) : it was anciently a very 
wealthy city ; but its inhabitants having drained a marsh by which 
the city was protected, the enemies found easy access, and destroy- 
ed it ; hence Ne moveas Camarinam, " Remove not Camarina," has 
passed into a proverb. Following the line of coast westward, we meet 
Gela [Terra Nova), now in ruins, and Ag'ragas or Agrigen'tum [Gir- 
genti), between the rivers Ag'ragas (San Biaggio) and Hyp'sa [Drago). 
It was anciently the rival of Syracuse : and we may judge of its fonner 
strength and splendor from the following description given of it by the 
historian Polybius : " It exceeds most of the Sicilian cities in strength, 
beauty, and situation, and magnificent edifices. Though erected at the 
distance of eighteen hundred furlongs from the sea, it can conveniently 
import all kinds of provision and munitions of war. From its natural 
strength, increased judiciously by fortifications, it is one of the most 
impregnable places in the island. Its walls are built upon a rock, ren- 
dered inaccessible by art. The river, from which the city takes its 
name, protects it on the south, and it is covered by the Hyp'sa on the 

• From Tvx,'), fortune. f From Xaas, a stone, ajid Tt/iyu, to cut. 



SICILY. 195 

west ; on the east it it is defended by a fortress, built on the brink of a 
precipice, which serves instead of a ditch." The citadel, called Om'- 
phale, which stood at the mouth of the Ag'ragas, was more ancient than 
the city itself. 

The other cities on the African side were Minoa Heraclea (Castel 
Bianco), deriving its first name from a Cretan, and its second from a 
Lacedaemonian colony, on the banks of the Haly'cus [Platani) ; and 
Selinus [Terra delle Pulci), on the river Selinus [Madiuni), founded by 
a colony from Meg'ara. 

On the coast opposite Italy were the cities Lilybae'um [Marsala), cel- 
ebrated in ancient times for its excellent harbor ; Drep'anum ( Trapani), 
deriving its name from a fancied resemblance of its coast to a scythe ;* 
E'ryx ( Trepano del Monte), on a mountain of the same name ; Seges'ta, 
or Eges'ta, now in ruins, supposed to have been founded by a Trojan 
colony, who named the streams that watered their territory the Scaman'- 
der and the Sim'ois, in memory of the rivers of their native land ; the 
former of these is now II jiume di San Bartolomeo, the latter a rivulet 
without a name ; Panor^mus [Palermo), the present capital of Sicily, 
originally founded by the Phoenicians, between the Orothus [Amiraglid) 
and the Leutherus (Baiaria). In the neighborhood of Panor'mus was 
a mountain fortress called E'reta (Monte Pelegrino) : Himse'ra, Alae'sa, 
and Agathyr'na, are now in ruins. 

In the interior of the country were Ad'ranum [Aderno), near the foot 
of Mount iEtna ; En'na ( Castro Janni), sacred to Ceres ; and En'- 
gyum [Mandania), near the springs of the Alae'sus [Casonia). 

The most remarkable natural object in Sicily is the celebrated vol- 
cano of the lofty Mount ^tna, covered with eternal snows, though ever 
burning. It has been described by Sil'ius Ital'icus : — 

, " Its lofty summits, wondrous to be told, 

Display bright flames amid the ice and cold; 
Above, its rocks, with flames incessant glow, 
Though bound in icy fetters far below ; 
The peak is claimed by winter as its throne, 
While glowing ashes o'er its snows are shown." 

The fire which continually bums in the bowels of the mountain made 
the poets place here the forges of Vulcan and his Cyclopean attendants, 
and the prison of the giants who rebelled against Jupiter. This fiction 
is beautifully related by Virgil, in his description of the mountain : — 

" The port capacious, and secure from wind, 

Is to the foot of thund'ring iEtna joined. 

By turns a pitchy cloud she rolls on high ; 

By turns hot embers from her entrails fly, 

And flakes of mountain-flames that lick the sky. 

Oft from her bowels massy rocks are thrown, 

And shivered by their force come piecemeal down. 

Oft liquid lakes of burning sulphur flow, 

Fed from the fiery springs that burn below. 

Enceladus, they say, transfixed by Jove, 

With blasted limbs came trembling from above ; 

* From Spenavovj a scythe. 



196 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

And when he fell, the avenging father drew 

This flaming hill, and on his body threw ; 

As often as he turns his weary sides, 

He shakes the solid isle, and smoke the heavens hides." 

The ^olian or Vulcanian islands lie off the north coast of Sicily, in 
the Tuscan sea. The most remarkable are Lip'ara (^Lipari) and 
Stronyg'la; [StromboU). North of Cape Lilybte'um were the islands 
called JE'gates, or ^'gades : they are three in number ; Phorban'tia 
(Levanzo), iEgiisa [Favignano), and Hera [Maretino). 

Section II. — Historical Notices of the ancient Inhabitants of Sicily, 

CHRONOLOGY UNCERTAIN. 

The Cyclopians and Laestrigons are said to have been the first in- 
habitants of Sicily. It is impossible to trace their origin ; we only 
know that their settlements were in the vicinity of Mount ^tna. 
Their inhumanity toward strangers, and the flames of jEtna, were the 
source of many popular fables and poetic fictions. It was said that the 
Cy'clops were giants ; that they had but one eye, placed in the centre 
of their forehead ; that they fed on human flesh ; and that they were 
employed by Vulcan to forge the thunderbolts of Jove. 

Next in antiquity were the Sicanians, probably an Italian horde driven 
southward by the pressure of the Pelas'gi, though many ancient writers 
assert that they came from Spain. They finally settled in the western 
part of the island, and were said to have joined the Trojan exiles in 
building E'ryx and Egesta. 

After the Sic'ani had been for some ages exclusive masters of the 
island, the Sic'uli, an ancient people of Ausonia, crossed the strait ; 
and having defeated the Sicanians in a sanguinary engagement, con- 
fined them in a narrow territory, and changed the name of the island 
from Sicania to Sicily. Some centuries after this revolution, Greek 
colonies began to settle on the Sicilian coast ; the principal states that 
founded settlements in the island were Chal'cis in Eubce'a, Meg'ara, 
Corinth, the Dorians from Rhodes and Crete, and the Messenians, 
driven from their native country by the Spartans. To these may be 
added two Italian colonies, the Morgetes and the Mamer'tines. 

The Sic'uli were first united under one head by a king named 
iE'olus, whose age is uncertain. Their most renowned sovereign was 
Deucetius, who engaged in a long war with the Syracusans ; but hav- 
ing been frequently defeated, he was forced to surrender himself to 
their mercy. With unusual clemency, the Syracusans granted him 
liberty and life, and assigned a pension for his support, on condition of 
his living in the territories of their parent city, Corinth. Having re- 
moved this formidable rival, the Syracusans reduced the whole country 
of the Sic'uli, stormed their chief city, Triquet'ra, and levelled it to the 
ground. When the Athenians invaded Sicily under the command of 
Nic'ias, they were joined by the Sic'uli, who gave them very eflfective 
assistance. They likewise aided the Carthaginians in their first at- 
tempts to gain possession of the island. Having been subsequently in- 
duced to join the Syracusans, they were disgracefully betrayed to the 



SYRACUSE. iw 

Carthaginians by the tyrant Dionys'ius, and were forced to bear a 
cruel yoke, until their independence was restored by Timoleon. 

Section III. — TheMistory of Syracuse. 
FROM B. C. 735 TO B. c. 212. 

Syracuse was founded by a Corinthian colony (b. c. 735), under 
the guidance of Ar'chytas, a nobleman of rank, compelled to quit his 
native country by some political dispute. Its form of government for 
two centuries and a half was republican ; and though, during this pe- 
riod, the state does not appear to have risen to any considerable height 
of power, yet the Syracusans founded the colonies of A'crae, Cas'menae, 
and Camarina. An aristocratic faction having cruelly oppressed the 
•citizens, the populace at length combined to throw off the yoke, and 
drove the tyrannical nobles into exile (b. c. 485). They fled to Gela, 
then ruled by Gelon, an able and ambitious usurper, who had recently 
become sovereign of his country. Gelon levied an army, and, accom- 
panied by the exiles, marched to Syracuse, of which he easily made 
himself master. 

Under the administration of its new master the city rose rapidly in 
wealth and importance, while Gelon himself acquired so much fame by 
repeated victories over the Carthaginians, that the Athenians and Spar- 
tans, then menaced by the Persian invasion, earnestly sought his as- 
sistance. Gelon demanded to be appointed captain-general of the con- 
federate Greeks ; a stipulation to which the Athenians and Spartans 
returned a stern refusal ; and before any further steps could be taken, 
he learned that Xer'xes had engaged the Carthaginians to attack the 
Greek colonies in Sicily and Italy, while he invaded the parent state. 

After spending three years in making preparations, the Spartans sent 
against Sicily an immense armament, under the command of Hamil'car, 
said to consist of three hundred thousand men, two thousand ships of 
war, and three thousand vessels of burden. Having effected a landing, 
Hamil'car laid siege to Himera, then ruled by Theron, the father-in-law 
of Gelon. The king of Syracuse, though unable to muster more than 
fifty thousand men at this sudden emergency, marched with all ex- 
pedition to raise the siege. On his road he had the good fortune to 
intercept a messenger from the Selinuntines to the Carthaginian gene- 
ral, promising to send him a stipulated body of cavalry on an appointed 
day. Gelon led an equal number of his horse to the Carthaginian camp 
at the specified time, and having gained unsuspected admission, so dis- 
concerted the enemy by a sudden attack, that the whole host was thrown 
into confusion, and the Syracusans won an easy victory. Hamil'car 
was slain, and his mighty army all but annihilated. Carthage humbly 
sought peace, which was generously granted by the conqueror. During 
the brief remainder of his reign, Gelon strenuously exerted himself for 
the benefit of his subjects ; and though no one can justify the means 
by which he acquired supremacy, there are few who will not pardon 
his original error on account of the use he made of his power. His 
subjects, after his death, honored him as a demigod. 

Hiero I. succeeded his brother Gelon (b. c. 477) ; his administration 
was more brilliant than useful ; he protected the arts and sciences ; but 



198 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

he also encouraged a taste for luxury and magnificence, contrary to the 
policy of his more enlightened predecessor. He subdued the cities of 
Cat'ana and Nax'us, expelled the ancient inhabitants, and supplied their 
place with fresh colonies from J^racuse and the Peloponnesus. A 
more honorable and useful achievement was his decisive victory over 
the Etrurian pirates off Ciimae ; these had long been the terror of the 
western Mediterranean ; but after their overthrow by Hiero, they ceased 
to infest the seas for several centuries. After this exploit he engaged 
in war with the tyrant of Agrigen'tum, who was forced to abdicate the 
government, and his subjects placed themselves under the protection of 
Hiero. 

Thrasyb'ulus, likewise a brother of Golon, became sovereign of Syr- 
acuse on the death of Hiero (b. c. 459) ; but his tyranny and cruelty 
soon provoked a revolution ; he was dethroned and the republican con- 
stitution restored. But the Syracusans gained little by the change. A 
system of secret voting, called petalism* was introduced, precisely 
similar to the Athenian ostracism, and most of the leading statesmen 
were banished by a giddy populace. It was at this period that the 
Athenians made their unfortunate attempt to conquer Sicily, whose re- 
sults have been already described in the chapter on Grecian history. 
After the complete destruction of the Athenian armaments (b. c. 413), 
the Egestans, who had invited the invaders, sought and obtained the 
aid of Carthage : this led to a series of sanguinary' wars, which have 
been noticed in the chapter on the history of Carthage. 

Taking advantage of the political disturbances in Syracuse, Dionys'ius 
I. usurped the government (b. c.405), and though deservedly branded 
as a tyrant, it must be confessed that his vigorous administration was 
crowned with success abroad and prosperity at home. The greater 
part of his reign was passed in wars against Carthage and the cities 
of Magna Grsecia, and also against the ancient race of the Sic'uli, 
•whose choice of party generally decided the success of these wars. 

Dionys'ius I. was cut off by poison (b. c. 368), and was succeeded 
by his youthful son, Dionys'ius II., under the guardianship of the vir- 
tuous Dio. But neither Dio nor his friend the philosopher Plato, could 
improve the corrupted character of the young prince. He drove Dio 
into banishment (b. c. 360), and then gave a loose reign to his pas- 
sions, indulging in the most extravagant luxury and debauchery. Dio 
returned (b. c. 357), and after a long struggle, restored the republican 
form of government. He was, however, assassinated (b. c. 353). Syr- 
acuse became the prey of sanguinary factions, of which Dionys'ius, 
after ten years of exile, took advantage to recover his throne. His 
tyranny, and the treachery of I'cetas the Leontine, who, when invited 
to aid the Syracusans, betrayed their interests to the Carthaginians, 
compelled the citizens to seek succor from Corinth. Timoleon, the 
most splendid example of a true republican that ancient history affords, 
was sent to their assistance, but with very inadequate forces (b. c. 345). 
His abilities were, however, of more value than an array ; he dethroned 
Dionys'ius, expelled I'cetas, and, by a brilliant victory, humbled the 
pride of the Carthaginians. Timoleon's death (b. c. 337) was followed 
by a long period of stormy weakness, which ended in the usurpatiou 
• From rrtraXoi/, a leaf. 



SYRACUSE. 19# 

of Agathoc'les (b. c. 317). The wars of that usurper in Sicily and 
Africa will be found in the chapter on Carthaginian history. 

After the death of Agathocles (b. c. 289), the Syracusans, harassed 
by intestine commotions, and closely pressed by the Mamer'tines and 
Carthaginians, suffered the most dreadful calamities, and were at length 
forced to supplicate the aid of Pyr'rhus, king of Epirus. That mon- 
arch, after having conquered almost the entire island, so disgusted his 
supporters by his arrogance, that he was compelled to retire (b. c. 275). 
The Syracusans at length, wearied of anarchy, conferred the throne on 
Hiero II., descended from the ancient royal family of Gelon. Under 
this prince the city enjoyed peace and prosperity during the wars be- 
tween Rome and Carthage, in which he had the wisdom to take the 
Roman side. He died of old age (b. c. 215), after a long and glorious 
reign. After his death, the Carthaginian party acquired supremacy in 
Syracuse, and made a profligate use of their power. The new rulers 
soon provoked the resentment of the Romans, who sent an army into 
Sicily, and after a long siege, protracted by the ingenious mechanical 
inventions of the celebrated mathematician Archimedes, took it by 
storm (b. c. 212), and laid it level with the ground. 

Most of the other Greek cities in Sicily were involved in the for- 
tunes of Syracuse. Agrigen'tum, having been used as a military and 
naval station by the Carthaginians in the first Punic war, was seized 
by the Romans so early as b. c. 262. Sicily finally became a Roman 
province, and was one of the most valuable attached to the empire. It 
was also one of the best governed ; a blessing which must be attributed 
not merely to its vicinity to the seat of power, but also to the fact of its 
corn-harvests being regarded as the resource to which the Romans 
should look as the agricultural productions of Italy became more and 
more inadequate to the support of the population. 



200 ANCIENT HISTORY. 



CHAPTER XV. 
Hlb-rORY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. 

Section I.— Traditions respecting the Origin of the Romans. 

The legends of Rome, preserved by her best historians, relate that 
iEneas, after the destruction of Troy, led a colony of his countrymen 
into Italy, and founded the city of Lavin'ium. It would be easy to 
show that this tale is destitute of truth or importance, but it is worth 
while to trace its origin. That the Romans were partly of Pelasgic 
origin appears evident from the name of their city, which in Greek 
signifies " a fortress."* In almost every country where the Pelas'gi 
settled we find a city named iEnus, which, therefore, was probably a 
generic rather than an individual name. If any of the Pelas'gi who 
settled on the hills at the south side of the Tiber came from an ^nus, 
they most probably retained their ancient name iEneadae ; and the sig- 
nification of that patron}Tnic being forgotten in process of time, it was 
confounded with another similar name, preserved by an independent 
tradition, the ^Eneada, or followers of ^neas, who survived the de- 
struction of their country. 

The legends proceed to state that three years after the landing of the 
Trojans in Italy, they were supematurally guided to the spot where 
Lavin'ium was erected. Their rising power gave offence to the Ru- 
tulians and Etruscans ; Tur'nus and Mezen'tius led an army to expel 
the intruders. A battle was fought on the banks of the river Numicius ; 
Tur'nus was slain by iEneas, who, in his turn, fell a victim to Mezen'- 
tius ; or, as was more generally believed, disappeared in the stream, and 
became a god, under the name of Jupiter In'diges. Mezen'tius was ulti- 
mately slain by lulus, or Ascanius, the son of ^Eneas, whose descend- 
ants became lords of Latium. 

After the lapse of thirty years, Lavin'ium was deserted for the more 
secure city of Al'ba, erected on the Alban Mount [Monte Cava) ; and 
here the thirty confederate cities of Latium offered common sacrifices 
to the gods of the Pelasgic nation. 

The traditions then go on to state that, at an uncertain date after the 
erection of the city, Procas, king of Al'ba, leaving two sons at his death, 
bequeathed his kingdom to Numitor, the elder, and his treasures, in- 
cluding the ancient wealth that had been saved from the sack of Troy, 
to Amulius. His riches enabled the younger prince to bribe a band 
of supporters, dethrone his brother, procure the murder of Numitor's 
youthful son, and have his daughter Il'ia, or Rhea Syl'via, appointed a 

• Pu/ii?, strength. 



ROMAN REPUBLIC. »@.^ 

vestal virgin. While going to draw water from a spring, for the ser- 
vice of the temple, she was violated by the god Mars, and became the 
parent of twin boys. Amulius caused Syl'via to be put to death, and 
the children thrown into the A'nio. The helpless infants were borne 
down the stream to the Tiber ; and as that river subsided from a recent 
overflow, they were deposited at the foot of the Palatine hill, beneath a 
fig-tree, called theficus ntmindUs. They were suckled by a she-wolf, 
and fed by a woodpecker, until they were discovered by Ac'ca Lau- 
ren'tia, wife of Faustulus, the royal shepherd. Among her twelve 
sons and the neighboring shepherds, the twins became distinguished 
for courage, and were chosen heads of rival faction?. The followers 
of Rom'ulus were named Quinctil'ii ; those of Remus, Fabii. When 
they grew up, Remus, being involved in a dispute with the herdsmen 
of the deposed Numitor, and being taken prisoner, was carried to Al'ba 
as a robber. The youthful prince, when brought into the presence of 
his grandfather, so charmed him by the intrepidity of his replies, that 
Numitor hesitated to pronounce sentence of death. In the meantime, 
Rom'ulus, having learned from the ancient shepherd the secret of his 
birth, assembled his comrades to rescue Remus ; and, being joined by 
some of his grandfather's old adherents, deposed Amulius, and restored 
Numitor to his throne. 

Love for the spot where their lives had been thus miraculously pre- 
served, induced the young men to solicit their grandfather for permission 
to erect a city on the banks of the Tiber. Scarcely had leave been 
granted, when a violent contest arose between the brothers ; Rom'ulus 
insisted that the city should be called Rome, and should be built on 
Mount Palatine ; Remus demanded that it should be named Remuria, 
and erected on Mount Aventine. It was resolved that the question 
should be decided by the most favorable augury. Remus had the first 
omen, six vultures ; but Rom'ulus the more perfect, twelve vultures. 
A second dispute arose ; but the party of Rom'ulus prevailed, and the 
foundation of the new city was laid on Mount Palatine, with all the 
ceremonies of Tuscan superstition. Scarcely had the walls began to 
appear above the surface, when Remus leaped over them in an insult- 
ing manner, and was slain either by Rom'ulus or one of his followers. 

According to Var'ro, whose authority has been followed by most 
chronologists, Rome was founded on the 21st of April, being the day 
sacred to Pales, the goddess of shepherds, in the third year of the sixth 
Olympiad, four hundred and thirty-one years after the destruction of 
Troy, and seven hundred and fifty-three before the commencement of 
the Christian era. It was built in a square form, and contained origin- 
ally about a thousand miserable huts. Such was the humble begin- 
ning of a city destined to be the capital of the world. 

Section II. — From ike Foundation of the City to the Abolition of Royalty. 
FROM B. c. 753 TO B. c. 509. 

In order to procure inhabitants for his new city, Rom'ulus opened 
an asylum for all whom guilt or misfortune compelled to quit their 
native country. When he had thus procured a competent number of 



202 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

citizens, he convened an assembly of the people to choose a constitu- 
tion and rulers. As he had anticipated, he was.elected king; but at 
the same time his power was limited by municipal institutions tending 
to secure a considerable degree of freedom. He divided the colony 
into three tribes, and these into thirty curias : next he constituted 
classes or orders of the state, separating the wealthier or more nobly 
born, whom he styled patricians, from the inferior rank of plebeians. 
The dignity of the patricians was hereditary ; and eligibility to the 
principal offices of state was long confined to their order. To prevent 
envy or sedition arising from such a distinction, he engaged both 
classes to each other by the obligation of clientship. Every plebeian 
was allowed to choose " a patron" from the body of the patricians, to 
whom he became a client ; and the sanctity of this mutual tie was 
preserved by the most awful denunciations, civil and religious, against 
its violation. A senate of one hundred was chosen to aid the king by 
their counsels. Rom'ulus nominated the first, who had the privilege of 
governing the city in his absence : each of the three tribes and thirty 
curiae chose tliree, which completed the number. The senators, either 
from their age, or from the similitude of their care, were named Patres 
(^fathers). 

The next object that required the attention of Rom'ulus was the for- 
mation of treaties of intermarriage with the neighboring states ; but 
these, despising the mean origin of the Romans, rejected his proposals 
with scorn. But though they thus refused alliance, they flocked to 
witness the Consualia, splendid games which Rom'ulus proclaimed in 
honor of Consus, or Neptune. While the strangers gazed unsuspect- 
ingly on the spot, their maidens were seized by an armed band of young 
Romans, who compelled them to become their wives by force. Several 
of the injured cities had recourse to arms, but were successfully defeat- 
ed. At last Titus Tatius, king of the Sabines, led a more powerful 
army against them ; and Rom'ulus, unable to withstand him in the 
field, retreated into the city, leaving a garrison to protect an important 
outpost on the Capitoline hill. Tarpeia, the daughter of the governor, 
dazzled by the splendid bracelets of the Sabines, agreed to betray the 
fortress "for what the besiegers wore on their arms." The Sabines, 
either mistaking her meaning, or anxious to punish her treachery, threw 
their shields on her as they entered, and crushed her to death. The 
Romans found themselves obliged, by the loss of this important outpost, 
to hazard a general engagement ; but while victory was still doubtful, 
the Sabine women, rushing between the armies, induced them, by ear- 
nest supplications, to make terms of peace. It was agreed that the 
Sabines should erect a new city on the Quirinal and Capitoline hills ; 
that there should be a " comitium," or place of common assembly for 
both nations, in the space between the Palatine and Capitoline hills, 
and that Rom'ulus and Tatius should reign conjointly. The murder of 
Tatius, not long after, at Lavin'ium, left Rom'ulus sole monarch of both 
nations. 

The romantic circumstances just narrated bear every mark of having 
been derived from some national ballad or legendary lay, and conse- 
quently are not to be received as historic truth. Even less confidence 
is due to the narrative of the Tuscan wars, with which the Latin his- 



ROMAN HEPUBLIC. SFC® 

torians have filled the blank of thirty-seven years in the life of Rom'u- 
lus. But a second heroic lay recited, that, after a long reign, he dis- 
appeared from earth, and became a god, under the name of Quiriims. 
Opposed to this, was an ancient tradition, that he was torn to pieces by 
an aristocratic faction in the senate-house (b. c. 717). 

On the death of Rom'ulus, the senate appeared anxious to retain the 
supreme power, and each senator in rotation was to enjoy regal authority 
for one day, under the title of tnterrex. This form of government con- 
tinued a year, when the people compelled the senate to elect a king. 
Their choice fell upon Numa, a Sabine, from the little town of Cures, 
to whom Tatius had given his daughter in marriage. The history of 
Numa is as legendary as that of Rom'ulus : it was generally believed 
that he had been a disciple of Pythag'oras, and this opinion maintained 
its ground in spite of many chronological difficulties. The traditions de- 
clare that when Numa was informed of his election, he refused to enter 
on his office, until assured that the gods, by their auguries had con- 
firmed the choice of the senate. His first care was to regulate the 
laws of property ; he divided among the citizens the lands that Rom'u- 
lus had conquered, and founded the worship of Ter^minus, the god of 
boundaries, thus protecting the limits of estates by a religious sanction. 
His most important labor, however, was the regulation of the national 
worship : pretending to be secretly guided by the goddess Egeria, he 
framed the entire ritual law of the Romans, including regulations for the 
priesthood and for the prayers and worship of the people. His tran- 
quil reign is said to have lasted forty years ; the temple of Janus, which 
he had erected, and ordained to be open in time of war, and shut in 
peace, remained closed during the entire period, and his pious example 
diffused the blessings of tranquillity throughout the whole Italian pe- 
ninsula. He died of old age (b. c. 679) ; and the legend adds, that the 
nymph Egeria, through grief for his loss, melted into a fountain. 

After an interregnum, as in the former case, Tul'lus HostiFius, the 
son of a Roman captain who had been eminently distinguished by his 
valor in the wars of Rom'ulus, was chosen king. The history of his 
reign, though still retaining much of legendary fiction, especially in the 
account of the Alban war, contains some circumstances that may be 
regarded as facts. In the very beginning of his reign, mutual acts of 
violence led to a war between the Romans and Albans. The armies 
of both cities were drawn up against each other at the Fos'sa CluiFia, 
where it was agreed to avert a battle by a combat between three 
brothers on each side, the Horatii and Curiatii, whose mothers were 
sisters, and had each brought three children into the world at a birth. 
The three Curiatii and two of the Horatii fell upon the field. The 
surviving Horatius sullied his victory by slaying his sister, who was 
bewailing the death of her cousin, to whom she had been betrothed ; 
and was about to be executed by Tul'lus, but he appealed to the peo- 
ple, and the Romans unanimously insisted on the pardon of their cham- 
pion. 

In consequence of the previous agreement, Al'ba became subject to 
Rome. Tul'lus next engaged in war with the Fiden'ates, and summoned 
his new vassals to his aid. Met'tius FufFetius, the Alban dictator, broke 
his faith with the Romans, but had not courage to complete his defec- 



204 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

tion. His meditated treachery was punished with death. Soon after- 
ward the Romans surprised Al'ba, and levelled it to the ground, sparing 
only the temples of the gods ; no injury, however, was done to the cit- 
izens ; they were removed to Rome, and habitations asj^igned them on 
the Ccelian hill. The destruction of Al'ba, and the settlement of its 
citizens on the CcElian hill, may be regarded as historical facts ; the 
other circumstances are clearly disguised by poetic fiction. 

After the conquest of Al'ba, Tul'lus waged successful wars against 
the Latins and Sabines ; but he was cut off in the midst of his victori- 
ous career (b. c. 640), by some superstitious experiments recommended 
to him as a remedy for sickness, which the legends declare brought 
down upon him the vengeful thunderbolts of the gods. 

An'cus Mar'tius, said to have been the grandson of Numa, was the 
next king. Like his ancestor, he turned his attention to the regulation 
of religious ceremonies, especially those used in declaring war or pro- 
claiming peace ; he also caused the principal parts of the Roman ritual 
to be transcribed on tables, that all might know how to conduct them- 
selves in public or private worship. His peaceful labors were inter- 
rupted by a war with the Latins, whom he subdued, and carried several 
thousands of them to Rome, where they were assigned settlements on 
Mount Aventine. His conquests were extended into Etriiria and along 
both banks of the Tiber to the sea. He founded the town and port of 
Os'tia at the mouth of the river ; but it is probable that this first naval 
establishment of the Romans was intended rather for piracy than trade. 
Nor did he pay less attention to the city than to its dominions ; a new 
line of fortifications, the first bridge over the Tiber, and the first public 
prison, now the oldest remaining monument in Rome, are generally 
ascribed to An'cus. Of still greater importance was his legal constitu- 
tion of the plebeian order in the state, and the assignment of lands to 
this body from the conquered territories. His death (b. c. 618) is said 
by some authors to have been accelerated by violence. 

We now approach one of the most important, but also one of the most 
obscure, periods in the early history of Rome ; the reigns of Tarquin'- 
ius Pris'cus and his son-in-law Ser'vius Tul'lius. Lucius Tarquin'ius 
Pris'cus is said to have been the son of Damaratus, one of the Bac'- 
chiads, who fled from Corinth to avoid the vengeance of Cyp'selus. 
Niebuhr has pointed out the many chronological difficulties involved in 
this statement, but these do not furnish sufficient reason for rejecting 
the legend altogether: by the simple change of " son" into "descendant," 
by no means an improbable substitution, the truth of the story is brought 
within the verge of possibility. His original name is said to have been 
Lucumo ; this we know to have been an Etrurian title of dignity ; and 
if we understand by it that he held a magisterial office in his native 
country, it will explain the respect with which he was received at 
Rome, and the trust reposed in him by An'cus. He is said to have re- 
moved from Tarquin'ii, his native city, partly because his foreign de- 
scent exposed him to envy, and partly at the instigation of his wife 
Tan'aquil, who was celebrated for her skill in augury. With this his- 
tory there seems to be intermingled the traditions respecting Cce'les Vi- 
ben'na, a leader of independent companies, who hired his soldiers as 



EOMAN REPUBLIC, - 2t5 

mercenaries in the Tuscan wars, and finally came and settled at Rome 
with his followers in an uncertain age. 

Tarquin'ius Pris'cus was appointed guardian of the young sons of 
An'cus ; but by his influence with the people, he had the claims of 
these princes set aside, and was himself chosen king. He introduced 
many Etrurian customs and ceremonies into Rome, especially those 
connected with the dignities of kings and magistrates. The accounts 
of his wars with the Etruscans, Latins, and Sabines, are very contra- 
dictory ; but it seems not improbable that, toward the close of his reign, 
these three nations acknowledged his supremacy. His victory over 
the Sabines was owing to his superiority in cavalry. It had been ori- 
ginally his intention to add three new centuries to the equestrian order; 
but this plan was opposed by the celebrated augur, At'tus Nae'vius, 
whose authority, in an age of superstition, rivalled that of the kings. 
A mode was found for reconciling the opponents ; new centuries were 
established, but no addition was made to the names assigned by Rom'- 
ulus ; so that henceforward there were the first and second Ram'nes, 
Titles, and Luceres. But Tar'quin's name is rendered still more mem- 
orable by the stupendous public works he commenced for the security 
and improvement of the city, especially the great sewers, the embank- 
ments of the Tiber ; the foundation of the city walls, the porticoes in 
the forum, and the racecourse of the circus. To console the people 
under their toils, he instituted the great or Roman games, which were 
celebrated annually in September. At these games chariot-races were 
for the first time displayed at Rome ; they were so highly approved by 
the Roman people, that they became the most popular exhibition on all 
festive occasions. 

Tarquin'ius is said to have reigned thirty-eight years, when he was 
assassinated by the agents of the sons of An'cus Mar'tius (b. c. 578), 
who dreaded that he would bequeath the kingdom to his son-in-law, 
Ser'vius Tul'lius, the darling of the Roman people. 

Ser'vius Tul'lius for some days concealed the fact of Tar'quin's 
death ; but when he had secured the votes of the people, he made it 
public, and having convened an assembly to elect a sovereign, was 
unanimously chosen king. In the old legends, the birth of Ser'vius 
Tul'lius is described as equally marvellous and humble. His mother 
was said to have been a captive named Ocresia ; his father, a deity. 
While yet an infant, sleeping in the cradle, lambent flames, playing 
round his forehead, predicted his future greatness ; and Tan'aquil, en- 
couraged by the omen, had him brought up in the palace as a prince, 
and gave him her daughter in marriage. Opposed to this is the testi- 
mony of the emperor Claudius Ccesar, derived from lost Tuscan authori- 
ties. In a speech, recommending some Lugdunensian Gauls for ad- 
mission into the senate, he says, " Ser'vius Tul'lius, according to the 
Latin authorities, was the son of the captive Ocresia ; but if we pay 
any regard to the Tuscans, he was the most faithful follower of Coe'les 
Viben'na, and a sharer in his varied adventures. When harassed by 
the vicissitudes of fortune, he quitted Etruria with the remains of the 
army that Coe'les had commanded. He occupied the Coelian mount, 
which he thus named in honor of his old commander. In Tuscany he 
was called Mastar'na, but he exchanged this for the Roman name Ser'- 



206 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

vius TuMius. Having been chosen king, he exercised his authority to 
the highest advantage of the state." Though Ser'vius waged several 
successful wars, his military fame was far inferior to his political glory ; 
for his institutions not only laid the foundation, but completed the frame- 
work of the future republic. He formed a federal union between the Latin 
cities, placing Rome at the head of the league, and cemented the union by 
instituting common sacrifices for the united states on Mount Aventine. Of 
still greater importance was his institution of the census, or record of the 
property possessed by the citizens, and his distribution of the right of 
suffrage [comitia centuriala) to centuries arranged according to the prop- 
erty of the six classes into which the census divided the people. AU 
his laws were designed to secure free and equal government, and an 
impartial administration of justice. His wise and beneficent laws 
were received by the patricians with sullenness and anger ; they were 
indignant at the restraints imposed upon their tyranny and exactions ; 
accordingly they entered into a conspiracy with Lucius Tarquin'ius, the 
son of the late monarch, who had married the daughter of Ser'vius. The 
plot exploded in the senate-house : the aged king was murdered, and 
his body flung into the streets (b. c. 535). Tul'lia, his wicked daughter, 
in her haste to congratulate Tar^quin on his success, drove her chariot 
over her father's corpse, and proceeded onward, though her vest was 
stained with his blood. 

Tar'quin, surnamed the Proud, was raised to the throne by the pa- 
tricians, without the assent of the people being asked. In the history 
given of his reign, it is scarcely possible to separate what is merely 
legendary from what is worthy of credit ; but it seems pretty certain 
that he gratified his supporters by diminishing the privileges of the ple- 
beian order, and that he soon after made the patricians themselves feel 
the weight of his tyranny. He confirmed the supremacy of Rome 
over the Latins, united the Hernicans to the confederation by treaty, 
and gained several advantages over the Vol'sci. While the tyrant was 
besieging Ardea. his son Sex'tus violated the honor of Lucretia, a 
noble Roman lady. She summoned her relatives, and, having informed 
them of the outrage, committed suicide. Lucius Junius Brutus, who 
up to this time is said to have concealed patriotic resolutions under the 
mask of pretended insanity, though he held an important magistracy, 
convoked an assembly of the people, and exhibited the bleeding body of 
Lucretia to the multitude (b. c. 509). A decree was immediately 
passed for expelling the Tar'quins and abolishing royalty. The army 
sent in its adhesion, and Tar'quin, finding himself universally shunned, 
fled into Etruria. 

Section IIL — From the Establishment of the Roman Republic to the 
Burning of the City by the Gauls. 

FROM B. c. 509 TO B. c. 386. 

The abolition of royalty was a purely patrician revolution, from 
which the great body of the people gained no immediate advantage. 
Two annual magistrates, at first called praetors, but afterward consuls, 
chosen from the patrician ranks, inherited the entire royal power, but did 
not, like the kings, possess any priestly dignity. The first magistrates 



ROMAN REPUBLIC. 207 

elected under tlie new system were Briitus, and Collatmus, the hus- 
band of Lucretia. Scarcely had they entered on their office, when 
ambassadors arrived from Etruria to plead the cause of Tar'quin. 
Though these deputies met with no public success, they were enabled 
to organize a conspiracy among the younger patricians, who had shared 
in the tyrant's debaucheries ; and among the accomplices of the plot, 
were the sons of Brutus and the nephews of Tar'quin. The plans of 
the conspirators were accidentally overheard by a slave, concealed in 
the apartment where they assembled, and information of the treason 
given to the consuls. Public duty triumphed over parental affection : 
Brutus not only pronounced sentence of death upon his sons, but wit- 
nessed their execution without shedding a tear. The property of the 
Tarquin'ii was confiscated ; the whole family condemned to perpetual 
banishment; and the consul, CoUatinus, w ose relationship to the late 
family excited suspicion, was included in the sentence. Pub'lius Vale- 
rius was elected to the vacant magistracy. Soon after, in an engage- 
ment between the Etruscans and Romans, An'cus the eldest son of 
Tar'quin, and Brutus, fell by mutual wounds ; but the victory was 
decided in favor of the young republic. 

Valerius delayed some time before proceeding to the election of a 
new colleague. This circumstance, and a splendid house he was 
erecting on one of the Roman hills, inspired a suspicion that he was 
aiming at royalty. To prove his innocence, he demolished the build- 
ing, proposed laws for restraining the consular power, and resigned the 
ensigns of his dignity to Spurius Lucretius. For his patriotic conduct, 
Valerius was honored with the surname Pop'licola (a friend of the peo- 
ple). In the following year Valerius and Horatius were chosen con- 
suls, the latter of whom had the honor of dedicating the national tem- 
ple of Jupiter Capitolinus. In this sanctuary were preserved the 
Sibylline oracles, and the records of the pontiffs and augurs. 

To the first year after the banishment of the Tar'quins belong the 
celebrated lex de provocalione (law of appeal), and the first treaty 
between Rome and Carthage. The patricians had always the right of 
appeal from the sentence of the supreme magistrate to the general 
council of their own body : a similar right of trial by their peers was 
secured to the plebeians by the law of Valerius Pop^licola, to which 
the senate seems to have yielded a very ungracious assent.* The 
treaty with Carthage shows how extensive the possessions of Rome 
had been under the monarchy : Ardea, An^tium, Aricia, Circeii, and 
Terracina, are enumerated as subject cities, and Rome stipulates for 
them as well as herself. i 

From these historical facts, we now turn to a legendary narrative, in 
which truth is so blended with fiction, that it is impossible to determine 
more than one or two circumstances on which any reliance can be 
placed. After their former defeat, the Tarquin'ii had recourse to the 
aid of Lar Porsen'na, king of Clusium, the most powerful of the Tus- 
can princes, who at once led an overwhelming force to the Janic'ulum, 
a fortified hill on the north bank of the Tiber, joined to the city by a 

* The Valerian law was imperfect in its sanction ; there was no other penalty 
to enforce it than the declaration that he who violated it acted wrongly. 



208 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

wooden bridge. The Romans were defeated, and fled over the bridge ; 
the enemy would have gained admission into the city along with the 
fugitives, had not Horatius Coc'les, with two companions, defended the 
entrance of the bridge until it was broken down behind him, when he 
leaped into the Tiber, and swam safely to his friends. As a mark of 
gratitude, every citizen, during the famine caused by the subsequent 
siet^e, brought him a portion of provision ; a statue was erected to him 
at the expense of the republic, and as much land was bestowed upon 
him as he could plough round in a day. Porsen'na continuing to 
blockade the city, a youth, named Caius Mucins, undertook, with the 
approbation of the senate, the task of assassinating the invading king. 
He entered the camp in disguise, but slew only a secretary instead of 
Porsen'na. When brought before that monarch, to show his contempt 
for tortures, he thrust his right hand into a fire that burned upon the 
altar, and held it there until it was consumed. The king, admiring 
such heroism, gave him his life and liberty : Mucins, in gratitude, 
informed him that three hundred Roman youths had similarly sworn his 
destruction ; and Porsen'na, alarmed for his life, immediately offered 
terms of peace to the Romans. In memory of his daring exploit. Mu- 
cins was thenceforth named Scae'vola [lifl.-handfd), and was rewarded 
as munificently as Coc'les. Hostages were given by the Romans for 
the due performance of the treaty ; and the legend relates that one of 
them, a noble lady named Clce'lia, won the admiration of Porsen'na by 
escaping from her guards, and swimming on horseback over the Tiber, 
amid a shower of darts hurled at her by her baffled pursuers. The aid 
which the Romans subsequently afforded Porsen'na when he was 
defeated before Aricia, induced him to render back the territory which 
had been yielded to him as part of the price of the peace. 

Thus far the legend : but there is certain evidence that, in this war, 
the Romans surrendered their city and became tributary to the Tus- 
cans, and it is probable that they embraced the opportunity afforded 
them by the defeat of Porsen'na in Latium, to regain their indepen- 
dence. 

A war with the Sabines, who wished to take advantage of the weak- 
ened condition of the republic, followed. It was chiefly remarkable 
for the migration of At'tus Clausus, a noble Sabine, with all the mem- 
bers and clients of tis house, to Rome. There he changed his name 
to Ap'pius Claudius, and founded one of the most distinguished fami- 
lies of the republic. Though they lost their able leader, Pop'licola, 
the Romans were victorious in three successive campaigns ; and the 
Sabines were forced to purchase peace with corn, money, and a part 
of their lands. 

Tar'quin's son-in-law, Mamil'ius, induced the Latins to arm them- 
selves in behalf of the exiled king, taking advantage of the violent dis- 
putes that raged between the patricians and plebeians respecting the 
law of debt. Ever since the expulsion of the king, the Roman nobles, 
after the abolition of royalty, had, by a series of iniquitous measures, 
usurped the most fertile portion of the conquered lands, which they 
leased out to the plebeians. Having thus the monopoly of the only 
property existing at the period, they became the sole capitalists of the 
republic, and lent out money at an exorbitant rate of usury. By the 



ROMAN REPUBLIC. 209 

Roman law, those who were unable to discharge their debts became 
slaves to their creditors {nexi), and were subject to whatever punish- 
ment barbarous masters pleased to inflict. Goaded to madness by their 
wrongs, the plebeians refused to enlist in defence of their country until 
their grievances were redressed. The reasonable demands of the peo- 
ple were strenuously supported in the senate by Mar'cus Valerius, the 
brother of Pop'licola ; but they were obstinately opposed by Ap'pius 
Claudius, Avhose haughty and selfish counsels had a predominant effect 
on a short-sighted aristocracy. After long delay it was resolved to 
elect a single supreme magistrate, with the title of dictator, and invest 
him with absolute authority (b. c. 497). The people assented to the 
law ; and Titus Lar'tius, one of the consuls, was appointed to the new 
office. After having ravaged the territories of the enemy, he dismissed 
all his prisoners without ransom ; and this generosity so gratified the 
Latins, that they agreed upon a suspension of arms. 

When the truce was expired, war again commenced, and the senate 
again appointed a dictator. Aulus Posthumius, the second dictator, 
encountered the Latins at the lake of RegiFlus, and inflicted on them 
a decisive defeat. Tar'quin, thus frustrated in his last hope, retired to 
Cumge, in Campania, where he soon after died in exile. 

While Tarquin'ius excited alarm, and the wars with Latium and Etru- 
ria continued, the senate ruled with some show of justice and modera- 
tion. But when danger was passed, the patricians began to treat the 
plebeians as slaves. To the palace of every noble was attached a pris- 
on for debtors ; and, in seasons of distress, after the sittings of the 
courts, herds of sentenced slaves were led away in chains to the private 
jails of the patricians. At length the plebeian armies, after having 
been frequently deceived by false promises, deserted their officers in 
the very midst of war, and marched in a body to a hill called Mons Sa- 
cer, on the river A'nio, within three miles of Rome, where they were 
joined by vast multitudes of their discontented brethren (b. c. 493). 
The patricians and their clients took up arras ; their numbers were not 
contemptible ; but, unaccustomed to military service, they dared not en- 
counter a peasantry inured to warfare. The pressure of foreign enemies 
rendered an accommodation necessary ; ten senators were sent to nego- 
tiate a peace with the plebeians, and a treaty was concluded, by which 
all the contracts of insolvent debtors were cancelled, those who had been 
reduced to slavery were set at liberty, the Valerian laws were restored 
to their former efficacy, and five annual magistrates were chosen to watch 
over the rights of the people, whose persons were declared to be invi- 
olable. In the same year a league was made with the Latins, not, as be- 
fore, on the basis of Roman superiority, but on terms of perfect equality. 
A similar federation was subsequently made with the Hernicans ; and 
both these treaties prove indisputably, that the disturbances produced by 
aristocratic tyranny, subsequent to the abolition of royalty, had seriously 
diminished the Roman power. 

These losses began to be retrieved by successful wars against the 
jEquians and Volscians. The common histories of this period are full 
of extraordinary difficulties and contradictions ; the accounts extracted 
from them must, therefore, be received with the suspicion that necessa- 
rily attaches to all traditionary legends. We are informed, that the suc- 

12 



210 ANCIENT HISTORY, 

cess of the Volscian war was mainly owing to a young nobleman, Cafus 
Mar'cus, who acquired the surname of Coriohinus, from his conduct at 
the capture of Corioh'. Soon after, Rome suffered grierously by a fam- 
ine ; but a Sicilian prince, hearing of the dearth, sent a large supply of 
corn to relieve the distresses of the citizens. Coriolanus proposed in 
the senate that this corn should not be distributed to the poor until the 
plebeians had resigned all the privileges they had acquired by their re- 
cent secession. For this detestable attempt he was impeached by the 
tribunes (b. c. 490), and brought to trial before that form of assembly 
[comitia trihutu), in which the plebeians had the superiority. He was 
condemned to exile, and in his rage joined the Vol'sci. Guided by his 
superior talents, the Volscians defeated the Romans in every engage- 
ment, and at length laid siege to the city, Rome must have fallen, had 
not Veturia the mother, and Volumnia the wife of Coriolanus, prevailed 
upon the enraged exile to grant his countrymen terms of peace. On 
his return to the Volscian territories he was put to death in a tumult 
raised by Attius Tul'lius, a celebrated chief of the VoFsci, who envied 
the fame of Coriolanus, and persuaded his countrymen that the illustri- 
ous exile had betrayed them. An opposing tradition is recorded by 
several historians, namely, that Coriolanus lived to a very advanced age, 
and often used to exclaim, " How miserable is the state of an old man 
in banishment !" It is impossible to ascertain which deserv^es the great- 
er credit ; but it is sufficiently manifest that the history of Coriolanus is 
not to be received without a considerable share of skepticism. 

The Vol'sci, after the death of Coriolanus, lost rapidly all the advan- 
tages they had acquired, and were besides involved in a war with the 
^E'qui, their former allies. But the Romans could not avail themselves 
of these favorable circumstances, being harassed by disputes respecting 
the agrarian law proposed by Spurius Cas'sius. The general purport 
of the law was, that lands conquered from the enemy should be divided 
into small estates, and assigned to the plebeians, instead of being leased 
out in large portions to the patricians. This appears to have been mere- 
ly a revival of the ancient constitution of Servius, and was obviously 
based in equity ; for no persons had a better claim to the public lands 
than those by whose valor and labors they had been acquired. The 
senate und patricians obstinately opposed a project that threatened to 
destroy the source of their profits ;" and Spurius Cas'sius, in his anxiety 
to accomplish his great objects, is said to have aimed at royalty. He 
was brought to trial on this charge before the collective body of the pa- 
tricians, which has been by later writers confounded with the general 
assembly of the people (b. c. 484). He was convicted, and thrown 
from the Tarpeian rock. Another account of the death of Cas'sius has 
been given by some historians not unworthy of credit. They inform 
us that he was put to death by his own father as a traitor to his order. 

There are few circumstances in Roman history more remarkable than 
that during seven consecutive years (from b. c. 483 to b. c. 479),one of 
the seats in the consulship was held by some member of the Fabian 
family. This arose from the powerful support which that family gave to 
the older patrician houses in their effort to monopolize the chief digni- 
ties. Civil dissensions were thus aggravated ; the populace demanded 
an agrarian law ; the minor patrician houses clamored for a share in the 



ROMAN REPUBLIC. 211 

lionors of the state ; and the senate could only evade the difficulty by 
keeping the nation constantly involved in war. At length the soldiers 
refused to conquer ; and Cae'so Fabius had the mortification to see a 
certain victory wrested from his hands by the determination of his fol- 
lowers not to pursue their advantages. This unexpected disgrace had 
such an effect on the Fabii, that they resolved to conciliate the favor of 
the commonalty, and declared themselves the patrons of popular meas- 
ures. They thus lost the favor of the senate ; and though the affection 
of the soldiers enabled them to acquire military glory, they were unable 
to carry any of the measures that they advocated. Weary of disap- 
pointment, they resolved to establish a colony of the members of their 
family, their clients, and dependants, on the frontiers, to guard the Ro- 
man territories from the Viren'tes. The number of persons capable of 
bearing arms mustered by this single house amounted to three hundred 
and six. They took post on the Cremera, where they were all cut off 
by the Etrurians (b. c. 476). It is said that only one young man of the 
Fabii escaped from this ruin of his family, and became the progenitor 
of a new race ; but this is manifestly an exaggeration. 

The Etruscans, following up their success, advanced within sight of 
Rome, formed a camp on the Janic'ulum, ravaged both sides of the river, 
and crowded the city with fugitives. The consuls, Virgin'ius and Ser- 
vil'ius, at length attacked the enemy in different quarters, and, after a 
desperate battle, forced them to retreat. From this time fortune began 
to favor the Romans, probably on account of the Etrurians being engaged 
in war with Hiero, king of Syracuse ; and peace was at length conclu- 
ded for forty years (b. c. 470). Niebuhr conjectures, with apparent 
plausibility, that it was at this time the Romans recovered the territory 
of which they had been deprived by Porsen'na. 

In the year after the conclusion of the peace, Cneius Genucius, trib- 
une of the people, impeached the consuls, Furius and Man'lius, before 
the general assembly of the commonalty, for refusing to give effect to 
the agrarian law. The consuls made a feeble defence ; and the patri- 
cians, failing to bribe or intimidate the bold tribune, had him assassin- 
ated. Taking advantage of the consternation produced by this daring 
crime, the consuls ordered a general levy, intending to divert the peo- 
ple from their purpose of engaging them in foreign war. This plan 
Avould have succeeded, had not the refusal of one man, Vol'ero Pub'lius, 
to serve in the ranks, after having previously held the commission of 
centurion, led to a fierce commotion, which frustrated the consular plans. 
VoFero, being chosen tribune by his countrymen, instead of seeking 
personal revenge, by impeaching the consuls, struck a fatal blow at the 
supremacy of the patrician faction, by transferring the election of the 
tribunes from the centuries to the tribes, and establishing the right of 
the general assembly of the commonalty to deliberate on all matters 
affecting the common weal, which should be brought before them by the 
tribunes ; a law which was in effect the same as the establishment of 
the liberty of the press in our own days. While these laws were under 
discussion, the consul, Ap'pius Claudius, was pre-eminently distinguish- 
ed by his opposition to the popular claims ; and when they were extort- 
ed from the senate, he unwisely vented his dissatisfaction on the army 
that he led against the Vol'sci. His soldiers, in revenge, fled before 



212 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

the enemy. Ap'pius punished them by decimation, putting every tenth 
man to death. When his year of office expired, he was impeached 
capitally ior such atrocious vengeance ; but he escaped the penaUy of 
his tyranny by committing suicide. 

For several years the Roman history presents little more than a rep- 
etition of the struggles between the patricians and plebeians ; desultory 
wars with the jEqui and Vol'sci ; and a succession of physical calam- 
ities, uniting the horrors of plague, pestilence, and famine. Ap'pius 
Herdonius, a Sabine adventurer, took advantage of these circumstances, 
and one night surprised and seized the capitol with an army of about 
four thousand men, composed of outlaws and slaves (b. c. 459). In- 
stigated by the tribunes, the people refused to take up arms unless secu- 
rity was given that their grievances should be redressed ; particularly 
insisting on the legal restriction of the consular power by a written 
code, according to the proposal of Terentil'lus {lex Terentillu) a few 
months before. The consul Valerius promised compliance ; and the 
people -stormed the capitol, slew Herdonius, and punished his associ- 
ates : but Valerius having fallen in the assault, the senate refused to 
fulfil the conditions he had stipulated. 

During the iEquian war (b. c. 457), a consular anny was intercepted 
by the enemy in the defiles of Mount iE'gidus, and so closaly blockaded, 
that there seemed no choice between death or disgraceful submission. 
Some horsemen, breaking through the hostile lines, brought the news to 
Rome ; and the senate, in alarm, resolved to create a dictator. Their 
choice fell upon Titus Quinc'tius Cincinnatus, a patrician violently op- 
posed to the popular claims, but celebrated for personal integrity. His 
son Cae'so had recently fled from Rome to escape a trial for high crimes 
and misdemeanors ; and Cincinnatus had been reduced to great pecu- 
niary distress by being compelled to pay the surety he had given for 
his son's appearance. The dictator delivered the consul Minucius and 
the army from their danger ; but before resigning office he used the 
absolute power with which he was invested, to recall his son Cee'so 
from banishment, and drive his accuser into exile. There is, indeed, 
some reason to believe, that the dictatorship of Cincinnatus, which has 
been so much lauded, was a mere artifice to baffle the demand of the 
peoplc'for a written code of laws. It, however, failed of success : the 
tribunes succeeded in getting their numbers increased from five to ten : 
Sic'cius Dentatus, a veteran plebeian of approved valor, stimulated his 
order to fresh exertions in behalf of their freedom ; and at length the 
senate yielded a reluctant assent to the formation of a code. 

Ambassadors having been sent to the principal Grecian states and 
colonies for the purpose of collecting the best codes of celebrated legis- 
lators, on their return, ten persons, hence called decemviri, were chosen, 
with consular power, to arrange and digest a body of laws. A new 
constitution was established, known in history as the laws of the Twelve 
Tables, which continued, down to the time of the emperors, to be the 
basis of all civil and penal jurisprudence. It established the legal equality 
of all the citizens ; but it preserved some of the most odious privileges 
of the aristocracy, especially the exclusive eligibility to the consulship, 
and it prohibited the intermarriage of patricians and plebeians (b. c. 
450). The patricians, hoping to procure some modification in laws 



ROMAN REPUBLIC. 213 

whicli they regarded as ruinous to their interests, and the plebeians, 
gratified by the advantages they had obtained, united to continue the 
decemviral autliority for another year. The decem'virs, now secure of 
power, threw off the mask, grievously oppressed the people, and treach- 
erously betrayed old Sic'cius Dentatus, whose approved valor they 
dreaded, to the enemy. At length Ap'pius, one of their number, at- 
tempted to make Vir'ginia, the daughter of a brave officer, the victim of 
his lust, by illegally assigning her as a slave to one of his creatures. 
Her father, Vir'ginius, slew the girl in the public court to save her from 
dishonor, and, aided by her lover Icil'ius, raised such a storm against 
the decemvirs, that they were forced to resign their office, and the 
ancient forms of government were restored. The tribunician power 
was not only re-established, but formidably increased by a law of the 
consul Valerius (b. c. 446), which invested the votes of the commons 
with the force of laws.* 

Civil commotions were renewed in consequence of the exertions made 
by the tribune Canuleius to abolish the law against intermarriages, and 
to open the consulship to plebeians. The repeal of the marriage-law 
was conceded, after a difficult struggle (b. c. 455) ; and the second 
popular demand was evaded by transferring the consular power to the 
annual commanders of the legions,! who were to be six in number, and 
one half chosen from the people (b. c. 443). But even this concession 
was for some time evaded by the senate, under the pretence of informal- 
ities in the election of those officers. Soon afterward (b. c. 442), 
new magistrates, called censors, were chosen, not only to regulate the 
taking of the census, but also to superintend public morals ; a power 
that soon enabled these magistrates to take rank among the very highest 
dignitaries of the state. These changes, however, did not conciliate 
the people, and a severe famine (b. c. 438) aggravated their discontent. 
In the midst of this distress, Spiirius Mae'lius, a plebeian knight, pur- 
chased with his private fortune a large quantity of corn in Tuscany, 
which he distributed gratuitously to the people. His object probably 
was to become the first plebeian consul, which laudable object the 
patricians perverted into the crime of aiming at the sovereignty. They 
therefore appointed Cincinnatus dictator, who at once sent Spurius 
Ahala, his master of the horse, to summon Mse'lius before his tribunal. 
The knight was standing unarmed in the forum when thus called upon 
to take his trial ; he showed some reluctance to obey the dictator's 
command, and was cut down by Ahala. The old dictator applauded this 
murder of a defenceless man as an act of patriotism ; but the people 
took a different view of the transaction, and Ahala only escaped con- 
demnation by voluntary exile. 

While these commotions raged in the city, the Romans were engaged 
in desultorjr wars against the Sabines, the iEquians, and the Volscians, 
which generally terminated to the advantage of the republic, though 
they led to no decisive result. A more important affair was the war 
against Veii, provoked by Lar Tolum'nius, king of the Veien'tes, who 
put to death the Roman ambassadors to the people of Fidense. Satis- 
faction being refused for this outrage (b. c. 404), the Romans came to 

* Lex Valeria ; ut quod tributim plebes jussisset, populum teneret. 
t Tribuni militum consulari potestate. 



214 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

the resolution of destroying Veii, which, being the richest city of 
Etruria, had long been a dangerous rival of their republic. To effect 
this object, it was necessary to have a permanent standing army ; and 
a property-tax was levied to supply payment for the troops. After the 
blockade and siege had continued nearly ten years, Furius Camil'lus, 
Avho had distinguished himself by defeating the Etnirian armies that 
attempted to aid the Veien'tes, was chosen dictator. By his directions 
a mine was constructed from the Roman camp into the Veientine citadel, 
throufrh which an entrance was obtained, and Veii taken (b. c. 395). 
Its riches were shared by the soldiers, its inhabitants enslaved or held 
to ransom, and the images of its gods transferred to Rome. 

Notwithstanding his great services, Camil'lus was condemned to exile 
on the charge of having embezzled part of the plunder of Veii ; but 
scarcely had he departed, Avhen the Romans were involved in the most 
calamitous war that has yet occurred in their history. The barbarous 
Gauls, having crossed the Alps in numerous hordes, laid waste the fer- 
tile lields of Etruria, and besieged the important city of Clusium. The 
Etrurians sought aid from the Romans, who sent some of the young 
nobility to remonstrate with the Bren'nus, or chieftain of the Gauls. 
This barbarous chieftain treated the deputies with such scorn, that, for- 
getting their sacred character, they entered the besieged city, and joined 
in a sally of the garrison. The Bren'nus, enraged at such a violation 
of the law of nations, demanded satisfaction from the senate ; and when 
this was refused, broke up his camp, and marched direct against Rome. 
A body of troops, hastily levied to repel the invasion, took post on the 
river Al'lia, about eleven miles from Rome (b. c. 389). In the very 
commencement of the engagement, the Romans, seized with sudden 
panic, broke and fled ; they were pursued with dreadful slaughter to their 
very gates ; and had not the victors paused to gather the spoil, an end 
would have been put to the Roman name and nation. 

To defend the city of Rome against such an enemy was impossible ; 
it was therefore resolved to place the best troops as a garrison in the 
citadel, supplying them with whatever proWsions remained in the city, 
while the mass of the population should seek refuge in the neighboring 
towns. The priests and principal objects of religious reverence were 
removed to the old Pelasgic city, Cae're Agyl'la. About eighty of the 
chief pontiffs and patricians, probably devoting themselves, according to 
the superstition of the age, for the safety of the republic, remained 
quietly sitting on their curule chairs in the forum. When the Gauls 
entered the city, they were amazed to find it deserted : pursuing their 
march, they entered the forum, and slew those whom they found there. 
They then laid siege to the capitol ; but soon became weary of so 
tedious a task, especially after their attempt to take the citadel by 
storm had been frustrated by the cackling of the sacred geese kept in 
the temple of Juno, and the valor of Mar'cus Man'lius. They finally 
agreed to quit the city, on receiving a ransom of one thousand pounds* 
weight of gold. According to the ordinary legend, Camil'lus, recalled 
from banishment by a hasty decree of the people assembled at Veii, 
appeared with an army while the gold was being weighed, defeated the 
Gauls, and liberated his country. Polyb'ius, a Greek historian, gives 
a much more probable account. He says, that the Gauls returned home 



ROMAN REPUBLIC. 215 

to piotexjt tlieir own country from an invasion of the Ven'eti, and inti- 
mates that they bore off their plunder without interruption. 

Section IV. — From the Rebuilding of the City to the first Punic War, 
FROM B. C. 363 TO B. c. 264. 

So helpless was Rome after the departure of the Gauls, that it was 
exposed to repeated insults from the neighboring townships, which had 
hitherto been subject to its sway. The citizens looked forward with 
dismay to the task of rebuilding their walls and houses ; they clamored 
for an immediate removal to Veil, and were with difficulty prevented 
from accomplishing their purpose by the firmness of Camil'lus. While 
the subject was under discussion, a lucky omen, probably preconcerted, 
decided the irresolute. Just as a senator was rising to speak, a centu- 
rion, coming with his company to relieve guard, gave the usual word 
of command : " Ensign, plant your colors ; this is the best place 
TO STAY IN !"* The senators rushed out of the temple, exclaiming, 
** A happy omen : the gods have spoken — we obey." The multitude 
Caught the enthusiasm, and exclaimed with one voice, " Rome for 

EVER !" 

Under the prudent guidance of Camil'lus, the military strength of 
Rome was renewed, and the states which had triumphed in the recent 
humiliation of the city were forced again to recognise its superiority. 
Man'lius, the brave defender of the capitol, finding himself excluded 
from office by the jealousy of his brother patricians, declared himself 
the patron of the plebeians. This revived the old dissensions with all 
their former virulence. Camil'lus was appointed dictator; and by his 
orders Man'lius was brought to trial, convicted of treason, and thrown 
from the Tarpeian rock (b. c. 382). A plague, which burst forth soon 
after, was popularly attributed to the anger of the gods at the destruc- 
tion of the hero who had saved their temples from pollution. By their 
triumph over Man'lius, and their steadiness in opposing popular claims, 
the patricians acquired such strength, that the populace became over- 
awed, and the commons ceased to display the spirit and courage they 
had previously shown in their contests with the nobles. " Rome was 
on the point of degenerating into a miserable oligarchy ; her name is 
the utmost we should have known of her, had not her irretrievable de- . 
cline been arrested at the moment by the appearance of two men, who 
changed the fate of their country and of the world." f 

The renovators of the constitution were Caius Licin'ius Stolo, and 
Lucius Seu'tius Lateranus. They were aided in their patriotic labors 
by Mar'cus Fabius Arabus'tus, a patrician, the father-in-law of Licin'- 
ius, who is said to have favored the popular cause to gratify the ambi- 
tion of a favorite daughter. There were three rogations, or bills, 
brought forward by Licin'ius : the first opened the consulship to the 
plebeians ; the second prohibited any person from renting more than 
five hundred acres of public land, and forbade any individual to feed on 
a common pasturage more than one hundred of large, and five hundred 
of small cattle. It also fixed the rents of the public lands at the tenth 

* Hie manebimus optime. f Niebuhr. 



216 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

of the com produce {frnges), and a fifth of the produce of vines, aloes, 
and other fruit-trees. The third rogation proposed that, in all cases of 
outstanding debts, all the interest which had been paid should be de- 
ducted from the capital, and the balance paid by equal annual instal- 
ments in three years. The patricians protracted their resistance to 
these laws during five years, using every means of force and fraud in 
their power to frustrate the designs of Licin'ius. At length the people 
took arms, and occupied Mount Aventine. Camil'lus, being chosen 
dictator, saw that nothing but concession could avert the horrors of a 
civil war ; and the senate allowed the three bills to become law 
(b. c. 366), stipulating only that the consuls should no longer act as 
civil judges, and that new magistrates should be chosen, with the title 
of praetors, to exercise judicial functions. The plebeians having once 
made good their claim to the consulship, acquired successively, as a 
matter of course, participation in the other high offices of stale : the 
dictatorship was opened to them b. c. 353 ; the censorship, b. c. 348 ; 
the praetorship, b. c. 334 ; and even the priestly office, b. c. 300. 

During these civic struggles the Romans maintained their reputation 
abroad by several victories over their enemies, especially the Gauls 
and the Etrurians. But they were soon engaged in a more important 
struggle with the Samnites ; and this contest, which lasted, with little 
intermission, more than half a century, opened a way for the subjuga- 
tion of southern Italy, and laid the foundation of Rome's future great- 
ness. The Samnites having invaded Campania, the people of Cap'ua, 
to ward ofT impending danger, declared themselves subjects of Rome. 
Ambassadors being sent to warn the Samnites against invading the 
new province, the Samnites treated their remonstrances with contempt, 
and war was immediately declared. It was carried on slowly at first, 
but generally to the advantage of the Romans, until the Samnites 
sought terms of truce. During this inten^al the Latins attacked the 
Samnites, who requested assistance from their recent enemies, and 
orders were issued by the senate that the Latins should desist from 
hostiUties. These commands being disobeyed, war was declared 
against the Latins, and the conduct of it intrusted to the consuls Man'- 
lius and Decius. To prevent the confusion which might arise between 
armies speaking the same language, Man'lius commanded that no Ro- 
man soldier should quit his ranks under pain of death (b. c. 330). The 
consul's own son, challenged to single combat by a commander of the 
enemy, disobeyed these orders, and was instantly sent to execution by 
the stem father. In the engagement which ensued, the Romans were 
on the point of being routed, until Decius, the plebeian consul, devoting 
himself, according to the superstitions of the age, for the good of his 
country, rushed into the thickest of the fight, and fell covered with 
wounds. The soldiers, now persuaded that the gods had been concil- 
iated, renewed the fight with enthusiastic confidence, and the Latins 
were completely defeated. The Romans followed up their success 
with so much spirit during the three ensuing campaigns, that all La- 
tium and Campania were subdued, and annexed as provinces to the 
territory of the republic. 

These great advantages gained by their rivals, alarmed the Sam- 
nites ; many also of the states in southern Italy, especially the Luca- 



ROMAN REPUBLIC. 217 

nians and Tarentines, became jealous of the rising greatness of Rome. 
Papir'ius Cur'sor was appointed dictator to crush this dangerous con- 
federacy : he gained several victories over the Samnites ; and these 
successes being improved by the generals that followed him, reduced 
the enemies so low, that they were once more forced to solicit a ces- 
sation of arms (b. c. 321). But these peaceful appearances lasted only 
a few months : Pon'tius, an able Samnite general, stimulated his coun- 
trymen to renew the war, and bade defiance to the Roman power. The 
consuls .Veturius and Posthumius were sent with a large army to in- 
vade Sam'nium (b. c. 320) ; but the crafty Pon'tius contrived to draw 
these generals, with their leaders, into a mountainous and rocky defile, 
called the Caudine Forks, where they could neither fight nor fly ; and 
while they were in this situation, the Samnites blockaded all the pas- 
sages. The Romans being forced to capitulate, Pon'tius sent to ask 
his father in what manner the persons should be treated : the old man 
recommended that they should either be dismissed with all honor and 
freedom, or slaughtered without mercy. Pon'tius unwisely adopted a 
middle course ; he spared the lives of the Romans, but compelled them 
all, officers and soldiers, to pass under the yoke, and forced the consuls 
to give hostages for evacuating Sam'nium. 

This disgraceful treaty was disavowed by the senate, and the offi- 
cers who had signed it were sent bound to Pon'tius, that he might 
wreak his vengeance upon them ; but the Samnite general spurned 
such poor satisfaction, and vainly demanded either that the whole Ro- 
man army should be again placed in his power, or that the articles of 
capitulation should be strictly observed. The Romans turned a deaf 
ear to these proposals ; Papir'ius Cur'sor once more showed them the 
way to victory ; his successors in command followed his example ; and 
the Samnites, completely humbled, sought and obtained conditions of 
peace (b. c. 303). But amity could not long subsist between nations 
aspiring each to the supremacy of Italy : the war was renewed 
(b. c. 297) ; and Fabius Max'imus, with his colleague, the younger 
Decius, rivalled the exploits of Papir'ius Cur'sor. The Samnites were 
aided by the Umbrians, the Etrurians, and the Gauls ; but the desperate 
valor of the Romans enabled them to triumph over this formidable con- 
federacy. Once they were on the point of being defeated by the 
Gauls (B.C. 294) ; but the younger Decius, imitating the example of 
his father, devoted himself an offering to the gods, and, at the sacrifice 
of his life, purchased a decisive victory for his countrymen. At length 
the Samnites, having lost their brave general Pon'tius, were completely 
subdued by Curius Dentatus (b. c. 290), and forced to submit to the 
terms dictated by the conquerors. In the same year the Sabines were 
conquered ; and Curius had the unusual honor of having two triumphs 
decreed to him in one consolate. 

The Tarentines, and the other states in southern Italy, dreading that 
the Romans would take vengeance on them for their having aided the 
Samnites, incited the Gauls to attack the republic. These barbarians 
were at first successful ; but they were finally crushed by Dentatus and 
Fabricius. Preparations were made for a war against Taren'tum, and 
its luxurious citizens placed themselves under the protection of Pyr'- 
rhus, king of Epirus. That royal knight-errant, believing that it was 



218 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

in his power to found as extensive an empire in the western world as 
Alexander the Great had recently established in Asia, readily obeyed 
the summons ; and having sent his friend Cineas with a strong de- 
tachment to secure the citadel of Taren'tum, soon followed with a 
powerful army, having some elephants among his forces, the first that 
had been used in the wars of western Europe (b. c. 279). It was 
solely to these animals that Pyr'rhus was indebted for his first victory 
over the consul Lfevinus ; and so little were the vanquished terrified 
by defeat, that they vainly offered him a renewal of battle before the 
termination of the campaign. He was still more unsuccessful in his 
attempts at negotiation ; his bribes were rejected by the Roman consul 
and ambassador Fabricius ; and the offers of peace which he sent to the 
senate by the orator Cineas were peremptorily rejected. 

A second time Pyr'rhus defeated the Romans ; but was so little sat- 
isfied with his success as to exclaim, " Another such victory and I am 
undone !" The war then lingered, and Pyr'rhus passed over into 
Sicily, with his usual inconstancy, to deliver the Greek states in that 
island from the Carthaginians. During his absence his allies suffered 
very severely, and sent pressing messages soliciting his return ; an ex- 
cuse of which Pyr'rhus readily availed himself to cover the shame of 
his failure in Sicily (b. c. 274). Curius Dentatus and Cornelius Len'- 
tulus were chosen consuls to oppose him, and two considerable armies 
were placed at their disposal. Pyr'rhus marched against the former, 
hoping to surprise him in his camp near Beneven'tum ; but his lights 
failing him, he was obliged to halt, until the dawn revealed his ap- 
proach to the Romans. Instead of being the assailant, the Epirote 
monarch was himself attacked by Dentatus ; his elephants were driven 
back on his own lines by fireballs and torches ; and after vainly en- 
deavoring to stop the slaughter of his bravest troops, he was forced to 
fly with a small escort to Taren'tum. Thence he returned to Greece, 
leaving a garrison under the command of Milo in the citadel, which, 
however, finally surrendered to the Romans. The Samnites, Bruttians, 
and Lucanians, who had joined Pyr'rhus, were easily subdued after 
his departure ; and Rome established her supremacy over all the coun- 
tries in Italy, from the northern frontiers of Etruria to the Sicilian 
straits, and from the Tuscan sea to the Adriatic. 

Section V. — From the Commencement of the Punic Wars to the Beginning 
of the Civil Dissensions under the Grac'chi. 

FROM B. c. 264 TO B. c. 134. 

The Mamer'tine mercenaries, who had seized Messena and slaugh- 
tered the citizens, justly dreading the vengeance of the Syracusans, 
divided into two parties ; one seeking the protection of the Cartha- 
ginians, the other that of the Romans. Thus the first pretence of quar- 
rel between the two mightiest republics of ancient times was, which 
should have the honor, or rather dishonor, of shielding from merited 
punishment a piratical banditti, stained by every species of crime. 
The Romans were long delayed by their reluctance to acknowledge 
such discreditable allies ; but finding that the Carthaginians had gained 
possession of the Messenian citadel, they made speedy preparations to 



ROMAN REPUBLIC. 219 

prevent their rivals from becoming masters of Sicily. An army in- 
trusted to the command of the consul Ap'pius Claudius, was conveyed 
across the straits (the vigilance of the Carthaginian fleet being eluded 
by stratagem), and gained possession of Messena. Successive victo- 
ries over the Syracusans and Carthaginians soon procured the Roman 
allies among the Sicilian states, and inspired them with the hope of 
becoming masters of the island. Hiero, king of Syracuse, deserted 
his former allies, and by his early alliance with Rome, secured the 
tranquillity of his kingdom in the coming contest. The Carthaginians, 
on the other hand, who had looked upon Sicily as an almost certain 
conquest, were filled with rage when they learned the danger that 
threatened their possessions in that island. They hired a vast number 
of mercenaries in Gaul, Liguria, and Spain ; they made Agrigen'tum 
their chief naval and military depot, storing it plentifully with the mu- 
nitions of war. Notwithstanding the great natural and artificial strength 
of Agrigen'tum, the Romans, eager to seize the Carthaginian magazines, 
laid siege to the city, and defeated an immense army that had been sent 
to its relief (b. c. 262). Dispirited by this misfortune, the garrison 
abandoned the city, which, with all its stores, fell into the hands of the 
Romans. But this success only roused the senate and people of Rome 
to fresh exertions ; they saw that their conquests could not be secure 
while the Carthaginians held the supremacy of the sea, and they there- 
fore directed all their energies to the preparation of a fleet. 

Though not wholly unacquainted with ships, the Romans had hitherto 
paid little or no attention to naval affairs ; and their model for building 
ships-of-war was a Carthaginian vessel that had been driven ashore in 
a storm. After some indecisive skirmishes, the consul Duil'ius, relying 
on his invention of the " corvus," a machine which served both as a 
grappling-iron and drawbridge, hazarded an engagement with the 
Carthaginian fleet (b. c. 260). No sooner had the hostile ships closed, 
than the Romans lowered the new machines on the enemies' decks, 
and, fighting hand to hand, carried no fewer then fifty galleys by board- 
ing. The Carthaginian admiral finding naval tactics of no avail, drew 
off" the rest of his fleet. To commemorate this their first victory by 
sea, the Romans erected a rostral* column in the forum, which still 
contiimes in excellent preservation, the chief injury it has sustained 
being the loss of part of the inscription. In a second naval engage- 
ment, near the island of Lip'ara (b. c. 256), the Carthaginians lost 
eighteen vessels, of which eight were sunk and ten taken. From this 
time forward the Romans began to pay great attention to maritime af- 
fairs ; they maintained navies in the two seas of Italy, and when the 
ships were not employed in war, they were sent to make surveys of 
the coasts. The increasing importance of navigation appears manifest, 
from the repeated representations of war-galleys on the Roman coins ; 
these do not occur before the first Punic war, but after that period we 
find them becoming very common. 

The struggle between the rival republics had lasted about eight years, 
when the Romans, following the example of the Syracusan Agathoc'les, 
resolved to invade Africa, knowing that the native tribes of that, con- 

* That is, ornamented with representations of the rostra, or beaks of ships. 



220 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

tiiKMit were weary of the tyranny and rapacity of Carthage. An arma- 
ment of three hundred and thirty ships was prepared for this great en- 
terprise, and intrusted to the command of the consuls Reg'uhis and 
Mau'lius (b. c. 255). A third sea-fight was a necessary preUminary to 
this invasion ; the Carthaginians were once more defeated, sixty-four 
of their galleys were taken, and thirty destroyed. The victorious fleet 
pursued its voyage ; Reg'ulus effected a landing without loss, and took 
the city of Clypea by storm. Soon after, he defeated the Carthaginian 
army in a general engagement, and seized the city of Tunis. In great 
terror the Carthaginians sought for peace ; but the terms demanded by 
Reg'ulus were so harsh, that they resolved, at all hazards, to continue 
the war, and were confirmed in their determination by the arrival of a 
body of mercenary troops from Greece, under the command of Xanthip'- 
pus, a Spartan general of high reputation. To this foreigner the Car- 
thaginians intrusted the command of their army : he eagerly sought an 
opportunity of bringing the enemy to an engagement ; the Romans did 
not decline his challenge ; but they found that one man was sufficient 
to change the fortune of the war. Xanthip'pus Avon a complete vic- 
tory : the greater part of the Romans were taken prisoners or cut to 
pieces, two thousand alone escaping to the city of Clypea ; Reg'ulus 
himself was among the captives. 

The Spartan general, after this brilliant exploit, returned home. A 
Roman fleet was sent to bring off the garrison of Clypea, and gained 
on the voyage a great victory over the Carthaginians ; but on the re- 
turn of the ships, three hundred and twenty of them, with all on board, 
were destroyed by a tempest. A second naval armament suffered a 
similar fate ; and the Romans, disheartened by these repeated misfor- 
tunes, abandoned for a time the sea to their enemies. But they were 
in some degree consoled by a second triumph obtained near Panor'mus, 
in Sicily, over As'drubal (e. c. 249), which gave them a decided supe- 
riority in the island. 

The Carthaginians, daunted by this misfortune, took Reg'ulus from 
his dungeon to go as their ambassador to Rome, trusting that, weary of 
a long captivity, he would urge the senate to grant favorable terms of 
peace. Reg'ulus, however, persuaded his countrymen to continue the 
war, assuming them that the resources of Carthage were exhausted. It 
is generally stated, that the patriotic general, after his return to Africa, 
was tortured to death by the disappointed Carthaginians. On the other 
hand, there is reason to believe that he died a natural death, and that 
the tale of his savage murder was invented to excuse the cruelty with 
which his family treated their Carthaginian captives. The renewed 
war began unfavorably for the Romans, their entire fleet having been 
wrecked on the south coast of Sicily (b. c. 248), and Hamil'car Bar'ca, 
the new commander of the Carthaginians, proving a worthy successor 
of Xanthip'pus. But they were not dispirited by these losses ; a new 
fleet, of better construction than any they had yet possessed, was built, 
and placed under the command of the consul Lutatius Cat'ulus ; at the 
same time strong reinforcements were sent to the army in Sicily. The 
hostile navies met near the iEgates ; the consid had lightened his ves- 
sels by landing all unnecessary burdens on one of these islands ; but 
Han'no, the Carthaginian admiral, in his hurry to engage, left his ves- 



ROMAN EEPUBLIC. SSfl 

sels encumbered with baggage. The battle was brief but decisive ; 
fifty of Han'no's vessels were sunk, and seventy taken ; and the Car- 
thaginians were for ever deprived of the empire of the sea (b. c. 241). 

But the consequences of this defeat threatened still more fatal results 
to Carthage : Hamil'car Bar'ca, with the last army on which the re- 
public could depend, was closely blockaded in a corner of Sicily, and 
the Roman cruisers cut him off from all communication with Africa : 
were he forced to surrender, Carthage would be left at the mercy of the 
barbarous tribes in its neighborhood. Under these circumstances the 
Carthaginians sought peace, but could obtain no better terms than those 
which Reg'ulus demanded when in sight of their gates (b. c. 240). 
These conditions were, that the Carthaginians should evacuate all the 
islands of the Mediterranean, restore the Roman prisoners without 
ransom, and pay three thousand talents of silver (about 600,000/.) to 
defray the expenses of the war. 

After the termination of the first Punic war, Rome enjoyed a brief 
period of domestic and external tranquillity ; and the temple of Janus 
was shut for the second time since the foundation of the city. Tedious 
wars were waged against the Ligurians and the Gallic tribes which had 
settled in northern Italy, when the people became weary of peace ; but 
a more important contest was provoked by the piracies of the Illyrians, 
whose queen, Teuta, procured the murder of the ambassadors sent to 
remonstrate against the outrages of her subjects. A navy was soon 
established in the Adriatic, and an army sent into lUyricum, whose 
rapid successes compelled Teuta to purchase peace by resigning the 
greater part of her territories (b. c. 227). This speedy conquest diffused 
the fame of the Romans throughout eastern Europe ; for most of the 
Greek states had suffered severely from the piracies of the Illyrians. 
The war was subsequently renewed (b. c. 218), and the Illyrians 
again overthrown with greater disgrace and loss. 

The Carthaginians were anxious to compensate their losses in Sicily 
by the subjugation of Spain ; and their extensive conquests in that pen- 
insula gave great umbrage to their suspicious rivals. A pretext for in- 
terference was soon found. Han'nibal, the son of Hamil'car Bar'ca, 
who had been brought, while yet a child, to the altar by his father, and 
sworn never to relax in his enmity to Rome, laid siege to Sagun'tum, 
a Greek colony on the Iberus, and treated with contempt the remon- 
strances of the Roman ambassadors (b. c. 218). His conduct having 
been approved by the Carthaginian senate, both parties made instant 
preparations for renewing hostilities, and soon commenced the second 
Punic war. 

Before the Roman armies were ready to take the field, Han'nibal had 
completed the conquest of Spain, and crossed the Pyrenees on his road 
to Italy. The consul, Scip'io, hastened to prevent him from passing 
the Rhone ; but being frustrated by the superior diligence of the Car- 
thaginian general, he sent the greater part of his forces into Spain, and 
sailed with the remainder for Italy, in order to intercept his enemies as 
they descended from the Alps. Even these formidable mountains 
caused but little delay fo the enterprising Han'nibal. He led his army 
across them in fifteen days (b. c. 217); and, advancing through the 
country of the Taurini, took their capital city {Turin) by storm. 



222 . ANCIENT HISTORY. 

Scip'io hasted to meet the invaders on the banks of the river Ticinus ; 
but lie was defeated with great loss, and further weakened by the de- 
sertion of his Gallic mercenaries, who eagerly flocked to the standard 
of Han'nibal, regarding him as another Bren'nus. 

In the meantime, Scip'io had been reinforced by Sempronius, the 
other consul ; but he found that these succors were more than counter- 
balanced by the impetuosity of his colleague. Sempronius, eager to 
engage, imprudently forded the river Trebia, though its waters were 
swollen by rain and melted snow. The Romans, suddenly attacked as 
they came out of the river, were not able to cope with their enemies, 
who were fresh and vigorous ; nevertheless they made a brave resist- 
ance, and the central division, unbroken, made its way from the field to 
the city of Placen'tia. The victory, however, was of the greatest ser- 
vice to Han''nibal, as it secured him the alliance of the Gauls in north- 
ern Italy. 

Flamin'ius, the consul of the next year, displayed even more impet- 
uosity and imprudence than Sempronius. Marching incautiously in 
search of Han'nibal, he fell into an ambuscade near the Thrasymenian 
lake, and was slain, with the greater part of his army (b. c. 216). The 
Romans were so alarmed by the intelligence of this great calamity, 
that they created Fabius Max'imus dictator, though, in the absence of 
the surviving consul, they were obliged to dispense with the legal for- 
malities. Fabius adopted a new system of tactics ; he declined fight- 
ing ; but moving his camp along the summit of the hills, he closely 
watched the motions of the invaders, harassed their march, and inter- 
cepted their convoys. From his steadfast adherence to this policy, 
Fabius received the name of Cunctator (</«e delayer). During this pe- 
riod, the Roman armies in Spain, under the command of the Scip'ios, 
gained many important advantages, and thus prevented the Carthagini- 
ans from sending succors to Han'nibal. 

At the close of the year, Fabius resigned his authority to the consuls 
Paul'lus -Slmirius and Teren'tius Var'ro (b. c. 215). The latter hur- 
ried his more prudent colleague into a general action at the village of 
Can'nae, near the river Avifidus, where the Romans suffered a more se- 
vere defeat than any they had received since their fatal overthrow by 
the Gauls ^on the Al'lia. This victory gave Han'nibal a secure position 
in southern Italy : it is even supposed, that he would have got posses- 
sion of Rome itself, had he marched thither immediately after the 
battle. 

But the Romans, notwithstanding their great losses, did not despair : 
Scip'io, a young man destined at no distant period to raise his country 
to the summit of greatness, encouraged the nobles of his own age to 
stand firm at this crisis ; and Fabius Cunctator being appointed to the 
command of the army, resumed the cautious system, the advantages of 
•which had been already so fully proved. Han'nibal, in the meantime, 
led his forces to Cap'ua, where his veterans were enervated by the lux- 
ury and debauchery of that licentious city. At the same time he con- 
cluded an alliance with Philip, king of Macedon ; but the Romans, by 
their intrigues in Greece, found sufficient empl(5yment for that monarch 
at home, to prevent his interference in the aflairs of Italy. They even 
sent an army against hira, under the command of the praetor Lsevimus, 



ROMAN REPUBLIC. 223 

and llius, thougli exposed to such danger in Italy, they maintained a vig- 
orous contest in Greece, Spain, and Sicily. 

It was in Sicily that success first began to dawn upon the Roman 
cause (b. c. 211) : the ancient city of Syracuse was taken by the prae- 
tor Metel'lus ; and the celebrated mathematician, Archim'edes, by whose 
engines the defence had been protracted, was slain in the storm. Two 
years afterward, Agrigen'tum, the last stronghold of the Carthaginians, 
was betrayed to Lsevinus ; and the Romans remained masters of the 
entire island, which henceforth became a regular province. 

In the meantime the war lingered in Italy ; the Roman generals were 
rarely able to cope with Han'nibal, though Marcel'lus is said to have 
gained a general battle over the Carthaginians. On the other hand, 
Han'nibal, receiving no reinforcements from Carthage, feared to peril 
his limited resources in any decisive enterprise. At length he sum- 
moned his brother As'drubal, who had long maintained the Carthaginian 
cause against the Scipios in Spain, to join him in Italy ; and As'drubal, 
without encountering any great difficulty, soon crossed the Pyrenees 
and Alps. The consuls, Liv'ius and Nero, having discovered the di- 
rection of the Carthaginian's march, hastened to intercept him. As'- 
drubal, misled by his guides, was forced to hazard an engagement at a 
disadvantage on the banks of the Metaurus, and was cut to pieces with 
his whole army (b. c. 206). The first information Han'nibal received 
of this great misfortune, was the sight of his brother's gory head, which 
the consuls caused to be thrown into his camp. Soon after, the Romans 
alarmed the Carthaginians by the prospect of a war in Africa, having en- 
tered into a treaty of alliance with Massinis'sa, the legitimate king of 
Nuraidia, and also with the usurper Sy'phax. 

At length Scip'io, the conqueror of Spain, was chosen consul, and, 
contrary to the strenuous exertions of Fabius, he prevailed upon the sen- 
ate to permit him to transfer the war into Africa ; and this was the more 
readily conceded, as the conclusion of peace with Philip (b. c. 203) had 
placed a fresh army at their disposal. Scip'io, on landing in Africa 
(b. c. 202), found that Sy'phax had been won over to the Carthaginian 
side by his wife Sophonis'ba, the daughter of As'drubal. The Roman, 
general, knowing, however the inconstancy of the Numidian, com- 
menced negotiations, which were protracted with equal duplicity. 
While Sy'phax was thus amused, Scip'io suddenly surprised and burned 
his camp ; then attacking the Numidians in the midst of the confusion, 
he put forty thousand of them to the sword. After this achievement, 
Scip'io laid siege to U'tica : the Carthaginians raised a large army to 
relieve a place of so much importance ; but they were routed with great 
slaughter, and pursued to their very walls. This victory exposed Car- 
thage itself to the perils of a siege ; Tunis, almost within sight of the 
city, opened its gates to the Romans ; and the Carthaginian senate driv- 
en almost to despair, recalled Han'nibal from Italy to the defence of his 
own country. 

Han'nibal, on his return home, would have made peace on reasonable 
terms, had not the Carthaginian populace, elated by the presence of the 
hero of a hundred fights, obstinately resisted any concession. With a 
heavy heart the brave old general made preparations for a decisive en- 
gagement in the field of Zama. Han'nibal's abilities were not less con- 



234 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

spicuous in this fatal fight than in the battles he had won in Italy : but 
the greater part of his forces were raw troops, unfit to cope with Scip- 
io's clisciplinefl legions. After a dreadful struggle, the Romans prevail- 
ed, and they followed up their advantages with so much eagerness, that 
twenty thousand of the Carthaginians fell in the battle or the pursuit. 
Ilan'nibal, after having performed everything that a general or brave 
soldier could do to restore the fortune of the day, fled with a small body 
of horse to Adrumetum, whence he was soon summoned to Carthage to 
assist the tottering republic with his counsels (b. c. 201). There he 
informed the senate that " Carthage had no resource but in peace ;" and 
these words, from the mouth of the warlike Han'nibal, were decisive. 
Ambassadors were sent to seek conditions from the conqueror ; and the 
humbled Carthaginians accepted the terms of peace dictated by Scipio. 
who henceforward was honored with the title of Africanus. The 
chief articles of the treaty were, that Carthage should deliver up to tlie 
Romans all their deserters, fugitive slaves, and prisoners-of-war ; sur- 
render all her ships-of-the-line, except ten triremes, and all her ele- 
phants ; restore Numidia to Massinis'sa : enter into no war without the 
permission of the Roman people ; pay as a ransom ten thousand talents 
of silver (about two millions sterling) : and give one hundred hostages 
for the performance of the treaty. To these harsh terms the Cartha- 
ginians subscribed : Scip'io returned home, and was honored with the 
most magnificent triumph that had yet been exhibited in Rome. 

Rome was now become a great military republic, supreme in western 
Europe, and commanding a preponderating influence in the east, where 
the kingdoms formed from the fragments of Alexander's empire had sunk 
into weakness from the exhaustion of mutual wars. The Athenians, 
exposed to the attacks of Philip, king of JNIacedon, sought the protection 
of the Romans, which was readily granted, as the senate had long been 
anxious to find a pretext for meddling in the affairs of Greece (b. c. 206). 
War was declared against Philip, notwithstanding the opposition of the 
tribunes of the people ; and it was resoWed to follow up Scipio's policy, 
by making the enemy's country the theatre of hostilities. An army 
was sent into Macedonia, and its conduct was soon intrusted to Quiu'- 
tius Flamin'ius, whose diplomatic skill was even more conspicuous than 
his military talents. After some minor engagements, in none of which 
did Philip evince much ability as a general or statesman, a decisive bat- 
tle was fought at Cynosceph'alae (b. c. 206), in which the Macedoni- 
ans were irretrievably overthrown, and forced to submit to such terms of 
peace as the conquerors pleased to dictate. This success was followed 
by the solemn mockery of proclaiming liberty to Greece at the Isthmian 
games, which filled the foolish spectators with so much delight, that 
they virtually became slaves to the Romans through gratitude for freedom. 
Antiochus, king of Syria, hoping to establish the empire of the Se- 
leiicidae in the east, soon caused a renewal of the wars in Greece. 
Han'nibal was accused to the Romans by his treacherous countrymen 
of having secretly intrigued with this monarch ; and having reason to 
fear that he would be surrendered to his enemies, he fled to Antiochus 
in Asia. The great general, however, found that the vain-glorious Syr- 
ian was unable to comprehend his prudent plans for conducting the war, 
and had the mortification to find himself suspected of being secretly in 



EOMAN REPUBLIC. 225 

leagiie with tlie Romans. In the meantime the -Stolians, displeased by 
the policy which the Romans were pursuing, invited Antiochus, into 
Europe ; and that monarch, passing over into Greece, made himself 
master of the island of Euboe'a (b. c. 191). War was instantly de- 
clared ; the consul, Acil'ius Glabrio, appeared in Greece with a power- 
ful army ; he gained a signal victory over the Syrians at the straits of 
Thermop'ylae, and reduced the ^Etolians to such great extremities, that 
they were forced to beg a peace ; but the senate demanded such harsh 
conditions, that they resolved to endure the hazards of war a little longer 
(b. c. 190). 

In the following year, the senate intrusted the conduct of the war to 
Lucius Scip'io, under whom his brother Africanus served as a lieuten- 
ant. Having soon tranquillized Greece, the two brothers passed into 
Asia : after many minor successors, they forced Antiochus to a general 
battle near the city of Magnesia, in which that monarch was complete- 
ly overthrown (b. c. 189). He was forced to purchase peace by re- 
signing all his possessions in Europe, and those in Asia north of Mount 
Taurus ; paying a fine of fifteen thousand Euboean talents (about three 
millions sterling) ; and promising to give up Han'nibal. That illustri- 
ous exile fled for refuge to Prusias, king of Bith'ynia ; but finding that 
he was still pursued by the vindictive hatred of the Romans, he put an 
end to his life by taking poison, which in anticipation of such an ex- 
tremity, he always carried with him concealed in a ring. 

On their return home, the Scip'ios were accused of having taken 
bribes from Antiochus and embezzling the public money (b. c. 186). 
Africanus refused to plead, preferring to go into voluntary exile at Li- 
ter'num, where he died. Lucius was condemned ; and on his refusal to 
pay the fine imposed, all his property was confiscated. About the same 
time Rome exhibited the first example of religious persecution : a sect 
called the Bacchanalians, having been accused of the most monstrous 
crimes, several laws were enacted for its extirpation ; but it is scarcely 
possible to discover how far the charges against this unfortunate society 
were supported by evidence. 

The mastery assumed by the Romans in Greece gave great and just 
offence to the principal states ; but their yoke was felt by none so griev- 
ously as Per'ses, king of Macedon, who opened for himself a way to the 
throne by procuring the judicial murder of his brother Demetrius. Mu- 
tual complaints and recriminations soon led to open war (b. c. 170). 
Per'ses having collected his forces, entered Thessaly, captured several 
important towns, defeated a Roman army on the river Peneus, and was 
joined by the greater part of the Epirote nation. His successes con- 
tinued until the Romans intrusted the conduct of the war to iEmil'ius 
Paul'lus, son of the general that had fallen in the battle of Can'nae, 
though he was past the age at which they usually sent out commanders. 
While the new general advanced against Macedon, the praetor Ancius 
invaded Illyr'icum, whose monarch had entered into alliance with Per'- 
ses, and subdued the entire kingdom in the short space of thirty days. 
Per'ses being hard pressed, resolved to hazard a battle near the walls 
of Pyd'na (b. c. 167). After both armies had remained for some days 
in sight of each other, an accident brought on an engagement contrary 
to the wishes of the leaders ; it ended in a complete victory of the Ro- 

15 



226 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

mans. Per'ses fled to Samothrace, but was soon forced to surrender, 
and was reserved to grace the triumph of the conqueror. Macedon, 
Epirus, and Illyr^icum, were reduced to the condition of provinces, and 
it became evident that the independence of the remaining Grecian 
states would not long be respected. The triumph of iEmiKius PauF- 
lus was the most splendid which had been yet exhibited in Rome, and 
it became the precedent for the subsequent processions of victorious 
generals. 

The destruction of the Macedonian monarchy was soon followed by 
that of the miserable remains of the once proud republic of Carthage. 
To this war the Romans were stimulated by (he rigid Cato, sumamed 
the Censor, who was animated by his envy of Scip'io Nasica, on ac- 
count of his great influence in the senate, and by a haughty spirit of 
revenge for some slights which he imagined he had received from the 
Carthaginians when sent as ambassador to their state. The pretext for 
the war was some quarrels between the Carthaginians and the Numid- 
ians, in which, however, the former only acted upon the defensive. 
At first, the Carthaginians attempted to disarm their enemies by sub- 
mission ; they banished all who had incurred the displeasure of the 
Romans, and surrendered their arms and military stores to the consuls ; 
but when informed that they must abandon their city and consent to its 
demolition, they took courage from despair, and set their insulting foes 
at defiance (b. c.168). They made the most vigorous exertions to 
supply the place of the weapons they had surrendered : men of every 
rank and station toiled night and day in the forges ; the women cut off 
their long hair, hitherto the great source of their pride, to furnish strings 
for the bows of the archers, and engines of the slingers ; and the ban- 
ished As'drubal was recalled to the defence of his country. 

From this unexpected display of courage and patriotism, the Romans 
found Carthage not quite so easy a conquest as they had anticipated : 
during the first two years of the war they suffered repeated disappoint- 
ments ; but at length they intrusted the command of their armies to 
Scip'io iEmilianus, the adopted son of the great Africanus (b. c. 147). 
On his arrival in Africa Scip'io's first care was to restore the discipline 
of the soldiers, who had been allowed by their former commanders to 
indulge ii) dangerous licentiousness. His strictness and moderation 
won him the friendship of the African nations, and enabled him in his 
second campaign (b. c. 146) to press vigorously the siege of Carthage. 
After a severe struggle, the Romans forced an entrance into the city on 
the side of Cothon, or the port, and made themselves masters of the 
great wall. Thence Scip'io, with a large body of soldiers, cut his way 
to the principal square of the city, where he bivouacked all the follow- 
ing night. On the next morning the fight was renewed, and the whole 
city, except the citadel and the temple of ^sculapius, taken : six days 
were spent in preparation for the siege of these strongholds ; but, on 
the seventh, the garrison in the citadel surrendered at discretion ; and 
the deserters in the temple of iEsculapius, setting fire to that building, 
perished in the flames. 

Scanty as are our limits, two incidents connected with the destruc- 
tion of this ancient commercial metropolis, so long the rival of Rome 
for supremacy in the western world, must not be omitted. When Scip'io 



ROMAN REPUBLIC. 227 

beheld Carthage in flames, his soul was softened by reflections on the 
instability of fortune, and he could not avoid anticipating a time when 
Rome herself should experience the same calamities as those which 
had befallen her unfortunate competitor. He vented his feelings, by 
quoting from Homer, the well-known lines in which Hector predicts 
the fall of Troy :— 

'' " Yet come it •will, the day decreed by fatea ; 

(How my heart trembles, while my tongue relates !) 
The day when thou, imperial Troy, must bend. 
And see thy warriors fall, thy glories end." 

The second incident is still more tragic : As'drubal, the first mover 
of the war, had fled with the deserters, accompanied by his wife and 
children, to the temple of iEsculapius, but went over to the Romans a 
little before the destruction of that edifice. While the fire was kindling, 
the wife of As'drubal, having decked herself in the best manner she 
could, appeared with her two children on the top of the temple, whence, 
calling out to Scip'io, she begged him to punish her husband according 
to his deserts, that traitor to his God, his country, and his family. Then 
directing her speech to As'drubal — " Thou wicked, perfidious wretch," 
she exclaimed, " thou most cowardly of men ! This fire will quickly 
consume me and my children : but thou, once ruler of mighty Carthage, 
what a triumph shalt thou adorn ! And what punishment wilt thou not 
suffer from him at whose feet thou art sitting !" This said, she cut the 
throats of her children, threw their bodies into the burning building, and 
sprung after them into the very centre of the flames. 

During the third Punic war, the disturbances excited in Macedonia by 
an impostor, Andris^cus, who pretended to be the son of Philip, kindled 
a new war, which proved fatal to the independence of Greece. The 
Achaeans stimulated by some factious leaders, took up arms but were 
subdued the very same year that Carthage was destroyed. Mum'mius, 
the consul who conducted this war, sacked and burned Corinth ; and 
after having plundered the city of its statues, paintings, and most valua- 
ble effects, levelled its walls and houses to the ground. Thebes and 
Chalcis soon after shared the same sad fate. If we may believe Vel- 
leius Pater'culus, Mum^'mius was so little acquainted with the value of 
the beautiful works of art which fell into his possession, that he cov- 
enanted with the masters of the ships, whom he hired to convey from 
Corinth to Italy a great number of exquisite pieces of painting and 
statuary, that " if they lost any of them, they should furnish others in 
their stead." 

Spain next began to attract the attention of the Romans. No nation 
that the republic had subdued defended its liberties with greater obsti- 
nacy. The war for the subjugation of the Spaniards commenced six 
years after the expulsion of the Carthaginians from the western penin- 
sula, and was exceedingly obstinate (b. c. 200). This struggle was 
protracted partly from the natural state of the country, which was thickly 
populated and studded with natural fortresses, partly from the courage 
of the inhabitants, and partly from the peculiar policy of the Romans, 
who were accustomed to employ their allies to subdue other nations. 
The chief enemies against whom the invaders had to contend were the 



228 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

Celtiberians and Liisitanians ; and so often were tlie Romans defeated, 
that nothing was more dreaded by the soldiers at home than an expedi- 
tion against such formidable foes. At length the Lusitanians found a 
leader worthy of their bravery (b, c. 146) in Viriatus, who, from a 
shepherd, became a hunter and a robber ; and in consequence of his 
distinguished valor was chosen general-in-chief by his countrymen. 
This bold leader long maintained his ground against the Roman armies, 
and was equally formidable whether victorious or vanquished. Indeed, 
he was never more to be dreaded than immediately after defeat, because 
he knew how to make the most of the advantages arising from his 
knowledge of the country, and of the dispositions of his countrymen. 
Unable to compete with Viriatus, the consul Cae'pio treacherously pro- 
cured his assassination (b. c. 140) ; and the Lusitanians, deprived of 
their leader, were easily subdued. 

The Numantine war in hither Spain had been allowed to languish 
•while the Lusitanians remained in power ; it was now renewed with 
fresh vigor on both sides, and the pro-consul Pompey laid siege to 
Numan'tia. He was soon compelled to raise the siege, and even to 
enter into a treaty with the Numantines ; but dreading the resentment 
of the senate, he disavowed the negotiation, and, by his great irrterest, 
escaped the punishment of his perfidy. A similar disgrace befell Pom- 
pey's successor, Mancinus ; and the Romans, alarmed by the great 
victories of the Numantines, raised Scip'io ^Emilianus a second time to 
the consulship, and assigned him Spain as his province. Scip'io spent 
his entire consular year in restoring the discipline of soldiers dispirited 
by defeat, and neglected by their former generals ; he then, with the 
inferior title of pro-consul, directed all his attention to concluding the 
war. Having obtained reinforcements from Africa, he laid close siege 
to Numan'tia, blockading every avenue to the town. After a protracted 
defence of more than six months, the Numantines destroyed their wives 
and children, set fire to their city, threw themselves on their swords or 
into the flames, and left the victors nothing to triumph over but empty 
walls (b. c. 133). Spain henceforth became a Roman province, gov- 
erned by two annual preetors. 

A riqh province in Asia was obtained nearly at the same time on 
much more easy terms. At'talus, king of Per'gamus, dying, bequeathed 
his dominions to the Roman republic : and the senate took possession 
of the valuable inheritance, without heeding the remonstrances of the 
legitimate heir. But this acquisition of the wealthiest and finest dis- 
tricts in Asia Minor eventually cost the Romans very dear, both by the 
corruption of morals consequent on the great influx of Asiatic wealth, 
and the dreadful wars in which this legacy involved them with,Mithri- 
dates, king of Pon'tus. 

Section VL — From the Beginning of the Civil Dissensions under the 
Grac'chi, to the Downfall of the Republic and Death of Pompey. 

FROM B. C. 134 TO B. C. 48. 

During the Punic, Macedonian, and Spanish wars, the power of the 
senate, on which the administration of the government necessarily de- 
volved, increased very rapidly, and the form of the constitution con- 



ROMAN REPUBLIC. 220 

sequently was changed more and more into that of a hateful aristocracy, 
against which the tribunes of the people struggled rather as factious 
demagogues than as honest defenders of popular rights. The aristoc- 
racy acquired vast wealth in the government of the provinces, and they 
employed their acquisitions in extending their political influence. The 
most obvious means of effecting this purpose was jobbing in the public 
lands, undertaking the management of extensive tracts, and sub-letting 
them to a crowd of needy dependants. 

Tiberius Grac'chus, the son of a consul, whose mother Cornelia was 
a daughter of the celebrated Scip'io Africanus, witnessed with indig- 
nation the progress of corruption, and, to check it, resolved to enforce 
the Licinian prohibition against any individual renting more than five 
hundred acres of the public land. His office of tribune enabled him at 
once to commence operations ; but before committing himself to the 
hazards of a public struggle, he sought the advice of the most virtuous 
and respectable men in Rome, all of whom sanctioned his project. Not 
daring to oppose directly the attempt to enforce a well-known law, the 
corrupt nobles engaged one of the tribune'^ colleagues to thwart his 
measures. Grieved, but not disheartened, Tiberius procured the depo- 
sition of this unworthy magistrate, and carried a law, constituting a 
triumvirate, or commission of three persons, to inquire into the admin- 
istration of the public lands, and the violations of the Licinian law 
(b. c. 132). This was followed by a proposal, that the treasures 
which At'talus, king of Per'gamus, had bequeathed to the Romans 
should be distributed among the poorer classes of the people. During 
the agitation of this and some similar laws, his year of tribuneship 
expired, and the patricians resolved to prevent his re-election by abso- 
lute violence. So great was the uproar on the first day of the comitia, 
that the returning officer was obliged to adjourn the proceedings. Early 
in the following morning, when the assembly met, Tiberius received 
information that some of the nobles, accompanied by bands of armed 
retainers, had resolved to attack the crowd and take his life. Alarmed 
by this intelligence, he directed his friends to arm themselves as Avell 
as they could with staves ; and when the people began to inquire the 
cause of this strange proceeding, he put his hand to his head, intima- 
ting that his life was in danger. Some of his enemies immediately 
ran to the senate, and reported that Tiberius Grac'chus openly demand- 
ed a crown from the people. Scip'io Nasica, a large holder of public 
lands, seized this pretext to urge the consul to destroy the reformer. 
On the refusal of that magistrate to imbrue his hands in innocent 
hlood, Nasica, accompanied by a large body of the patricians, with 
their clients and dependants, assaulted the unarmed multitude ; Tibe- 
rius was slain in the tumult, and many of his friends were either mur- 
dered or driven into banishment without any legal process. So great 
was the odium Nasica incurred by his share in the murder of his kins- 
man, that the senate, to screen him from popular resentment, sent him 
to Asia, under a pretext of public business, but in reality as a species 
of honorable exile : he died in a few months, the victim of mortification 
and remorse. 

While the city was thus disturbed by civil tumults, Sicily was 
harassed by the horrors of a servile war; and the new province of 



230 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

Per'gamus was usurped by Aristonicus, a natural brother of the late 
king At'lalus. Both wars were terminated by disgraceful means, which 
the Romans would have scorned to have used at an earlier period of 
their liistory : Eiinus, the leader of the slaves, was betrayed by some 
•wretches the consul had bribed : and Per'gamus was not subdued until 
the springs which supplied water to the principal towns were poi- 
soned. 

Caius Grac'chus had been a mere youth when his brother Tiberius 
•was so basely murdered ; but, undaunted by that brother's fate, he re- 
solved to pursue the same course, and was confirmed in his determina- 
tion by his mother Cornelia, a woman of undaunted spirit, animated by 
the purest principles of patriotism. He commenced his career by 
offering himself a candidate for the office of quaestor, to which he was 
elected without opposition. His integrity and ability in this station 
won him " golden opinions from all sorts of men." On his return to 
Rome he was chosen tribune of the people ; and he immediately began 
to take measures for enforcing the agragrian law (b. c. 122). In his 
second tribuneship, he procured the enactment of a law transferring 
the power of judging corrupt magistrates from the senators to the 
equestrian order ; a change rendered absolutely necessary by the im- 
punity that had long been granted to the grossest delinquency and 
extortion. At length the senate set up Drusus, another tribune, as a 
rival to Grac'chus. This wretched minion of an unprincipled faction 
made several grants of public money and remissions of taxes to the 
people, with the direct sanction of the senate ; and soon became a 
favorite with the ignorant multitude. A severer blow was the exclu- 
sion of Grac'chus from the tribuneship when he stood candidate the 
third time, the officers having been bribed to make a false return ; and 
this was followed by the election of Opim'ius, the most violent of the 
aristocratic faction, to the consulship. 

A contest could not long be avoided : the nobles, confiding in the 
numbers of their armed retainers, were anxious to provoke a battle ; 
but Grac'chus, though personally menaced by the consul, was desirous 
that peace should be preserved. An accident precipitated the struggle. 
While the consul was performing the customary morning sacrifice, 
AntyFius, one of his lictors, carrying away the entrails, said, with con- 
temptuous'voice and gesture, to the friends of Grac'chus and Ful'vius, 
" Make way there, ye worthless citizens, for honest men !" The pro- 
voked bystanders instantly assaulted the insolent lictor, and slew him 
■with the pins of their table-books. 

This imprudence afforded Opim'ius the opportunity he had so eagerly 
desired ; the senate hastily assembled, and passed a vote investing him 
with dictatorial power.* Grac^chus, with his most zealous followers, 
took possession of Mount Aventine : here he was soon attacked by the 
sanguinary Opim'ius ; three thousand of his followers were slain, and 
their bodies thrown into the Tiber ; and Calus himself chose to fall by 
the hands of a faithful slave, rather than glut his cruel enemies by his 
tortures (b. c. 120). With the Grac'chi perished the freedom of the 

* The vote by •which absolute po-wer, in cases of emergency, •was given to the 
consuls, consisted in the following formula : " Ut dareni opera/m consules ne resjmb- 
lica quid detrimenti caperet," 



HOMAN REPUBLIC. 331 

Roman republic ; henceforth the supreme power of the state was 
wielded by a corrupt, avaricious, and insolent aristocracy, from whose 
avarice and oppression even the worst tyranny of the worst of the em- 
perors would have been a desirable relief. 

The profligacy and corruption of the senate, now that the check of 
popular control was removed, soon became manifest by their conduct in 
the Jugurthine war. Micip'sa, king of Numidia, the son of Massi- 
nis'sa, divided his monarchy on his death-bed between his two sons 
Hiemp'sal and Ad'herbal, and his nephew Jiigurtha, though the latter 
was of illegitimate birth. Jugurtha resolved to obtain possession of 
the entire inheritance, procured the murder of Hiemp'sal, and com- 
pelled Ad'herbal to seek refuge at Rome. The senate at first seemed 
disposed to punish the usurper ; but soon won over by his bribes, they 
actually voted him a reward for his crimes, decreeing that the kingdom 
of Numidia should be divided equally between him and Ad'herbal. 
Impunity only stimulated Jugurtha to fresh iniquities ; he -declared war 
against his cousin, gained possession of his person by a capitulation, 
and, in violation of the terms, put him to death. Even this atrocity 
failed to rouse the senate ; and Jugurtha would have escaped unpun- 
ished, had not Mem'mius, one of the tribunes, exposed the profligate 
venality of the aristocracy in a general assembly of the people, and 
persuaded them to send Cas'sius the prsetor into Africa, to bring Jugur- 
tha thence to Rome, on the pnblic faith, in order that those who had 
taken bribes might be convicted by the king's evidence. 

Jugurtha, being brought before the assembly, was interrogated by 
Mem'mius ; but Bse'bius, another tribune, who had been bribed for the 
purpose, forbade the king to make any reply. The Numidian, however, 
soon added to his former crimes, by procuring the murder of his cousin 
Massiva in Rome, suspecting that he was likely to be raised to the 
throne of Numidia by a party in the senate. Such an insult could not 
be borne ; Jugurtha was instantly ordered to quit Italy (b. c. 109), and 
an army raised against him was intrusted to the command of the consul 
Al'binus. Instead of prosecuting the war, Al'binus left his brother 
Atilus, a vain, avaricions man, in command of the army, and returned 
to Italy. Aulus invaded Numidia, hoping that Jugurtha would purchase 
his forbearance by a large sum ; but he was surrounded, betrayed, and 
forced to capitulate on the most disgraceful terms. The Roman people 
was roused to exertion by this infamy ; a commission was issued for 
inquiring into the criminality of those who had received bribes ; several 
of the leading nobles, among whom was Opin^ius, the murderer of 
Caius Grac'chus, were convicted on the clearest evidence, and sen- 
tenced to diff'erent degrees of punishment. Finally, the conduct of the 
war was intrusted to Quin'tus Metel'lus, a strenuous partisan of the 
aristocracy, but an able general, and an incorruptible statesman. When 
Metel'lus had almost completed the conquest of Numidia, he was sup- 
planted by his lieutenant Caius Marius, a man of the lowest birth, but 
whom valor, talent, and a zealous devotion to the popular cause, had 
elevated to fame and fortune. Raised to the consulship, and intrusted 
with the conduct of the war against Jugurtha, by the favor of the people, 
Marius showed little respect for the vote of the senate that had con- 
tinued Metel'lus in command. He raised fresh levies, and passed over 



23i ANCIENT HISTORY 

into Africa just when Jtigurtha had been forced to seek refuge with 
Boc'chus, king of Mauritania (b. c. 106). The principal cities and 
fortresses of Numidia were speedily subdued, and the united army of 
Jugurtha and Boc'chus routed with great slaughter. The Moorish 
king, terrified by his losses, was at length prevailed upon to betray 
Jugurtha to Syl'la, a young nobleman who held the important office of 
qua;stor in the army of Marius ; and this wicked usurper, after having 
been exhibited in the conqueror's triumph, was starved to death in 
prison. 

In the meantime, the barbarous hordes of the Cim^jri and Teutones 
were devastating Transalpine Gaul, and had defeated the Roman armies 
sent to check their ravages. At length, their total defeat of Cae'pio's army, 
and slaughter of eighty thousand men, spread such general consterna- 
tion, that the senate and people combined to raise Marius to the con- 
sulate a secoj:ad time, contrary to law. It was not, however, until his 
fourth consulship (b. c. 100), that Marius brought the Teutones to a 
decisive engagement at A'quae Lutiae. The annals of war scarcely re- 
cord a more complete victory ; more than one hundred thousand of the 
invaders having been slain or made prisoners. He was no less fortu- 
nate in a second engagement with the Cimbrians ; but on this occasion 
his old quaestor, but now his rival, Lucius Syl'la, had fair grounds for 
claiming a large share in the honors of the day. About the same time, 
a second servile war in Sicily was terminated : so cruelly was the re- 
volt of these unhappy men punished, that more than a million of the 
insurgents are said to have perished in the field, or been exposed to 
wild beasts in the arena. 

A much more dangerous war, called the Marsic, the Social, or the 
Italic, was provoked by the injustice with which the Romans treated 
their Italian allies. The different states having in vain sought a re- 
dress of grievances from the senate and people, entered into a secret 
conspiracy, which soon extended from the Liris eastward to the ex- 
tremity of ancient Italy. The Mar'si, long renowned for their bravery, 
were foremost in the revolt, and hence their name is frequently given 
to the war. After a tedious contest of three years, in which half a 
million of men are supposed to have perished, the Romans granted the 
freedom of their city to the states that laid down their arms (b. c. 87), 
and tranquillity was restored in Italy. 

But the Roman power was exposed almost to equal danger in Asia 
by the rising greatness of Mithridates, the celebrated king of Pon'tus, 
who, in a short time, made himself master of all the towns and islands 
in Asia Minor, with the single exception of Rhodes. Marius and 
Syl'la eagerly contended for the chief command in this important war ; 
the latter prevailed, and procured the banishment of his rival, who very 
narrowly escaped with his life. Syl'la departed with his army to Asia ; 
but, during his absence, the consul Cin'na recalled Marius, and Italy 
was involved in all the horrors of civil war (b. c. 86). After a severe 
struggle, the aged exile having everywhere defeated the partisans of 
the nobles, made his triumphant entry into Rome, and filled the entire 
city with slaughter. Having caused the murder of most of the leading 
senators and knights that had joined in procuring his banishment, he 



EOMAN REPUBLIC. 233 

decjared himself consul without going through the formality of an elec- 
tion, and died soon after, in the seventy-first year of his age. 

In the meantime, Syl'la defeated the armies of Mithridates in Greece, 
took Athens by storm, slaughtered its citizens without mercy or com- 
punction, and compelled the king of Pon'tus to solicit peace. Syl'la 
willingly consented, for he had neither ships nor money to carry on 
the war ; and he longed impatiently to be in Italy, that he might re- 
venge himself on his enemies, who were so cruelly persecuting his 
partisans. 

On the news of the approach of Syl'la with a victorious army (b. c. 
83), the consuls Cin'na and Car'bo made every preparation for the im- 
pending war ; but the former was murdered by his mutinous troops, and 
the latter, though aided by the younger Marius, did not possess abilities 
adequate to the crisis. After a severe struggle, Syl'la prevailed, and 
became master of Rome. He surpassed even the cruelties of Marius, 
slaughtering without mercy not merely his political opponents, but all 
whom he suspected of discontent at his elevation. While the city was 
filled with mourning and consternation, he caused himself to be elected 
dictator for an unlimited time (b. c. 81) ; but, to the great astonishment 
of everybody, he resigned his power at the end of three years, and re- 
tired to private life. He died soon after (b. c. 77) of a loathsome dis- 
ease brought on by intemperance and debauchery. 

The consul Lep'idus attempted to seize the power which Syl'la had 
abdicated ; he was declared a public enemy, defeated in the field, for- 
saken by his friends, and abandoned by his faithless wife : he sunk 
under this complication of misfortunes, and died of a broken heart. But 
though the senate escaped this danger, they were alarmed by the rapid 
progress of the Marian faction in Spain (b. c. 76), where Sertorius had 
collected *a powerful army from the relics of that party. After some de- 
liberation, the management of this war was intrusted to Pom'pey, after- 
ward surnamied the Great, though he ftad not yet attained the consular age, 
and was still a simple Roman knight. Sertorius proved more than a match 
for the young general, defeating him in several engagements ; but treach- 
ery proved more efficacious than valor ; the bold adventurer was murdered 
by Perper'na (b. c. 73) ; and the insurgents, deprived of their able leader, 
were finally subdued by Pom'pey (b. c. 70). Before the Spanish war 
was terminated, Italy was thrown into confusion by the daring revolt of 
Spar'tacus (b. c. 72). This dangerous insurgent, with about eighty com- 
panions, forced his way out of a school for training gladiators at Cap'ua, 
and resolved, instead of hazarding his life in the arena, for the brutal 
sport of the Roman populace, to make war on the republic. Two bril- 
liant victories so established his fame, that the slaves, deserting their 
masters, flocked to his standard from all quarters, and he soon found 
himself at the head of ten thousand men. Fresh successes now crowned 
his arms ; praetors and consuls were sent against him, and defeated ; 
his forces rapidly increased to one hundred and twenty thousand ; and 
he even attempted to make himself master of Rome. At length the 
praetor Cras'sus succeeded in suppressing this formidable revolt ; but 
his victory was chiefly owing to the want of union and discipline in 
the army of the insurgents (b. c. 70). Spar'tacus himself fell in the 



234 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

field, and great numbers of his followers were crucified by the bar- 
barous conquerors. 

Cras'sus and Pom'pey were chosen consuls the next year : both 
■were ambitious of supreme power, and both began to pay their court to 
the people ; Cras'sus by largesses of corn and money, Pom'pey by re- 
storing the tribunitian power, and repealing many of the unpopular laws 
of Syl'la. These measures gave Pom'pey so much influence, that he 
was chosen to manage the war against the Cilician pirates, in spite of the 
most vigorous opposition of the senators ; and to this commission there 
were added, by the Manilian law, the government of Asia, and the entire 
management of the war against Mithridates (b. c. 65). Little did the 
tribune Manil'ius foresee that he was placing the whole power of the 
Roman empire in the hands of a man who would soon become the 
most strenuous supporter of the senate. 

Pom'pey made a judicious use of the power with which he was in- 
trusted ; he subdued Mithridates, and established the sway of the Ro- 
mans over the greater part of western Asia. But while he was thus 
engaged gathering laurels in the remote east, the republic narrowly 
escaped destruction from the conspiracy of Cat'iline (b. c. 62). The 
original contriver of this celebrated conspiracy, Ser'gius Cat'iline, was 
a young man of noble birth, sullied, however, by the most infamous de- 
bauchery and crimes. The recent examples of Marius and Syl'la 
stimulated him to attempt making himself master of his country ; and 
he i'ound many associates among the profligate young nobles, whom 
their riotous extravagance had overwhelmed with a load of debt. The 
great impediment to the success of the plans of the conspirators was 
the vigilance of the consul Cicero, who had raised himself to the high- 
est rank in the state by his consummate eloquence and great skill in 
political afiairs. His murder was deemed a necessary preliminary to 
any open efforts ; but Cicero received secret warnings of his danger 
from Curius, one of the conspirators, whose mistress had been bribed 
by the consul ; and he was thus enabled to disconcert all the plans of 
Cat'iline. While the city was alarmed by rumors of danger, Cat'iline 
had the hardihood to present himself in the senate-house, where Cicero 
pronounced so dreadful an invective against him, that the hardened con- 
spirator was unable to reply, and fled from the city to commence open war. 

In the meantime, his associates in the city attempted to form an alli- 
ance with the Allob'roges, a people of Gaul that had sent ambassadors 
to petition the senate for some relief from the debt with which their na- 
tion was oppressed. These ambassadors betrayed the negotiations to 
Cicero, who took his measures so well, that he arrested the chiefs of 
the conspiracy with the proofs of their guilt on their persons. After a 
warm debate in the senate, it was resolved that the traitors should be 
put to death ; Julius Caesar, who was now fast rising into notice as the 
chief of the popular party, protesting almost alone against the danger- 
ous precedent of violating the Porcian law, which forbade the capital 
punishment of a Roman citizen. When Cat'iline heard the fate of his 
associates, he attempted to lead his forces into Gaul ; but he was over- 
taken by a consular army, defeated, and slain. So pleased were the 
senate with the conduct of Cicero on this occasion, that they gave him 
the honorable title of Father of his Country. 



ROMAN REPUBLIC. 235 

Pom'pey soon afterward returned to Rome, and the old jealousies be- 
tween him and Cras'sus were renewed ; but Julius Cfssar, whose emi- 
nent abilities were now known and valued, succeeded in bringing the 
rivals together, and uniting them with himself in a partnership of 
power, generally called "the first triumvirate" (b. c. 59). They were 
supported in this project by the infamous Clodius, whose sole aim was 
to be revenged on Cicero for having given evidence against him on 
a criminal trial. To wreak his vengeance more effectually, he had 
himself transferred from the patrician order to the plebeian, and then 
becoming a candidate for the tribuneship, was elected without much op- 
position. By the exertions of Clodius, Cicero was driven into banish- 
ment ; but he was honorably recalled after a year's exile, and restored 
to his dignity and estates. While Clodius, by his violence, kept the 
city in constant agitation, Pom'pey and Cras'sus were again elected 
consuls together ; the former chose Spain, the latter Syria, for his 
province, hoping that its wealth would be the prey of his boundless 
avarice (b. c. 54). Caesar was in the meantime winning fame by the 
conquest of Gaul, and establishing a military reputation which soon 
eclipsed that of all his contemporaries. 

The union of the triumvirs was first disturbed by the death of Julia, 
Ceesar's daughter, who had been married to Pom'pey, and exercised 
great influence over both her father and her husband. But the compact 
was completely broken by the unfortunate termination of the rash expe- 
dition which Cras'sus undertook against the Parthians, in which he 
perished, with the greater part of his army (b. c. 52). 

Caesar's victorious career in Gaul lasted nearly eight years (from 
B. c. 57 to B. c. 49). During this space of time he subdued all the 
barbarous and warlike tribes . between the Pyrenees and the German 
ocean ; he even crossed the Rhine, and gained several victories over 
the Germans ; and, passing over into Britain, he subdued the southern 
part of the island. Pom'pey at first favored all the projects of his col- 
league, procured him a prolongation of his command and supplies of 
troops ; but he soon became envious of exploits that obscured the fame 
of his own achievements ; his creatures began to detract from the 
brilliancy of Caesar's victories, and many of that general's official let- 
ters were suppressed by the senate. It became soon obvious that the 
jealousies of the two surviving triumvirs could be arranged only in the 
field of battle, and their partisans began to prepare for combat long be- 
fore the principals had any notion of breaking the peace. 

The contest began by Caesar's demanding permission to hold the 
consulship while absent. He had secured his interest and in- 
creased his adherents by the most lavish bribes, having spent 
nearly half a million on the purchase of Caius Curio alone. This 
powerful and popular tribune placed the senate in a very difficult 
position, by proposing that both Pom'pey and Caesar should re- 
sign their offices, and retire into private life (b. c. 51). Some 
time was wasted in negotiations ; but at length the senate (Jan. 7, 
B. c. 49) passed a decree by which Caesar was commanded to disband 
his army before a specified day, under the penalty of being declared a 
public enemy. Mark Antony and Quin'tus Cas'sius, tribunes of the 
people, put their negative on this vote ; but their prerogative was dis- 



236 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

puted, and a debate ensued, in the course of which many severe 
speeches were made against them. Finally, the vote for suspending 
the constitution passed by a large majority in a very full house. It was 
decreed that " the consuls, pr?etors, proconsuls, and other magistrates 
near Rome, should take care that the republic received no detriment." 
Antony and Cas'sius fled from the city the same night, disguised as 
slaves. They were followed by Ciirio and Cae'lius. 

When Ceesar received this intelligence, he resolved to march imme- 
diately into Itajy, before Pom'pey could collect forces sufficient for the 
defence of the peninsula. The rapidity of his movements disconcerted 
his enemies ; and the news of his having passed the Rubicon, spread 
such alarm at Rome, that the senate and Pom'pey's party abandoned the 
city, leaving the public treasure behind them. All Italy was subdued 
in sixty days. On the 17th of March, Pom'pey sailed from Brundu- 
sium for Greece, abandoning his country to his rival. Sicily and Sar- 
dinia speedily followed the fate of the peninsula. 

Elated by this great success, Csesar returned to Rome, took the funds 
from the public treasury, and, after a brief respite of six or seven days, 
set out to attack Pom'pey's lieutenants in Spain. He met with unex- 
pected resistance from the city of Marseilles, but, leaving a detachment 
to besiege the place, he continued his march to Iler'da, where he found 
his enemies posted under the command of Afranius and Petreius. An 
undecisive battle was fought at Iler'da ; but Ceesar, taking advantage of 
the inexperience and incapacity of his opponents, soon reduced them 
to such straits, that they were forced to surrender at discretion. The 
reduction of the remainder of the Spanish peninsula was soon com- 
pleted, and Caesar returned into Gaul to finish the siege of Marseilles. 
Caesar's presence soon forced the citizens to surrender. Their lives 
were spared, but they were forced to give up all their arms, magazines, 
and money. But while he was thus everywhere victorious in person, 
the armies commanded by his lieutenants met with some reverses in 
Illyricum and Africa. 

On his return to Rome, Caesar was created dictator. Having made 
proper arrcthgements for the government of the city, he prepared to fol- 
low Pom'pey into Greece, where that general had collected an immense 
army from the principal states of the east. His inferiority by sea ex- 
posed Caesar's soldiers to great dangers and hardships in their passage 
from Brundiisium to Dyrac'chium ; but they were finally transported 
into western Greece, and a tedious campaign, in which both leaders 
showed themselves equally reluctant to hazard a general engagement. 
From Epirus both armies moved into Thessaly ; and on the 30th of 
July (n. c. 48), the battle, which decided the fate of the world, was 
fought on the plains of Pharsalia. Pom'pey's forces Avere completely 
routed, their camp stormed, and the bodies of fugitives that preserved a 
semblance of regularity in their retreat, forced to yield themselves 
prisoners. The unfortunate general himself made no effort to retrieve 
the fortune of the day : when his squadron of cavalry, on which he 
placed his principal reliance, were routed, he retired to his tent, whence 
he fled in disguise when the enemy began to storm his entrenchments. 

From the field of battle Pom'pey fled to the ^gean sea, probably 
designing to renew the war in Syria ; but finding the Asiatic states in- 



RQMAN REPUBLIC. 237 

clined to withdraw their allegiance when they heard of his defeat, he 
steered for Egypt, accompanied by his wife Cornelia, trusting he would 
receive protection from the young king of that country, with whose fa- 
ther he had Heen united by the strictest bonds of friendship. But the 
guardians of the young king resolved to murder the unfortunate fugi- 
tive, and intrusted the execution of the crime to Septim'ius, a Roman 
deserter, and Achirlas, the captain of the Egyptian guards. Lucaii 
has given a very vivid description of the catastrophe. 

, " Now in the boat defenceless Pompey sate. 

Surrounded and abandoned to his fate ; 
Nor long they held him in their power abroad, 
Ere every villain drew his ruthless sword : 
The chief perceived their purpose soon, and spread 
His Roman gown, with patience, o'er his head : 
And when the cursed Achillas pierced his breast. 
His rising indignation close repressed. 
No sighs, no groans his dignity profaned, 
No tears his still unsullied glory stained : 
Unmoved and firm he fixed him on his seat. 
And died — as when he lived and conquered — great." 

At the sad sight of the Egyptian treachery, Cornelia's attendants, 
disregarding her lamentations, weighed anchor and stood out to sea. 
Pom'pey's body was flung into the waves, but it was dragged out in the 
night by one Cor'dus, who had been Pom'pey's quaestor in Cy'prus, 
and interred with the Roman rites of sepulture. Plutarch informs us 
that his ashes were subsequently removed to Italy, ajid deposited in a 
vault in his Alban villa, by Cornelia : but Lucan asserts that they re- 
mained in Egypt, and remonstrates against the neglect shown to the 
remains of the hero. 

Section VIL-r-T/ie Establishment of the Roman Empire. 

FROM E. C. 48 TO B. C. 30. 

The news of Pom'pey's death occasioned a fresh division among 
his fugitive friends. Many who were attached personally to him, and 
who held out in hopes of seeing him again at their head, d-^termined 
to have recourse to the conqueror's clemency. Cornelia returned to 
Italy, well knowing that she had nothing to apprehend from Caesar. 
Cato, with Pom'pey's two sons, remained in Africa, and marched over- 
land to join Varus and Jiiba, king of Numidia. We shall see imme- 
diately how they renewed the war, and exposed the victor to fresh 
fatigues and dangers. 

Caesar, immediately after his victory, commenced a close pursuit of 
his competitor ; and did not hear of his death until his arrival in Alex- 
andria, when messengers from the Egyptian king brought him Pom'- 
pey's head and ring. Qaesar turned with disgust from these relics. He 
ordered the head to be inhumed with due honor ; and to show his dis- 
approbation of Egyptian treachery, he caused a temple to be erected 
near Pom'pey's tomb, dedicated to Nem'esis, the avenging power of 
cruel and inhuman deeds. His next task was to arrange the disputed 
succession of the crown ; but, seduced by the charms of the princess 
Cleopatra, he showed an undue preference for her interests, and thus 



29© ANCIENT HISTOHY. 

induced the partisans of the young king Ptolemy to take up arms. As 
CfEsar had only brought a handful of men with him to Alexandria, he 
was exposed to great danger by this sudden burst of insurrection. A 
fierce battle was fought in the city. Ca;sar succeeded in firing the 
Egyptian fleet ; but unfortunately the flames extended to the celebrated 
public library, and the greater part of that magnificea;it collection of the 
most valuable works of ancient times perished in the flames. After the 
struggle had been protracted for some time, Caesar at length received 
reinforcements from Syria, and soon triumphed over all his enemies. 
From Egypt he marched against Pharnaces, the unnatural son of the 
great Mithridates, and subdued him so easily, that he described the 
campaign in three words, '' Veni, Vidi, Vici" — (/ came, I saw, I con- 
quered). 

Having thus settled the affairs of the East, he departed for Rome, 
having been created dictator in his absence ; and found on his return 
the affairs of the city in the greatest confusion, caused by the quarrels 
between Antony and DolabeHa. Caesar with difficulty reconciled their 
diflferences, and began to make preparations for his war in Africa 
against Cato and the sons of Pom'pey. On his arrival in Africa, he 
did not find victory quite so easy as he had anticipated ; but at length 
he forced his enemies to a decisive engagement at Thap'sus, and gave 
them a complete overthrow. Thence he advanced to U'tica, which 
was garrisoned by the celebrated Cato, whose hostility to Caesar was 
inflexible. It was not, however, supported by his followers ; and 
Cato, seeing his friends resolved on yielding, committed suicide. The 
sons of Pom'pey made their escape into Spain, where they soon col- 
lected a formidable party. 

Having concluded the African war in about five months, Caesar 
returned to Rome (b. c. 45) to celebrate his triumph. The senate placed 
no bounds to their adulation, passing, in their excessive flattery, the 
limits even of ordinary decency. They decreed that in his triumph 
his chariot should be drawn by four white horses, like those of Jupiter 
and the Sun : they created him dictator for ten years, and inspector of 
morals for three years : they commanded his statue to be placed in the 
capitol, opposite to that of Jupiter, with the globe of the earth beneath 
his feet, afid with the following inscription, " To Caesar, the demigod." 

During his residence at Rome, the dictator distinguished himself by 
several acts of clemency, more truly honorable to his character than 
all the titles conferred upon him by a servile senate. Having provided 
for the safety of the city during his absence, he hasted into Spain to 
terminate the civil war by crushing the relics of his opponents, who 
still made head under the sons of Pom'pey. Early in the spring 
(b. c. 44), the two armies met in the plains of Mun'da : the battle was 
arduous and well contested ; Caesar had never been exposed to such 
danger ; even his veterans began to give ground. By leading, how- 
ever, his favorite tenth legion to the charge, he restored the fortune of 
the field, and his exertions were crowned with a decisive victory, 
which put an end to the war. The elder of Pom'pey's sons was taken 
and slain ; Sex'tus the younger escaped to the mountains of Celtiberia. 

Having thus completely extinguished the last embers of the civil 
war, Caesar contemplated several vast designs for extending and im- 



aOME. 239 

proving the empire he had acquired. He resolved to revenge the defeat 
and death of Cras'sus on the Parthians ; he undertook to rebuild and 
repair several towns in Italy, to drain the Pomptine marshes, to dig a 
new bed for the Tiber, to form a capacious harbor at Os'tia, and to cut 
a canal through the isthmus of Corinth. But these gigantic projects 
did not compensate, in the minds of his countrymen, for the criminal 
design he was understood to have formed of making himself king of 
Rome. Mark Antony, it is supposed at Caesar's secret instigation, of- 
fered the dictator a regal crown at the feast of the Lupercalia, which 
Caesar, perceiving the displeasure of the people, deemed it prudent to 
refuse : Antony, however, had it entered in the public acts, " That by 
the command of the people, as consul, he had offered the name of 
king to Caesar, perpetual dictator ; and that Caesar would not accept of 
it." 

A large body of the senators, regarding Caesar as a usurper, con- 
spired for his destruction, among whom Brutus and Cas'sius were the 
most conspicuous. They resolved to put their plot into execution in 
the senate-house (March 15, b. c. 44) ; but they very narrowly escaped 
detection, from a variety of untoward accidents. As soon as Caesar 
had taken his place, he was surrounded by the conspirators, one of 
whom, pretending to urge some request, held him down by his robe : 
this was the signal agreed upon ; the other conspirators rushed upon 
him with their daggers, and he fell, pierced by twenty-three wounds, 
at the base of Pom'pey's statue. The murderers had no sooner finished 
their work, than Brutus, lifting up his dagger, congratulated the senate, 
and Cicero in particular, on the recovery of liberty ; but the senators, 
seized with astonishment, rushed from the capitol and hid themselves 
in their own houses. Tranquillity prevailed until the day of Caesar's 
funeral, when Mark Antony, by a studied harangue, so inflamed the 
passions of the populace, that they stormed tjm senate-house, tore up 
its benches to make a funeral pile for the body^nd raised such a con- 
flagration that several houses were entirely consumed. This was a 
clear warning to the conspirators, who immediately quitted Rome, and 
prepared to defend themselves by force of arms. 

Mark Antony long deceived the conspirators by an appearance of 
moderation, and an affected anxiety to procure an act of amnesty ; but 
when joined by Octavius Caesar, the nephew and heir of the murdered 
dictator, he threw off" the mask, and proposed extraordinary honors to 
the memory of Caesar, with a religious supplication to him as a divin- 
ity. Brutus and Cas'sius at length discovering that Antony meditated 
nothing but war, and that their affairs were daily growing more desper- 
ate, left Italy, and sought refuge in the East. Octavius Caesar, becom- 
ing jealous of Antony, joined the party of the senate ; and Antony, 
retiring into Cisalpine Gaul, levied an army of veterans, and came to an 
engagement with the armies of the republic, in which both the consuls 
were slain. Antony, defeated in the field, fled to Lep'idus in Spain : 
and Octavius Caesar, whom the death of the consuls had placed at the 
head of the army, entered secretly into a correspondence with the ene- 
mies of the senate. Their mutual interests led to the formation of a 
league between Octavius, Lep'idus, and Antony, called the second tri- 
umvirate (November 27, b. c. 43), and their confederacy was cemented 



240 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

by the blood of the noblest citizens of Rome, shed in a proscription 
more ruthless and sanguinary than those of Marius and Syl'la. The 
most illustrious of the victims was the celebrated Cicero, whose severe 
invectives against Antony had procured him the relentless hatred of the 
triumvir. Octavius is said to have hesitated long before consenting to 
the sacrifice of the greatest orator that Rome ever produced, and the 
most patriotic of her recent statesmen ; but at length he permitted the 
fatal" consent to be extorted, and Cicero fell a victim to a band of assas- 
sins, headed by a tribune whom he had formerly defended and preserved 
in a capital cause. 

The triumvirs having taken vengeance on their enemies in Italy, be- 
gan to prepare for carrying on war against Brutus and Cas'sius. Mace- 
donia became the theatre of the new civil war: the republicans at first 
seemed destined to conquer ; they appeared to possess superior talents 
and greater forces by land and sea. But in the double battle at Phi- 
lip'pi, fortune rather than talent gave the victory to the triumvirs ; and 
Cas'sius destroyed himself after the first contest, and Brutus after the 
second (b. c. 42). Antony made a cruel use of his victory, putting to 
death his political opponents without mercy. Octavius emulated the 
crimes of his colleague, and treated the most illustrious of his prison- 
ers with barbarity and abusive language. 

After his victory Antony visited Greece, where he was received 
with the most refined flattery. Thence he passed into Asia, where all 
the sovereigns of the East came to offer him homage ; but he was 
most gratified by a visit from the celebrated Cleopatra, who rendered 
the voluptuous triumvir a captive to her charms. Resigning all his 
plans of war against the Parthians, he followed this celebrated beauty 
into Egypt, and in her company neglected all care of public affairs. 
Octavius Caesar, on the other hand, proceeded to Italy, and took the 
most efficacious meansfor securing the permanence of his power, 
Lucius the brother, an^Ful'via the wife of Antony, excited a new war 
against Octavius ; but they were soon defeated, and the capture of their 
principal stronghold, Perusia (b. c. 41), rendered Caesar's nephew 
master of Italy, and almost the recognised heir of his uncle's power. 

Antony was still immersed in pleasure at Alexandria, when he re- 
ceived the account of his brother's defeat, and the ruin of his party in 
Italy ; at the same time he heard that Octavius had made himself mas- 
ter of both Gauls, and had got all the legions into his hands that were 
quartered in those districts. He was roused by these tidings from his , 
lethargy, and immediately proceeded toward Italy ; but blaming Ful'via 
for all his disasters, he treated her with so much contempt, that she 
died of a broken heart. This circumstance paved the way to a recon- 
ciliation ; Antony married Octavia, the half-sister of his rival, and a 
new division was made of the Roman empire. Sex'tus Pom'pey, who 
during the troubles had become powerful by sea, was included in the 
new arrangements, and obtained the possession of the Peloponnesus 
and several important islands. 

But the mutual jealousies of the triumvirs rendered peace of short 
duration. Octavius drove Pom'pey from Sicily, and compelled him to 
seek refuge in the East, where he was put to death by one of Antony's 
lieutenants ; and about the same time he deprived Lep'idus of all his 



ROME. 241 

power, and took possession of his dominions. Antony, while his rival 
was thus acquiring strength, degraded himself by an unsuccessful war 
against the Parthians ; after which he returned to Alexandria, and lost 
all regard to his character or his interest in the company of Cleopatra. 
Octavia went to the East, hoping to withdraw her husband from the 
fascinating siren ; but the infatuated triumvir refused to see her, and 
sent her orders to return home. He completed this insult by sending 
her a bill of divorce, and professing a previous marriage with Cleopa- 
tra. Preparations for war were instantly made on both sides ; but 
Antony's debauchery, and slavery to the caprices of an abandoned 
woman, disgusted his best friends, and many of them deserting him 
brought such an account of his extravagance to Rome, that the indignant 
citizens passed a decree for deposing him from the consulship. 

The great rivals were soon in readiness for action. Antony had the 
most numerous forces ; but Octavius had the advantage of a more disci- 
plined army, and, at least in appearance, a better cause. Their fleets and 
armies were soon assembled at the opposite sides of the gulf of Ambracia, 
where they remained for several months without coming to a decisive 
engagement. At length, Antony, instigated by Cleopatra, formed the 
fatal resolution of deciding the contest by a naval battle. The fleets 
met off" the promontory of Ac'tium (September 2, b. c. 31), while the 
hostile armies, drawn up on the shore, were simple spectators of the 
battle. For a long time success was doubtful ; until Cleopatra, wearied 
Avith expectation, and overcome with fear, unexpectedly tacked about, 
and fled toward the Peloponnesus with the Egyptian squadron of sixty 
sail ; and, what is more surprising, Antony himself, now regardless of 
his honor, fled after her, abandoning his men who so generously ex- 
posed their lives for his interest. The battle, notwithstanding, con- 
tinued till five in the evening, when Antony's forces were partly con- 
strained to submit by the great conduct of Agrip'pa, and partly persuaded 
by the liberal promises of Octavius. The army of Antony could not 
believe in the flight of their general, and held out for seven days in ex- 
pectation of his returning to join them ; but hearing no tidings of him, 
and being deserted by their allies, they hasted to make terms with the 
conqueror. 

Antony and Cleopatra continued their flight to Egypt, where the queen 
displayed more courage and enterprising spirit than her lover. She 
caused some of her galleys to be carried over the isthmus (of Suez) into 
the Red sea, proposing to save herself, with her treasures, in an un- 
known world ; but the Arabians having burned her vessels, she was 
forced to abandon a design so full of difficulties, and she therefore com- 
menced fortifying the avenues of her kingdom, and making preparations 
for war. She also solicited foreign assistance, addressing herself to all 
the princes in the alliance of Antony. While Cleopatra was thus em- 
ployed, Antony exhibited the most lamentable weakness : at first he 
affected to imitate Timon the misanthrope, and shut himself up without 
either friends or domestics ; but his natural temper did not allow him to 
remain long in this state, and quitting his cell, he gave himself up to 
feasting and every kind of extravagance. 

In the meantime, the forces of Octavius advanced on each side of 
Egypt. Cornelius Gal'lus took possession of Paretonium, which was the 

16 



24'3 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

key of Egypt on the west side ; and Antony, who speeded with his fleet 
and army to wrest it out of his hands, was forced to retire with great 
loss, especially of his ships. Pelusium, the eastern security of the 
kingdom, was surrendered to Octavius at the first summons : it was re- 
ported that Seleucus the governor betrayed the place by Cleopatra's 
orders ; but she, to clear herself from such an imputation, delivered up 
liis wife and children into Antony's hands. Csesar advanced to besiege 
Alexandria : Antony made an effort to impede his march, but he was 
abandoned by his soldiers ; and finding he could not die with glory in 
the field, he returned to Alexandria, overcome with rage and fury, run- 
ning and crying out, " that Cleopatra had betrayed him, when he had 
ruined all his fortunes for her sake alone." The queen, hearing his 
violent transports, retired in terror to a monument she had erected, 
secured the doors, and caused a report to be spread of her death. 
Upon this news, Antony attempted to commit suicide, and inflicted on 
himself a mortal wound : hearing, however, in the midst of his agonies, 
that Cleopatra still lived he caused himself to be transported to her 
monument, and expired in her presence. 

Cleopatra seems to have formed some hope of obtaining the same 
influence over Octavius Caesar that she had exercised over Antony ; but 
finding the conqueror insensible to her charms, and having received 
secret information that he reserved her to adorn his triumph, she bribed 
a countryman to convey an asp to her in a basket of figs, and applied 
the venomous creature to her arm, and thus died. Egypt was then 
reduced into the form of a Roman province, and its immense riches 
transported to Rome, which enabled Octavius to pay all he owed to his 
soldiers. On his return to Rome, the senate saluted him by the hon- 
orable name of Augus'tus, and by a unanimous vote conceded to him 
the entire authority of the state. 

The era of the Roman empire is usually dated from Jan. 1st, b. c. 
28. The title of Augus'tus was at first only personal, and did not con- 
vey any idea of sovereignty : several of the imperial family took it who 
never were emperors, such as German'icus. The female line, who had 
not the least shadow of sovereignty with the Romans, had it as Antonia 
Major ; and thus Liv'ia first took the name of Augusta when she was 
adopted, by her husband's will, into the Julian family. After the time 
of Dioclesian it was changed into Sem^'per Augus'tus ; and this title was, 
in modem times, assumed by the emperors of Germany and Austria. 
It may appear surprising that the Romans made no vigorous effort to 
recover their republican constitution ; but, in truth, Roman liberty was 
destroyed when the Grac'chi were murdered : all the subsequent civil 
dissensions were contests for power between different sections of the 
oligarchy ; and the people, weary of the oppression of the aristocracy, 
gladly sought shelter from the tyranny of the nobles in the despotic sway 
of a single master. 



ROMAN EMPIRE. 243 



CHAPTER XVr. 

GEOGRAPHICAL AND POLITICAL CONDITION OF 
THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 

Section h'^European Countries. — Spain, 

In general the boimdaries of the Roman empire may be described as 
the great western ocean, the rivers Rhine and Danube in Europe, the* 
chain of Mount Caucasus, the river Euphrates and the Syrian deserts 
in Asia, and the sandy deserts of Africa. It thus included the fairest 
portions of the knoAvn world surrounding the Mediterranean sea. 

Its most western province was the Spanish peninsula, whose bourtd^I^* 
aries, being fixed by nature, continue unvaried. This great country^ 
usually called Iberia by the Greeks, either from a colony of Iberians, 
or from the river Iberus (Ebro), was known to the Romans by the names 
Hispania or Hesperia. It was usually divided into three great portions, 
Lusitania, Bsetica or Hispania Ulterior, and Tarraeonensis or Hispania 
Citerior. 

The chief islands were the major and minor Baleares {Majorca arid* 
Minorca), whose inhabitants were celebrated for their skill as slingers 
and archers. 

Section II. — Transalpine GauL 

Ancient Gaul was bounded on the north and south by the sea, ori^ 
the west by the Pyrenees, and on the east by the rivers Rhine and Var. 
It was divided into three great sections, Bel'gia, Aquitania, and Gal'lia 
propria ; in which the language, manners, and customs, differed con- 
siderably. 

The religion of the ancient Gauls, like that of the ancient Britons, 
was druidical ; they worshipped a supreme deity called Hesus, or iEsar, 
to whom they believed the oak to be sacred, especially if the parasitical 
plant called mistletoe were found growing upon it. Their rites were 
very sanguinary : human victims were sacrificed in their groves and 
circles of stone ; and it is said that their nobles occasionally volunteered 
to offer themselves upon the national altars. Temples were not erected 
in Gaul, until after its conquest by the Romans ; but long before that 
period the worship of a crowd of inferior deities had been introduced. 

The several Gallic tribes were usually independent of each other ; 
but on great occasions a general council of the nation was summoned, 



244 ANCIENT HISTORY 

especially when preparations were made for any of the great migrations 
which proved so calamitous to Greece and Italy. Their superior valor 
rendered these tribes very formidable to all the southern nations ; it was 
commonly said, that the Romans fought with others for conquest, but 
with the Gauls for actual existence. But from the time of the subju- 
gation of their country by Julius Caesar, their valor seemed to have 
disappeared together with their liberty ; they never revolted, except 
when the extortions of their rulers became insupportable ; and their 
efforts were neither vigorous nor well-directed. In no province did 
Roman civilization produce greater effects than in Gaul ; many public 
works of stupendous size and immense utility were constructed ; roads 
were constructed and paved with stone ; durable bridges were built, 
and aqueducts formed to supply the cities with water. Remains of 
these mighty works are still to be found, and they can not be viewed 
without wonder and admiration. 

Section III. — Britain, 

Though Britain was not reduced to the form of a Roman province 
fintil long after the time of Julius Csesar, yet, as that general brought it 
nominally under subjection, it will be better to describe its ancient state 
here than to interrupt the history of the empire in a subsequent chapter. 
The name of Britain was originally given to the cluster of islands in 
the Atlantic now called British, the largest of which bore the name of 
Albion. The southern part of Albion, or England, was originally colo- 
nized from Gaul ; the tribes that inhabited the east and north are said 
to have been of German descent ; and there is a constant tradition, that 
the Scots in the northwest came originally from Ireland. 

That part of Britain now included in the kingdom of England and 
principality of Wales, was anciently divided among seventeen tribes, to 
whom probably some of inferior note were subject. 

The principality of Wales, formerly comprehending the whole country 
beyond the Severn, was inhabited, in the Roman times, by the Silures, 
the Dem'etse, and the Ordovices. The last-named tribe possessed North 
Wales, and long bade defiance to the Roman power in their mountain 
fastnesses. The island of Mona (Anglesey), celebrated as the ancient 
seat of the Druids, belonged to the Ordovices. 

The inhabitants of the country beyond the Firths of Solway and the 
Forth were named M'etce and Caledonii, but, in a later age, the Picts 
and Scots. Juverna, or Hiber'nia [Ireland), was known only by name 
to the Romans. 

Three walls, strengthened by castles, were successively raised to 
check the incursions of the Picts and Scots by the emperors Adrian, 
Antoninus, and Severus. The last was the most important, according 
to Camden, who seems to have traced it with great care. It began at 
Blatobul'gium (Bulness), on the Irish sea, kept along the side of Solway 
Firth, by Burgh-upon-sands, to Lugoval'lum [Carlisle), where it passed 
the Ituna [Eden). Thence it was carried on over the little rivers Cam- 
beck, Living, and Poltrose, into the Northumbrian hills, along which it 
passed to the German ocean. This wall was about eight feet thick, 
and was protected by a ditch twelve yards broad. .•: ;.i 



ROMAN EMPIRE. 245 

When Britain was first visited by the Romans, the inhabitants had 
made considerable advances in civilization. Their country was well 
peopled and stocked with cattle ; their houses were as good as those 
of the Gauls, and they used iron and copper plates for money. They 
made little use of clothes, instead of which they painted and tattooed 
their skins. In war they made use of chariots, with sharp blades fixed 
to the axle-trees, which they drove at full speed against the hostile ranks. 
Their chief traflic was with the Gauls and the Phoenicians, who came 
to the Cassiter'ides (Scilli/ islands), for tin. Little is known respecting 
their religion, except that they were held in mental thraldom by a caste 
of priests named Druids, and that they were guilty of offering human 
sacrifices to their gods. Each tribe had its own king ; but in cases of 
emergency, a common chief was elected, who possessed, however, little 
more than a nominal authority. The most singular monument of the 
Druids remaining is Stonehenge in Wiltshire, a circular edifice of 
enormous stones, which probably was the national temple. Britain was 
finally abandoned by the Romans in the early part of the fifth century. 

Section IV. — Tfie Northern Provinces of the Empire. 

Italy, Greece, Sicily, Macedon, &;c., having been already described 
in former chapters, we shall conclude the accoimt of the Roman empire 
in Europe by a notice of the countries south of the Danube, which 
were formed into provinces during the reign of Augus'tus Caesar. 

Vindelic'ia was bounded on the north by the Danube, on the east by 
the vE'nus {Inn), on the west by Helvetia {Switzerland), and on the 
south by Rhae'tia : it derived its name from the river Vindo (the Wert). 
Its chief tribes were the Vindelic'ii and Brigan'tii. Two others are 
mentioned by Horace in his ode celebrating the conquest of this country 
by Tiberius and Drusus, addressed to Augus'tus ; — 

" Of late the Vmdelicians knew 

Thy skill ia arms, and felt thy sword. 
When Drusus the Genanni slew, 

And Brenni swift, a lawless horde. 
The towers which covered all around 
The rugged Alps' enormous height, 
. By him were levelled with the ground, 

And more than once confessed his might." 

Their principal towns were Augus'ta Vindelicorum {Augsburgh) and 
Brigan'tia [Bregenz], neither of which were remarkable in ancient his- 
tory. The principal rivers were the Vedo and the Ly'cus [Lech). 

Rhae'tia nearly coincided with the country now called the territory of 
the Grisons ; it had Vindelic'ia on the north, the JE'nus [Inn] on the 
east, the chain of the Alps from Lacus Verbanus {Logo Maggiore) to 
Lacus Brigaiitinus [Lake of Constance) on the south, and Helvetia on 
the west- The principal tribe were the Rhae'ti, whom some have identi- 
fied with the Rasena or ancient Etrurians. They were a brave, but 
cruel people ; and when they invaded Italy in the reign of Augus'tus 
Caesar, their ravages exceeded those that had been in earlier times per- 
petrated by the Gauls. 

The chief towns were Curia [Chur), which became the capital of the 



246 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

province in the reign of the emperor Adrian, Veldidena ( Wilden), and 
Tridentiim {Trent). 

Nor'icum, formerly a kingdom, but afterward a Roman province, ex- 
tended between the Danube and the Alpes Noriae in the neighborhood 
of Trent from the jE'nus {Inn) to Mons Cetius (Kohlenberg), and conse- 
quently included a great portion of modem Austria, the archbishopric 
of Saltzburgh, and all Styria and Carinthia. Its southern boundaries 
were the Julian Alps and the Savus (Save). Its chief cities were, in 
Nor'icum Ripense, or the part bordering on the Danube, Jovavum or 
Jovavia (Saltzburgh), Boiddrum (Innstadt), so named from the Boii,the 
most important of the Noric tribes ; Lentia {Lem) and Lauriacum 
(Larch). In the interior, or Noricum Mediterraneum, we find Pons 
^'ni {Innspruck), Vis'celli (Weltz), Graviacii (Gurch), Agun'tum 
(InnicJien), Teur'nia {Villach), and Sol'va, once the capital of the country, 
but long since buried in its ruins. 

Pannonia was divided "into Superior and Inferior. The former had 
the Danube on the east and north, the Ar'rabo (Raab) on the west, and 
the chain of Mons Cetius (Kahlenbkrg) on the south. It consequently 
comprehended Carniola, Croatia, Windesch, Mark, and part of Austria. 
Pannonia Inferior had the Ar'rabo on the north, the Danube on the east, 
and the Savus (Save) on the south. The chief cities were Seges'taor 
Sescia ( Siseck) on the Save ; Amona ( Unterlaubach), a Roman colony ; 
Naupor'tum (Oberlaubach), upon the river Naupor'tur (Laubach) ; Vin- 
doniana or Vindebona (Vienna), obscure in ancient times, but now the 
capital of the Austrian empire, Scaraban'tia (Scarbing) ; Mur'ss. (Esseg) ; 
Sir'mium (Sirmich), the ancient metropolis of Pannonia on the Save ; 
and Tauriinum {Belgrade), an important frontier fortress both in ancient 
and modern times. 

Moe'sia was the name given to the country between the conflux of the 
Save and Danube and the Euxine sea. It was divided into two unequal 
portions, Superior and Inferior. Moe'sia Superior was bounded on the 
north by the Danube, on the south by the Scordian mountains, on the 
west by Pannonia, and on the east by the river Cebrus (Ischia). Its 
chief cities were Singidunum (Semlin) and Nais'sus (Nissa). This 
province comprehended the countries now called Bosnia and Servia. 

Mce'sia Inferior, nearly coinciding with the modern Bulgaria, was 
bounded on the north by the Danube, on the west by the Cebrus, on the 
south by Mount Haemus {the Balkan), and on the east by the Euxine 
sea. Its chief cities were Odes'sus (Varna) and Tomi (Temesiour). 

The part of lower Moe'sia bordering on the Euxine was frequently 
named Pon'tus ; and hence, Tomi, the place of the poet Ovid's exile, is 
called a city of Pon^tus, though it did not belong to the kingdom of that 
name. Tomi is said to have derived its name from Medea's having cut 
her brother Absyr'tus to pieces in that place,* in order that her father's 
pursuit of her might be delayed, while he gathered the scattered limbs 
of his child. To this Ovid alludes in a well-known distich : — 

" Tomi its name from horrid murder bore. 
For there a brother's limbs a sister tore." 

• From rc^vo), to cut. 



ROMAN EMPIRE. S47 

North of the Danube was the province of Dacia, annexed to the Ro- 
man empire in the reign of Trajan. Some geographers describe it 
loosely as including all the country between the Borys'thenes {Dnieper) 
and the Dan'ube ; but its proper boundaries were Mon'tes Carp'atii 
{the Krapack chain) on the north, the Tibis'cus {Theiss) on the west, 
the Hier'asus {Pruth) on the east, and the Danube on the south. It 
consequently included Upper Hungary, Transylvania, Moldavia, and 
Wallachia. The inhabitants were called Getae by the Greeks, and 
Daci by the Romans : they possessed no city of importance. 

Thrace was long permitted to retain its own sovereigns, on the con- 
dition of acknowledging the supremacy of the Romans ; but in the 
reign of the Emperor Claudian it was reduced to the form of a province. 
It was nearly enclosed by the chain oi Mount Hee'mus and the sea. 
The principal cities of Thrace were the Greek colonies, which have 
already been noticed in a preceding chapter. 

Il'lyricum is a name sometimes given to all the countries south of the 
Danube, but it is properly applied only to the strip of land on the north- 
east coast of the Adriatic, from the Rhaetian Alps to the river Drinus 
(JDrino), and easterly to the Savus {Save). Its inhabitants were re- 
markable for their skill in naval architecture ; and infamous for their in- 
veterate attachment to piracy. Their chief cities were Salona, Epidau- 
rus (Ragusa), and Scodra {Scutari). 

Section V. — Asiatic and African Provinces. 

The Roman provinces in Anatolia were : 1, Asia, as the Romans with 
proud anticipations named the first cession of countrj'- made to them east 
of the ^gean : 2, Bithynia, together with Paphlagonia and part of 
Pon'tus : and 3, Cilicia, with Pisid'ia. These provinces were in gen- 
eral the most tranquil portion of the empire ; and the most peaceful, if 
not the most happy period, in the history of Asia Minor, was that during 
which it remained subject to Rome. No greater proof can be given of 
the wealth to which individuals attained, than that the sepulchres of 
private persons, like that of Icesius, discovered by Mr. Ainsworth, rival- 
led those of the ancient Pontic kings. The various divisions of Syria, 
Phoenicia, Palestine, and Commagene, for the purpose of government, 
can not easily be enumerated. At first, several states were permitted to 
retain a qualified independence ; but before the close of the first centu- 
ry of the Christian era, they were all absorbed in the empire. Arme- 
nia and Mesopotamia became provinces in the reign of Trajan, and 
part of Arabia paid nominal allegiance to that emperor ; but these 
acquisitions were abandoned in the reign of his successor. 

The African provinces were : 1, Egypt, which became a province 
after the battle of Actium : 2, Cyrenaica, which soon followed the fate 
of Egypt ; Crete was annexed to this government : 3, Numid'ia and 
Africa Proper, which were finally subdued by Julius Ceesar : and, 4, 
Mauretania, whose king was dethroned a. d. 41, and the country di- 
vided into two provinces, separated by the river Muluch^a (Mahala), 
called Csesarien'sis and Tingitania. The chief towns in Mauretania Cae- 
sarien'sis, were Igil'gilis (Zezeli), Sal'dee {Delluz), lom'nium {Algiers), 
Rususciicum {Koleah), Caesarea {Teunez), and Siga {Sigale). The most 



S4t ANCIENT HISTORY. 

remarkable tribe was the Massaesy'li, on the river Muluch^a, near the 
seacoast. 

Mauretania Tingitania derived its name from its chief city Tin'gis 
{Tangicrs), on the Fretum Gaditanum (Straits of Gibraltar). It con- 
tained also the towns and ports of Busadir (Mehlla), and Ab^yla ( Ceuta)^ 
in the Mediterranean. There were besides, on the Atlantic ocean, Zilis, 
or Julia Constantina (Arzillo) ; Ban'asa Valen'tia [Mckedund), and Sala 
[Sallce) : but these were scarcely kno^vn to the Romans until a very 
late period of the empire. The Gaetulians, first made known to the Ro- 
mans during the Jugurthine war, never were subdued by their armies ; 
but in later ages paid homage to the proconsul or praefect of Africa. 

Though the Romans had thus succeeded in Asia to the great commer- 
cial marts of the Phcenicians, Greeks, and Egyptians, and had acquired 
in Africa the ancient stations of the Carthaginians, they made little or 
no effort to encourage traffic. They do not seem to have opened a sin- 
gle new route for trade ; and under their government many of the an- 
cient highways of commerce, particularly in Asia, fell into disuse. 
One principal cause of this was, the distance of Rome from the chief 
trading stations in the eastern seas, by which the attention of the ruling 
powers was withdrawn from the great abuses that prevailed in the pro- 
vincial administration and colonial government. This appears evident 
from the vast improvement in the commerce between Europe and Asia, 
which took place immediately after the seat of government was trans- 
ferred from Rome to Byzantium (Constantinople) ; and, however some 
politicians may be disposed to blame the division of the empire, a slight 
glance at the nations that pressed on the frontiers of the Roman do- 
minions will show that the interests and dangers of the eastern and 
western empires were so very different, that the course of policy which 
suited the one would be injurious to the other. 

Section VI. — The Principal Nations on the Frontiers of the Empire. 

German y was a name loosely given by the Romans to all the coun- 
tries north of the Rhine and Danube. Sarmatia, in as uncertain a sense, 
was applied to the countries now called Poland and Lithuania ; while 
the greater part of the vast dominions of Russia in Europe and Asia 
were included under the general name of Scythia, and were almost 
wholly unknown in ancient times. In the northwest of Europe the 
countries about the Linus Codanus (Baltic sea), though probably visited 
in very ancient times by the enterprising Phoenicians, remained unvis- 
ited, or at least unexplored, by the Romans, who were never remarka- 
ble for their zeal in maritime discovery. Indeed, they seem to have 
regarded Scandinavia, or Scan'dia (Sweden), Nerigon (Norway), and 
Erin'gia, or Fumin'gia (Finland), as isles of the German ocean. 
When Britain was circumnavigated, the Or'cades [Orkney islands) were 
discovered : but, previous to that time, some indistinct account had 
been received of a distant island, named Thule, which some believe to 
have been one of the Zetland cluster, and others Iceland. 

The Germans took their name from their own language, Ghar-mans, 
signifying warlike men, or warriors ; for, like most savage tribes, they 
principally prided themselves on their military virtues. They were 



ROMAN EMPIRE. 249 

called in the earliest ages Cim'bri and Teutones by the Romans ; but 
it if not easy to determine whether these may not have been very dif- 
ferent races, accidentally united in a common migration. The Cim'bri 
gave their name to the Chersonesus Cim'brica (Jutland) ; from that of 
the Teutones the modern names Teutschen and Dutch have manifestly 
been derived. A confederation of several tribes, formed in the third 
century, took the name of Alleman'ni, or All-mans, that is, complete 
men, from which the French of the present day call Germany Alle- 
magne. 

It would be impossible, within our limits, to enumerate all the tribes 
of ancient Germany, but a few of the principal may be noticed. On 
the east bank of the Al'bis (Elbe), between that river and the Vistula, 
were the Cim'bri and Saxones, of whom the former were the most re- 
markable in ancient times, and the latter during the middle ages. West 
of the Al'bis were the upper and lower Chauci, divided from each 
other by the Visurgis (Weser) ; and the Fris'ii, separated from the 
Chauci by the river Amasia [Erus), whose territory still preserves the 
name of Friesland. The Marcoman'ni anciently possessed all the 
country between the sources of the Rhenus (Rhine) and the Is'ter, or 
Danubius (Danube) : they afterward fixed themselves in Bohemia and 
Moravia, and also in part of Gaul, driving the Boii before them. 

On this side of the Rhine, between that river and the Mosa (Maese), 
were the U'bii, who were invited by Agrip'pa to this country during the 
reign of Augus^tus. To commemorate this migration they named their 
capital Colonia Agrip'pina ( Cologne), in honor of their patron. Higher 
up the Rhine, and beyond the Mosella (Moselle) were the Treviri, 
whose chief city was Augusta Trevirorum (Triers), and some minor 
tribes, possessing the city of Argentoratum, or Argentinae (Strasburgh). 
The Hercynian forests and mountains, by which the Romans seem to 
have understood all the unexplored part of eastern Germany, appear to 
have been the original abode of the Quadi, the Suevi, and the Herman- 
duri, who became ver}^ formidable to the Romans in the age of Antoni- 
nes. The original seat of the Longobar'di, celebrated in Italy under 
the name of Lombards, was the upper part of the Elbe : they are said 
to have derived their national appellation from their " long barts," or 
spears ; but others think that they were so called from the length of 
their beards, or from having been formed by a coalition of the Lingones 
and Bar'di. Near the mouth of the Vistula Avere the Gep'idae ; and 
it is supposed that the first seat of the warlike Burgundians was on the 
same river ; but they, as well as the Semnones, had pushed forward to 
the Elbe in the first century of the Christian era. The iEs'tui, cele- 
brated for their trade in amber, resided on the coasts of the Baltic sea. 

Beside the Hercynian forest already mentioned, Germany contained 
Sylva Meliboe'a (the Hartz), Sylva Barcenia (the Black Forest), Sylva 
Sudeta (the Thuriugian Forest), and Sylva Cai'sia (Forest of Teutoberg). 
Most of the rivers have been already mentioned ; but we must notice 
the northern embouchure of the Rhine, called Flavum Os'tium ( Vlie), 
in the territory of the Batavians ; the I'sela (Isel), separating the Bruc- 
teri from the Fris'ii ; the Lupias (Lippe), in the territory of the Marsi; 
and the Viadrus (Oder), near whose source many authors place the 
original habitation of the Burgundians. 



250 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

In considering the state of ancient Germany, it must be borne in 
mind that the tribes frequently migrated from one quarter to another, 
especially after the second century of our era, and that the name of a 
principal tribe, such as that of the Suevi, was frequently given to a 
large confederation. This is particularly the case with the Franks 
(^free men), who were not so much a tribe, as a union of several hordes 
determined to maintain their national independence. 

The religion of the ancient Germans seems to have resembled that 
of the Gauls, except that it was rather more sanguinary, and that 
greater regard was paid to oracles and old prophetesses. Their chief 
deity was Odin, or Woden, their god of war, whose name is preserved 
in our Woden's day, or Wednesday. Their notion of future happiness 
was to sit for ever in Odin's presence, quaffing beer from the sculls of 
their enemies. This opinion is forcibly expressed in the death-song 
wliich Lodbrog sings for himself in the Edda : — 

" With flashing swords our might we proved ; 
But this my hearty laughter moved, 
That bliss eternal shall be mine 
Where the halls of Odin shine ; 
To him, great sire, my deeds are known. 
For me he has prepared a throne, 
Where richest ale incessant flows 
In the hollow sculls of foes. 
The brave man never shrinks at death, 
Gladly I resign my breath; 
No regrets my soul appal 
As I haste to Odin's hall." 

This is manifestly the creed of a savage race of warriors, and such 
all the Germans were ; they took no pleasure but in military weapons ; 
they never attended any festival or public assembly without arms ; and 
so sacred was the sword among them, that their most solemn oath was 
taken by kissing its naked blade. 

In Asia, the Roman empire was bounded by the wild tribes of the 
Caucasus, and the kingdoms of Armenia and Parthia. On the south it 
was limited by the unconquered Arabs, who defied every effort made to 
reduce them to obedience. 

India became known to the Romans after the conquest of Egypt ; 
and some efforts were made to establish an extensive commerce with 
that empire by the route of the Red sea, in the reigns of the later em- 
perors. It was divided into India Proper, or India at this side of the 
Ganges, whose western coast (^Malabar) appears to have been pretty 
well known ; and India beyond the Ganges, which included the Bur- 
man empire and the peninsula of Malacca. The extreme south of the 
Indian peninsula, called Regio Pandionis {the Carnatic), was said to 
have been the seat of a powerful and enlightened dynasty, whose capi- 
tal was Madura. Malacca was known as the Chersonesus Aurea 
(^goldfn peninsula) ; the island of Ceylon was called Taprobane or Sal'- 
ice, and that of Sumatra, Labodii or Hor'dei. 

The frontier races of the empire in Africa have been mentioned in 
the preceding section. 



ROMAN EMPIRE. 351 

Section VIT. — Topography of the City of Rome. 

Rome was originally built in a square form, whence it is called Roma 
Quadrata, on the Palatine hill. When the city was founded, and when 
it was at any subsequent period enlarged, the first care was to mark 
out the Pomog'rium, a consecrated space round the walls of the city on 
which it was unlawful to erect any edifice. This custom manifestly 
arose from the necessity of preventing besiegers from finding shelter 
near the fortifications ; and in this, as in a thousand other instances, the 
early legislators gave utility the sanction of superstition. A set form 
was prescribed for marking the Pomog'rium ; a bullock and heifer were 
yoked to a bronze or copper ploughshare, and a furrow was drawn 
marking the course of the future wall. The plough was so guided that 
all the sods fell to the inside, and if any went in an opposite direc- 
tion, care was taken that they should be turned into the proper way. 
As the plough was sacred, it would have been profanation if anything 
impure passed over the ground which it had once touched ; but as 
things clean and unclean must necessarily pass into a city, when the 
plough came to a place where the builders designed to place a gate, it 
was taken up, and carried to the spot where the wall was resumed. 
Hence the Latins named a gate porta, from the verb portare, to carry. 
The comitium, or place of public assembly, was next consecrated : the 
most remarkable part of this ceremony was the preparation of a vault, 
named mundus, in which were deposited the first-fruits of all things 
used to support life, and a portion of each colonist's native earth. To 
this structure many superstitious notions were attached ; it was sup- 
posed to be the entrance to the invisible world ; and it was opened three 
days in the year, with many solemn forms, to admit the spirits of the 
deceased. 

It is probable that the first extension of the Pomce'rium was occa- 
sioned by enclosing the Quirinal hill for the Sabines, when, under 
Tatius, they united themselves to the people of Rom'ulus. The next 
addition was the Coelian hill, on which the followers of Coe'les Viben'- 
na, whoever that Etruscan adventurer may have been, erected their 
habitation. Tul'lus Hos'tilius enclosed the Viminal hill after the de- 
struction of Al'ba, to which An'cus Mar'tius added the Aventine, which 
was regarded as the peculiar habitation of the plebeians. In the reign 
of the first Tar'quin, Rome was increased by the Esquiline and Capito- 
line ; these completed the number of the seven hills for which the city 
was celebrated. At a much later period the Pincian and Vatican 
mounts were added ; and these, with the Janic'ulum on the north bank 
of the Tiber, made the number ten. 

An'cus Mar'tius was the first who fortified the city with outworks, 
especially by raising a castle and garrison on the Janic'ulum, which 
Was connected with Rome by a wooden bridge [pons sublicms). But 
the elder Tar'quin was the first who beautified his capital with splen- 
did buildings, not only ornamental, but useful. To him the great sewer 
by which the city was drained, whose vast proportions still claim ad- 
miration, is generally attributed. 

Though Rome began to be more regularly built when it was re- 
stored after the departure of the Gauls, and many splendid edifices, 



252 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

both public and private, were erected, when weahh was so vastly in- 
creased as it must have been after the conquest of Carthage and west- 
ern Asia ; it could scarcely be called a splendid city before the reign 
of Augus'tus, who boasted that " he found it brick, and left it marble." 
When Corinth was subdued by Mum'mius, so little were the Romans 
acquainted with the fine arts, that many precious pieces of statuary 
were destroyed for the sake of their materials ; but from that time taste 
was improved by a more constant intercourse with the Greeks, es- 
pecially when Athens became the university of the empire. But the 
long civil wars between the aristocratic and democratic factions pre- 
vented the development of these improvements, until the battle of 
Ac'tium gave Rome tranquillity and a master. In the days of its great- 
est prosperity the circumference of Rome, enclosed by Avails, was about 
twenty miles ; but there were also very extensive suburbs. The city 
had thirty gates, some authors say more, of which the most remarkable 
were the Tergeminal, the Carmental, the Triumphal, and the Naval ; to 
which we may add the Capena, near the great aqueduct. 

The most remarkable buildings Avere the amphitheatres, the Capitol 
with its temples, the senate-house, and the forum. 

The first amphitheatre was the Cir^cus Max'imus, erected by Tar- 
quiidus Priscus ; but so enlarged by subsequent additions, that it Avas 
capable of containing two hundred thousand spectators. In the arena 
were exhibited the cruel fights of gladiators, in which the Romans took 
a pleasure equally infamous and extravagant, together with races, ex- 
hibitions of strange animals, and combats of wild beasts. A still larger 
edifice was erected for the same purpose in the reign of Vespasian, 
whose massive ruins are called the Colos'seum. Theatres, public 
baths, and buildings for the exhibition of naumachiae, or naval combats, 
were erected by the emperors, who seemed anxious to compensate the 
people for the loss of their liberty by the magnificence of their public 
shows and entertainments. 

The Capitol was commenced on the Satumian hill, which received 
the name Capitoline from a human head being found by the laborers 
digging the foundation, in the reign of Tarquin'ius Pris'cus. It was 
erected on the northern summit of the hill ; the rocky eminence to the 
south was called the Tarpeian cliif, to commemorate the treason of 
Tarpeia ; and public criminals were frequently executed by being pre- 
cipitated from its peak. The temple of Jupiter Capitolinus was usually 
regarded as the national sanctuary of the Romans : it was begun by 
Tarquin'ius Pris'cus, and finished by Tarquin'ius Super'bus, and it Avas 
almost yearly improved by the rich presents that successful generals 
and foreign princes, eager to conciliate the Romans, oflfered as A'otive 
gifts. Augus'tus alone presented gold and jewels exceeding five thou- 
sand pounds in value. During the civil wars between Marius and 
Sylla this temple was burnt to the ground ; but it was rebuilt with 
greater splendor ; and Cicero informs us, that the statue of Jupiter 
Capitolinus was erected on its pedestal at the very time that the con- 
spiracy of Cat'iline was discovered. It was destroyed twice again 
during the reigns of Vespasian and Domitian, but was restored each 
time with additional splendor. The Sibylline books, and other oracles, 
supposed to contain important predictions respecting the fate of the city, 



EOMAN EMPIEE, 253 

were preserved in the sanctuary, under the charge of fifteen persons of 
the highest rank, called the Quindecemviri. Here, also, were pre- 
served the chronological archives of the city. A nail was annually 
driven into the temple by the chief magistrate ; and this curious custom 
is supposed to have been the first rude mode of marking the lapse of 
time. 

There were several other temples on this hill, the most remarkable 
of which was that of Jupiter Feret'rius, erected by Rom'ulus where the 
spolia opima were deposited. The spolia opima were the trophies pre- 
sented by a Roman general who had slain the leader of the enemy with 
his own hand ; they were only thrice offered, by Rom'ulus, Cossus, and 
Marcellus. From the ferel'rum, or bier, on which these spoils were 
borne to the temple, the deity was called Feret'rius. 

The Capitol was the citadel of Rome, except in the reign of Numa, 
when the Quir'inal was chosen as the chief place of strength. This 
circumstance tends greatly to confirm Niebuhr's theory, that an ancient 
Sabine town, named Quir'ium, stood on that hill, which modern writers 
confounded with Cures : perhaps the double-faced Janus, whose temple 
was closed during peace, was the symbol of the united cities, and the 
opening of the temple gates was to enable the inhabitants of the one in 
time of war to assist the other. 

In the valley between the Palatine and Capitoline hills was the 
forum, or place of public assembly and great market. It was sur- 
rounded with temples, halls for the administration of justice, called 
baailkm, and public ofiices ; it was also adorned with statues erected in 
honor of eminent warriors and statesmen, and with various trophies 
from conquered nations. Among these memorials of conquest were 
several rostra, or prows of ships taken at Antium, which were used to 
ornament the pulpits from which the magistrates and public orators 
harangued the general assemblies of the people : from this custom the 
phrase " to mount the rostrum" originated. In the middle of the forum 
was a drained marsh, called the Curtian lake, to which a singular le- 
gend was attached. Traditions recorded that an immense chasm had 
suddenly opened in this place, which the augurs declared could not be 
closed until the most precious things in Rome were thrown into it. 
Cur'tius, a Roman knight, armed and mounted, leaped into the yawning 
pit, declaring that nothing was more valuable than courage and patriot- 
ism ; after which it is added that the fissure closed. A much more 
probable account is, that the place derived its name from a Sabine 
general named Cur'tius, smothered there while the place was as yet a 
swamp. 

In the forum was the celebrated temple of Janus, built entirely of 
bronze, supposed to have been erected during the reign of Numa. Its 
gates were only closed three times in eight centuries, so incessant were 
the wars in which the Romans were engaged. Not far from this was 
the temple of Concord, in which the senate frequently assembled : 
storks were encouraged to build in the roof of the edifice, on account 
of the social instincts attributed to those birds. In the same quarter 
of the city was the temple of Yes'ta, where a perpetual fire was main- 
tained by the Vestal virgins : in it were said to be preserved the Palla- 



354 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

diiim, or sacred image of Pal'Ias Min'erva, on which the fate of Troy 
depended, and other relics consecrated by superstition. 

The senate-house was above the pulpits belonging to the public 
orators : it was said to have been originally erected by Tul'lus Hostil'- 
ius : but the senate had several other places of meeting, frequently as- 
sembling in the temples. Near it was the comitium, or court in which 
the patrician ciiri(B were convened : it was not roofed until the end of 
the second Punic war, soon after which the comilia curidta fell grad- 
ually into disuse. This space, before it was covered, was called a 
temple ; because templum properly signifies not merely an edifice, but 
an enclosure consecrated by the augurs. The principal theatres and 
public baths were erected in this vicinity. 

The elections of magistrates, reviews of troops, and the census or 
registration of the citizens, were held in the Cam'pus Mar'tius, which 
was also the favorite exercise-ground of the young nobles. It was 
originally a large common, which had formed part of the estate of the 
younger Tar'quin, and being confiscated after the banishment of that 
monarch, was dedicated to the god of war, because the Romans be- 
lieved Mars to be the father of their founder. It long remained un- 
improved ; but in the reign of Augus'tus it began to be surrounded by 
several splendid edifices ; ornamental trees and shrubs were planted in 
different parts, and porticoes erected, under which the citizens might 
continue their exercises in rainy weather. Most of these improvements 
were due to Mar'cus Agrip'pa, the best general and wisest statesman 
in the court of Augus'tus. He erected, near the Cam'pus Martins, the 
celebrated Pantheon, or temple of all the gods ; the most perfect and 
splendid monument of ancient Rome that has survived the ravages of 
time.* At present it is used as a Christian church, and is universally 
admired for its circular form, and the beautiful dome that forms its roof. 
Near the Pantheon were the gardens and public baths, which Agrip'pa 
at his death bequeathed to the Roman people. 

Perhaps no public edifices at Rome were more remarkable than the 
aqueducts for supplying the city with water. Pure streams were sought 
at a great distance, and conveyed in these artificial channels, supported 
by arches, many of which were more than a hundred feet high, over 
steep moimtains, deep valleys, and, what was still more difficult, dan- 
gerous morasses, which less enterprising architects would have deemed 
insuperable. The first aqueduct was erected during the censorship of 
Ap'pius Cae'cus, about four hundred years after the foundation of the 
city ; but under the emperors not fewer than twenty of these stupendous 
and useful structures were raised, which brought such an abundant 
supply of water to the metropolis, that rivers seemed to flow through 
the streets and sewers. Even at the present day, when only three of 
the aqueducts remain, after the lapse of centuries, the neglect of rulers, 
and the ravages of barbarians, no city in Europe has a better supply of 
wholesome water than Rome. 

It would be tedious to enumerate all the public buildings that deco- 
rated " the Eternal City ;" we may therefore conclude by observing, 
that Rome, when in the zenith of its glory, contained four hundred and 

• The Collosseum in the Regeut's Park is built on the model of the Pantheon. 



EOMAN EMPIRE. 255 

twenty temples, five regular theatres, two amphitlieatres, and seven cir- 
cuses of vast extent : there were sixteen public baths, built of marble, 
and furnished with every convenience that could be desired. From 
the aqueducts a prodigious number of fountains were supplied, many 
of which were remarkable for their architectural beauty. The pala- 
ces, public halls, columns, porticoes, and obelisks, were without num- 
ber ; and to these must be added the triumphal arches erected by the 
later emperors. 

The public roads in the various parts of the empire, but more espie- 
cially in Italy, though less ostentatious than the aqueducts, were not 
inferior to them in utility and costliness. Of these the most remarka- 
ble was the Appian road, from Rome to Brundusium, through the 
Pomptine marshes, which were kept well drained during the flourish- 
ing ages of the empire, but by subsequent neglect became a pestilential 
swamp. This road extended three hundred and fifty miles, and was 
paved through its entire length with enormous square blocks of hard 
stone. Nineteen centuries have elapsed since it was formed, and yet 
many parts of it still appear nearly as perfect as when it was first 
made. 

Rome was inferior to Athens in architectural beauty, but it far sur- 
passed it in works of public utility. Every succeeding emperor deemed 
it necessary to add something to the edifices that had been raised for 
the comfort and convenience of the citizens : even after the seat of 
government had been transferred to Constantinople, we find the son of 
Constantine evincing his gratitude for the reception he met with in the 
ancient capital, by sending thither two magnificent obelisks from Alex- 
andria in Egypt. 



256 ANCIENT HISTORY. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

HISTORY OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 

Section I. — The. Reigns of the Family of the Ccesars. 

FROM B. C. 30 TO A. D. 96. 

Though the battle of Ac'tium made Octavius Caesar sole sovereiga 
of the empire, the forms of the republic were faithfully preserved ; the 
senate sat as a council of state, and, though little weight was attached 
to its deliberations, the freedom of speech and comment preserved the 
government from sinking into absolute despotism. With supreme 
power, Octavius, or Augus'tus, as he was about this time named by the 
senate, assumed an entirely new character ; the cruelty with which he 
may justly be reproached in the early part of his career disappeared ; 
he became a mild and merciful ruler, truly anxious to insure the happi- 
ness of the people intrusted to his charge. Under such a benignant 
administration, the Romans ceased to regret their ancient freedom, if, 
indeed, such a term can be applied to the oppressive government estab- 
lished by the aristocracy during the preceding century ; and before the 
close of the first emperor's reign, the last traces of the republican spirit 
had disappeared. It is said that Augus'tus at first wished to resign bis 
power, after the example of Syl'la ; but was dissuaded by his friends 
Agrip'pa and Mecse'nas, who represented to him, with great truth, that 
the Roman state could no longer be governed by its old constitution, 
and that, he would retire only to make room for another master. He 
went through the form, however, of an abdication in the senate ; but, 
on the urgent request of that body, he resumed his sway ; instead, 
however, of taking the supreme authority for life, he would only accept 
it for a term of ten years. This example was followed by the succeed- 
ing emperors, and gave rise to the sacra deceniidlia, festivals celebrated 
at each renewal of the imperial authority. 

Amid all the adulations of the senate and people, Augus'tus felt that 
it was to the army he was indebted for empire, and therefore exerted 
himself diligently to attach the soldiers to his interest. He dispersed 
his veterans over Italy in thirty-two colonies, dispossessing, in many 
places, the ancient inhabitants, to make room for these settlers. He 
maintained seventeen legions in Europe ; eight on the Rhine, four on 
the Danube, three in Spain, and two in Dalmatia. Eight more were 
kept in Asia and Africa : so that the standing army of the empire 
exceeded one hundred and seventy thousand men. Twelve cohorts, 



EOMAN EMPIRE. 257 

amounting to about ten thousand men, were quartered in Rome and its 
vicinity ; nine of these, called the praetorian bands, were intended to 
protect the emperor's person, the others were destined for the guard of 
the city. These household troops became afterward the author of many 
changes and revolutions, until they were all dismissed by Constantine 
the Great (a. d. 312). Two powerful fleets were established in the 
Italian seas ; one at Ravenna, to guard the Adriatic, the other at Mise- 
num, to protect the western Mediterranean. It is calculated that the 
revenues of the empire at this time exceeded forty millions sterling ; 
but this sum was not more than sufficient to defray the expenses of the 
civil, naval, and military establishments, and of the public works un- 
dertaken to adorn the metropolis. 

Some disturbances in Spain and Gaul induced the emperor to cross 
the Alps and Pyrenees ; he subdued the Cantabrians, who inhabited 
the province now called Biscay (a country whose mountains and defiles 
have always proved formidable obstacles to an invading army), and the 
Asturians. To restrain these tribes in future, he erected several new 
fortified cities, of which the most remarkable were Caesarea Augus^ta 
(Saragossa) and Augus'ta Emer'ita (Merida), so called because it was 
colonized by the veteran soldiers (emeriti). While resting at Tar'raco 
(Tarragona) from the fatigues of his campaign, Augus'tus received am- 
bassadors from the most remote nations, the Scythians, the Sarmatians, 
the Indians, and even the Seres, who inhabited northern China. 

On his recovery from a fit of illness which spread universal alarm 
throughout the empire, the senate conferred the tribuneship for life 
upon Augus'tus, which rendered his person sacrosanct. This dignity 
was henceforth annexed to the empire, and consequently all attempts 
against the life of the sovereign became high treason [Icesa majestas). 
At the same time he declined the title of dictator, which had been ren- 
dered odious by the cruelties of SyFla. Having made a tour in the 
east of the empire, he was overwhelmed with adulations by the degen- 
erate Greeks (b. c. 20) ; but the honor most gratifying to him and the 
Roman people was the restoration of the standards that had been taken 
from Cras'sus. On his return to Italy, he drove back the Rhsetians, 
who had invaded the peninsula, and intrusted their subjugation to Tibe- 
rius and Drusus Nero, his step-sons, youths of great promise and 
valor. They succeeded in conquering Vindelicia and Nor'icum ; but 
their efforts to subdue Germany were baffled by the undaunted valor 
of the native tribes, and the great difficulties of the country, whose 
forests and marshes rendered discipline unavailing. 

When the second decennial period of the imperial authority termina- 
ted, Augus'tus, harassed by domestic calamities, as well as the cares of 
empire, seemed really anxious to resign, and enjoy the quiet of domes- 
tic life ; but the character of Tiberius, now generally regarded as his 
successor, gave so much alarm to the senate and people, that they 
cordially joined in supplicating the emperor to continue his reign. The 
greatest calamity he had to endure was the disgraceful conduct of his 
daughter Julia, whose scandalous debaucheries filled Rome with horror ; 
she and the partners of her crimes were banished to various parts of the 
empire, and some of her paramours were put to death. 

When peace was established in every part of the Roman dominions, 

17 



258 ANCIENT HISTORY- 

Augus'tus closed the temple of Janus, and issued a decree for a general 
census, or enrolment, of all his subjects. It was at this period that 
Jesus Christ was born ; and thus, literally, was his advent the signal of 
" on earth peace, and good will toward men." 

The great prosperity of the reign of Augus'tus was first interrupted 
by the rebellion of the Germans, which the extortions of Quintil'ius 
Var'us provoked. Armin'ius, a young prince of the Cat'ti, vmited his 
countrymen in a secret confederacy ; and then, pretending friendship to 
Var'us, conducted him into the depths of a forest, where his troops 
could neither fight nor retreat. In this situation Armin'ius attacked the 
Romans, from whose camp he stole by night, and so harassed them that 
most of the officers slew themselves in despair (a. d. 10). The legion- 
aries, thus left without leaders, were cut to pieces ; and thus the 
Romans received the greatest overthrow that they had suflfered since the 
defeat of Cras'sus. When the neAVs of this calamity was brought to 
Rome, everybody expected that the Germans would imntediately cross 
the Rhine, and advance against the city, Augus'tus, though over- 
whelmed with sorrow, made every exertion to allay the general con- 
sternation : he sent his son-in-law and heir, Tiberius, to guard the 
Rhine ; but he prohibited him from following the wild tribes to their 
fastnesses. For several months the emperor abandoned himself to 
transports of grief, during which he frequently exclaimed, " Var'us, re- 
store me my legions !" and he observed the fatal day as a mournful so- 
lemnity until his death. This event probably tended to hasten his 
dissolution ; he was seized with a dangerous attack of illness at Naples, 
and as he Avas returning home to the capital, the disease compelled him 
to stop at Nola, in Campania, where he expired (a. d. 14). It was cur- 
rently reported that the empress Liv'ia accelerated his death by admin- 
istering poisoned figs, in order to secure the succession for Tiberius. 

Tiberius Claudius Nero, or, as he was called after his adoption, 
Augus'tus Tiberius Cse'sar, commenced his reign by procuring*the 
murder of young Agrip'pa, grandson of the late emperor, whom he 
dreaded as a formidable rival. As soon as his accession was known at 
Rome, the consuls, senators, and knights, ran headlong into slavery, 
pretending to hail Tiberius with extravagant joy, while they professed 
equally extravagant sorrow for the loss of Augus'tus. Tiberius met 
them with duplicity equal to their own : he affected to decline the sov- 
ereign power ; but, after long debates, allowed himself to be won over 
by the general supplications of the senators. Having bound himself 
by oath never to depart from the regulations of his predecessor, he ex- 
erted himself to win the affections, or rather disarm the suspicions, of 
the virtuous German'icus, whom Augus'tus had compelled him to declare 
his heir. But the jealousies of the emperor were greatly aggravated 
by a mutiny of the troops in Germany, who offered to raise German'icus 
to the throne ; and though he firmly refused, and severely rebuked their 
disloyalty, yet Tiberius thenceforth was resolved upon his destruc- 
tion. The glory which the young prince acquired in several successful 
campaigns against the Germans, at length induced the emperor to recall 
him to Rome, under the pretence of rewarding him with a triumph. 
But Tiberius soon became anxious to remove from Rome a person whose 
mildness and virtue were so powerfully contrasted with his own tyraimy 



EOMAN EMPIRE. 259 

and debauchery : he appointed him governor of the eastern provinces ; 
but at the same time he sent Piso, with his infamous v(rife Plancina, into 
Syria, secretly instructing them to thwart German'icus in all his under- 
takings. The wicked pair obeyed these atrocious commands ; and the 
brave prince, after undergoing many mortifications, at last sunk under 
them. Attacked by a severe disease, aggravated by suspicions of Piso's 
treachery, whom he believed to have compassed his death by magic or 
by poison, he sent for his wife Agrippina ; and having besought her to 
humble her haughty spirit for the sake of their children, expired, to the 
general grief of the empire (a. d. 19). His ashes were brought to 
Rome by Agrippina ; and though she arrived in the very middle of the 
Saturnalia, the mirth usual at that festival was laid aside, and the whole 
city went into mourning. 

In the early part of his reign Tiberius had affected to imitate the 
clemency of Augus'tus ; but he soon began to indulge his natural cruelty, 
and many of the most eminent nobles were put to death under pre- 
tence of high treason. The emperor's depravity was exceeded by that 
of his minister, the infamous Sejanus, whose name has passed into a 
proverb. This ambitious favorite secretly aspired at the empire, and 
applied himself to win the favor of the praetorian guards : he is also ac- 
cused of having procured the death of Drusus, the emperor's son, and 
of having tried to destroy Agrippina and her children. But his most 
successful project was the removal of Tiberius from Rome, persuading 
him that he would have more freedom to indulge his depraved passions 
in Campania than in the capital. The emperor chose for his retreat 
the little island of Cap'rege, where he wallowed in the most disgusting 
and unnatural vices : while Sejanus, with an entire army of spies and 
informers, put to death the most eminent Romans after making them 
undergo the useless mockery of a trial. Tiberius, however, soon began 
to suspect his minister, and secret warnings were given him of the 
dangerous projects that Sejanus had formed. It was apparently neces- 
sary, however, to proceed with caution, and the emperor felt his way 
by withdrawing some of the honors he had conferred. Finding that the 
people gave no signs of discontent, Tiberius sent the commander of the 
praetorian guards privately to Rome with a letter to the senate, instruct- 
ing him to inform Sejanus that it contained an earnest recommendation 
to have him invested with the tribunitian power. The minister, deceived 
by this hope, hastily convened the senate, and on presenting himself to 
that body, was surrounded by a horde of flatterers, congratulating him 
on his new dignity. But when the fatal epistle was read, in which he 
was accused of treason, and orders given for his arrest, he was imme- 
diately abandoned, and those who had been most servile in their flat- 
teries became loudest in their invectives and execrations. A hurried 
decree was passed condemning him to death, and was put in execution 
the very same day ; a general slaughter of his friends and relations fol- 
lowed ; his innocent children, though of very tender years, were put to 
death with circumstances of great barbarity ; and the numerous statues 
that had been erected to his honor were broken to pieces by the fickle 
multitude. This memorable example of the instability of human gran- 
deur is powerfully described by Juvenal, in his satire on the Vanity of 
Human Wishes. The passage is thus translated by Dryden : — 



•260 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

" Some asked for envied power, which public hate 
Pursues and hurries headlong to their fate ; 
I>own go the titles, and the statue crowned 
Is by base hands in the next river drowned. 
The guiltless horses and the chariot-wheel 
The same effects of vulgar fury feel : 
The smith prepares his hammer for the stroke. 
While the lunged bellows hissing fire provoke ; 
Sejanus, almost first of Roman names, 
The great Sejanus crackles in the flames ! 
Formed in the forge the pliant brass is laid 
On anvils : and of head and limbs are made 
Pans, cans, and gridirons, a whole kitchen trade. 

Adorn your doors with laurel ; and a bull. 
Milk-white and large, lead to the Capitol ; 
Sejanus, with a rope, is dragged along. 
The sport and laughter of the giddy throng I 
' Good Lord,' they cry, ' what Ethiop lips he bears ! 
See what a hang-dog face the scoundrel wears ! 
By Jove, I never could endure his sight ; — 
But, say, how came his monstrous crimes to light ? 
What is the charge, and who the evidence ? 
The savior of the nation and the prince ?' — 
' Nothing of this ; but our old Ceesar sent 
A tedious letter to his parliament.' — 
' Nay, sirs, if Caesar wrote, I ask no more ; 
He's guilty, and the question's out of door.' 
How goes the mob ! for that's a mighty thing — 
When the king's trump, the mob are for the king : 
They follow fortune, and the common cry 
Is still against the rogue condemned to die. 

But the same very mob, that rascal crowd. 
Had cried Sejanus, with a shout as loud^ 
Had his designs by fortune's favor blest. 
Succeeded, and the prince's age opprest." 

The cruelty of Tiberius was increased tenfold after the removal of 
his favorite ; the least circumstance rendered him suspicious ; and when 
once a noble was suspected, his fate was sealed. In all his extravagan- 
cies he was supported by the servile senate ; and this body, once so 
independent, never ventured even to remonstrate against his sanguinary 
decree?. At length, continued debauchery undermined the emperor's 
constitution : but with the usual weakness of licentious sovereigns, he 
endeavored to disguise the state of his health, not merely from his 
court, but his physicians. At length, finding death approach very 
rapidly, he bequeathed the empire to Cams Calig'ula, the only surviving 
son of his nephew and victim German'icus. It is said that he chose 
this prince, though well aware of his natural depravity, that his own 
reign might be regretted, when contrasted with the still more sanguinary 
rule of his successor. Soon after having signed his will, Tiberius was 
seized with a fainting fit, and the courtiers, believing him dead, hastened 
to offer their homage to Calig'ula ; but the emperor rallied, and there 
was reason to fear his vengeance. Mac'ro, the commander of the 
guards, averted the danger by smothering the weak old man with a 
weight of coverings, under pretence of keeping him warm (a. d. 37). 
In this reign, though the forms of the constitution were retained, its 
spirit and substance were completely altered ; the government became 



ROMAN EMPIRE. 261 

a complete despotism ; and the only use of the senate was to register 
the edicts of the sovereign. While Tiberius was emperor, Jesus Christ 
was crucified in Judea, under the propraetorship of Pontius Pilate 
(a. d. 33). It is said, but on very doubtful authority, that Tiberius, 
having received an account of his miracles, wished to have him en- 
rolled among the gods, but that his designs were frustrated by the op- 
position of the senate. 

Caius, sumamed Calig'ula from the military boots {caUff<B) which he 
was accustomed to wear, was received on his accession with the 
utmost enthusiasm by both the senate and the people, on account of the 
great merits of his father German'icus. He began his reign by libera- 
ting all the state prisoners, and dismissing the whole horde of spies and 
informers whom Tiberius had encouraged. By these and other similar 
acts of generosity, he became so popular, that when he was attacked 
by sickness, the whole empire was filled with sorrow, and innumerable 
sacrifices were offered in every temple for his recovery. This sickness 
probably disordered his brain, for in his altered conduct after his resto- 
ration to health there appears fully as much insanity as wickedness. 
Young Tiberius, whom he had adopted, was his first victim ; he then 
ordered all the prisoners in Rome to be thrown to wild beasts without 
a trial. But Calig'ula was not satisfied with simple murder ; it was his 
fiendish pleasure to witness the sufferings of his victims, and protract 
their tortures, in order that they might, as he said, feel themselves 
dying. Finding no one dare to oppose his sanguinary caprices, he 
began to regard himself as something more than a mere mortal, and to 
claim divine honors ; and finally, he erected a temple to himself, and 
instituted a college of priests to superintend his own worship. A less 
guilty but more absurd proceeding was the reverence he claimed for his 
favorite horse Incitatus, whom he frequently invited to dine at the im- 
perial table, where the animal fed on gilt oats, and drank the most 
costly wines from jewelled goblets. It is even said that nothing but 
his death prevented him from raising this favorite steed to the consul- 
ship. While the whole city was scandalized by his outrageous licen- 
tiousness, men were suddenly astounded to hear that the emperor had 
resolved to lead an army against the Germans in person, and the most 
extensive preparations were made for his expedition. As might have 
been expected, the campaign was a mere idle parade ; and Calig'ula, 
notwithstanding, claimed the most extravagant honors ; and finding the 
senate slower in adulation than he expected, seriously contempla- 
ted the massacre of the entire body. At length the Romans became 
weary of a monster equally wicked and ridiculous ; a conspiracy was 
formed for his destruction ; and he was slain in one of the passages of 
the Cir'cus by Chserea, the captain of the praetorian guards (a. d. 40). 
His body lay a long time exposed, but was finally interred like that of 
a slave : his wife and infant child were murdered by the conspirators, 
who dreaded future vengeance. 

Claudius, the brother of German'icus and uncle of the late emperor, 
a prince of weak intellect, was raised to the throne by the conspirators, 
whose choice was sanctioned by the senate. The unfortunate idiot, 
thus placed at the head of the empire, was during his entire reign the pup- 
pet of worthless and wicked favorites, among whom the most infamous 



262 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

were the empress Messalina and Agrippina, the eunuch Posides, and 
the freedinen Pal'las and Narcis'sus. His reign commenced with the 
punishment of those who had conspired against Cahg'ula : they were 
slain, not for the crime they had committed, but because they were sus- 
pected of a design to restore the ancient constitution. Notwithstanding 
his weakness, Claudius undertook an expedition into Britain, where 
the native tribes were wasting their strength in mutual wars, and he 
commenced a series of campaigns which eventually led to the complete 
subjugation of the southern part of the island. The senate granted him 
a magiiihcent triumphal procession on his return ; and Messalina, whose 
infidelities were now notorious, accompanied the emperor in a stately 
chariot during the solemnity. The cruelty of the empress was as great 
as her infamy : at her instigation Claudius put to death some of the 
most eminent nobles, and the confiscation of their fortunes supplied her 
with money to lavish on her paramours. At length she proceeded to 
such an extravagant length, that she openly married Sil'ius, one of her 
adulterers ; and Narcis'sus, whom she had displeased, gave the em- 
peror private information of her guilt, and she was slain in the gardens 
which had been the chief theatre of her crimes. 

Soon after the death of Messalina, Claudius married his niece Agrip- 
pina, the widow of Domitius Ahenobar'bus, by whom she had one son, 
originally called after his father, but better known in history by the 
name of Nero. The new empress did not, like her predecessor, render 
the state subservient to her amours, but she gTasped at povper to indulge 
her insatiable avarice, boundless ambition, and unparalleled cruelty. 
She ruled the emperor and the empire, appeared with him in the senate, 
sat on the same throne during all public ceremonies, gave audience to 
foreign princes and ambassadors, and even took a share in the admin- 
istration of justice. She at length prevailed upon Claudius to adopt her 
child Domitius (Nero), and constitute him heir of the sovereignty, in 
preference to his own son Britan'nicus. But Claudius showing some 
signs of an intention to change the succession again, Agrippina pro- 
cured him to be poisoned by his favorite eunuch and the state physician 
(a. d. 54). Having previously gained over Bur'rhus, the captain of the 
praetorian guards, to her interest, the empress concealed her husband's 
death until she had secured the army in favor of her son, rightly judging 
that the senate would confirm the choice of the soldiers. 

Nero Claudius Cae'sar had been nurtured in the midst of crimes, and 
educated for the stage rather than the state ; he was still a youth of 
seventeen, and he looked on the empire as only an extensive field for 
the indulgence of his passions. He soon 'became weary of his mother's 
imperious rule ; and Agrippina, finding herself neglected, threatened to 
restore the crown to Britan'nicus. This was the signal for the destruc- 
tion of that young prince : poison was administered to him by one of 
the emperor's emissaries, and a few hours after his death, his body was 
borne to the pile ; for so little care had the emperor of concealing his 
share in the murder, that the preparations for the prince's funeral were 
made before the poison was administered. An infamous woman, Pop- 
pae'a Sabina, who had abandoned her husband to live in adultery with 
the emperor, stimulated Nero to still greater crimes. Persuaded that 
during the lifetime of Agrippina she could not hope to remove Octavia, 



TIOMAN EMPIRE. 263 

Nero's wife, and become herself a partner in the empire, she urged her 
paramoiir, by every means in her power, to the murder of his mother. 
Nero himself was anxious to remove one whom he so greatly feared ; 
but he dreaded the resentment of the Romans, who, in spite of her 
crimes, reverenced the last representative of the family of German'icus. 
After various attempts to destroy her secretly had failed, a body of 
armed men were sent to her house, and she was murdered in her bed. 
A labored apology for this matricide was soon after published, which, 
it is painful to learn, was composed by the philosopher Sen'eca. 

The death of Bu/rhus, whether by poison or disease is uncertain, led 
to a great deterioration of Nero's character ; for the influence of that 
able statesman had restrained the emperor from many extravagances 
in which he was anxious to indulge. Tigellinus, a wretch infamous 
for all the crimes that are engendered by cruelty and lust, became the 
nevv minister ; and Nero no longer kept within the bounds of ordinary 
decency. Sen'eca was banished from the court ; the empress Octavia 
was divorced, and afterward murdered ; finally, Poppse'a was publicly 
married to the emperor. A tour through Italy gave Nero an opportunity 
of appearing as a singer on the stage at Naples, and he was excessively 
gratified by the applause with which the Neapolitans and some Alex- 
andrians fed his vanity- Soon after his return to Rome, a dreadful con- 
flagration, which lasted nine days, destroyed the greater part of the 
city ; and it was generally believed that the fire had been kindled by 
the emperor's orders. Upon the ruins of the demolished city Nero 
erected his celebrated golden palace, which seems to have been more 
remarkable for its vast extent, and the richness of the materials used in 
its construction, than for the taste or beauty of the architectural design. 
To silence the report of his having caused the late calamity, Nero 
transferred the guilt of the fire to the new sect of the Christians, whose 
numbers were rapidly increasing in every part of the empire. A cruel 
persecution commenced ; first, all who openly acknowledged their con- 
nexion with the sect were arrested and tortured : then from their ex- 
torted confessions, thousands of others were seized and condemned, not 
for the burning of the city, but on the still more ludicrous charge of 
hatred and enmity to mankind. Their death and torture were ag- 
gravated with cruel derision and sport ; for they were either covered 
with the skins of wild beasts, and torn to pieces by devouring dogs, or 
fastened to crosses, or wrapped up in combustible garments, that when 
the daylight failed, they might serve, like torches, to illuminate the dark- 
ness of the night. For this tragical spectacle Nero lent his own gar- 
dens, and exhibited at the same time the public diversions of the circus ; 
sometimes driving a chariot in person, and sometimes standing among 
the people as a spectator, in the habit of a charioteer. 

The extravagant expenses of the golden palace, the restoration of 
the city, the emperor's luxuries, and the entertainments given to the 
people, exhausted the exchequer, and led to a system of plunder and 
extortion which nearly caused the dissolution of the empire. Not only 
Italy, but all the provinces, the several confederate nations, and all the 
cities that had the title of free, were pillaged and laid waste. The 
temples of the gods and the houses of individuals were equally stripped 
of their treasures ; but still enough could not be obtained to support the 



264 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

emperor's bounoiess prodigality. At length a conspiracy was formed 
for his destruction by Cneius Piso, in which the greater part of the Ro- 
man nobility engaged. It was accidentally discovered ; and Nero 
eagerly seized such a pretence for giving loose to his sanguinary dispo- 
sitions. Among the victims were the philosopher Sen'eea, the poet 
Lucan, Piso, and most of the leading nobles. In the midst of the 
massacres, Nero appeared on the stage as a candidate for the prize of 
music which of course he obtained. About the same time he killed 
the empress Poppae'a by kicking her while pregnant. 

It may appear strange that such repeated atrocities should not have 
driven the Roman people to revolt ; but the lower classes felt nothing 
of the imperial despotism, and did not sympathize with the calamities 
of the nobles, because the ancient oppressions of the aristocracy were 
still remembered. They were, besides, gratified by a monthly distribu- 
tion of corn, by occasional supplies of wine and meat [conjiaria et 
evisceraliones), and by the magnificent shows of the circus (munera). 
In fact, the periods of tyranny were the golden days of the poor ; and 
Nero was far more popular with the rabble than any statesman or general 
of the republic had ever been. 

Not satisfied with his Italian fame, Nero resolved to display his mu- 
sical skill at the Olympic games, and for this purpose passed over into 
Greece. The applauses he received in his Lour from the spectators so 
gratified him, that he declared " the Greeks alone perfectly understand 
music." He transmitted a particular account of his victories to the sen- 
ate, and ordered thanksgivings and sacrifices to be offered for them in 
every temple throughout the empire. That no monuments of other vic- 
tors might remain, he commanded all their statues to be pulled down, 
dragged through the streets, and either dashed to pieces, or thrown into 
the common sewers. While he was thus engaged, the dreadful rebel- 
lion, which destroyed the Jewish nation, commenced in Palestine : Ces'- 
tius Gal'lus, the governor of Syria, ha\dng been defeated in an attempt 
to besiege Jerusalem, the conduct of the war was intrusted to the cele- 
brated Vespasian. Though Nero had been greatly delighted by the ex- 
cessive adiilations of the Achaeans, he did not abstain from plundering 
their country ; and A'chaia suffered more from his peaceful visit than 
from the .open war of Mum'mius or Sylia. 

Soon after the emperor's return to Rome, fonnidable insurrections 
burst forth in the western provinces, occasioned by the excessive taxa- 
tion to which they were subjected. Julius Vin'dex, descended from the 
ancient kings of Aquitain, was the first to raise the standard of revolt 
in Celtic Gaul, of which he was governor. Gal'ba soon after was pro- 
claimed emperor in Spain by his soldiers, and was supported by O'tho, 
the governor of Lusitania. Nero was not much disturbed by the re- 
bellion of Vin'dex ; but the hostility of Gal'ba filled him with conster- 
nation. He was, however, consoled for a time by the intelligence of 
the defeat of the Gauls, who were so completely overthrown by Vir- 
ginius, the imperial lieutenant, that Vin'dex slew himself in despair. 
Gal'ba would now have been ruined, had not Nymphid'ius, Avhom Nero 
had appointed the colleague of Tigellinus, seduced the praetorian guards 
to renounce their allegiance. The emperor was immediately abandoned 
by all his ministers and servants ; he fled from Rome, and sought refuge 



ROMAN EMPIRE. 265 

in the house of Phaon, one of his freedmen. Here he soon learned 
that he had been declared an enemy to the state, and sentenced to be 
executed according to ancient custom {more majorum). Inquiring the 
nature of this pimishment he was informed that he was to be placed 
in a pillory, and beaten to death with rods (a. d. 68). At the prospect 
of such a cruel fate he was filled with horror, and declared that he 
would commit suicide ; but his courage failed when he was about to use 
the dagger. At length, hearing the galloping of the horse sent to ar- 
rest him, he requested the aid of his freedman Epaphroditus, and re- 
ceived a mortal wound. He was not quite dead when the centurion, 
sent by the senate, arrived, and endeavored to stop the blood. Nero, 
looking at him sternly, said, " It is too late. Is this your fidelity ?" and 
soon after expired. His body was interred privately, but honorably ; 
and many of the lower ranks, whose favor he had won by his extrava- 
gant liberalities, lamented his loss, honored his memory, and brought 
flowers to decorate his tomb. 

During this reign the provinces were harassed by frequent revolts : 
in addition to those we have already noticed, it may be necessary to 
mention the revolt of the Iceni in Britain, under the command of their 
heroic queen Boadicea. She took up arms to revenge the gross insults 
and injuries she had received ; falling unexpectedly on the Roman col- 
onies and garrisons, she destroyed a great number both of them and 
their allies ; and could she have secured the co-operation of all the na- 
tive tribes, might have liberated her country. This dangerous insur- 
rection was quelled by Suetonius Paulinus, who added the island of 
Anglesey to the Roman dominions ; thus taking from the Druids, the 
secret instigators of resistance to all foreign power, the great centre 
both of their religion and their influence. 

The family of the Caesars, properly speaking, ended with Calig'ula ; 
but as both Nero and Claudius were maternally descended from Augus'- 
tus, they are usually reckoned among the members of the Julian, or first 
imperial house. Its extinction, notwithstanding the vices of its later 
members, was a serious calamity to the empire ; it led to a series of 
sanguinary wars, arising from disputed successions, during which the 
supreme authority of the state was wrested equally from the emperors 
and senate by a licentious soldiery. 

Section II. — Froni the Extinction of the Julian to that of the first Flavian 

Family. 

FROM A. D. 68 TO A. D. 96. 

Ser'vius Sul'pitius Gal'ba, universally acknowledged seventh em- 
peror after the death of Nero, was descended from an illustrious family 
that had been eminently distinguished for warlike achievements during 
the later ages of the republic. He was now in the seventy-third year 
of his age, and, on account of his infirmities, travelled very slowly 
toward Rome. Nymphid'ius took advantage of this delay, to make a 
struggle for empire by bribing the praetorian guards ; but his conduct du- 
ring the reign of Nero had rendered him so deservedly unpopular, that 
he was murdered by the very soldiers who had taken his money. 
This rash conspiracy induced Gal'ba to sully the commencement of his 



fi6^ ANCIENT HISTORY. 

reign by unseasonable severities, which gave the more offence to his 
subjects, as they had not been anticipated. It was soon discovered that 
the new emperor, however virtuous himself, was the tool of unworthy 
favorites, who, under the sanction of his name, plundered the people, 
and deprived the soldiers of their usual donative. A revolt of the le- 
gions in Upper Germany induced Gal'ba to nominate a successor ; he 
chose Cneius Piso, descended from the old triumvirs Cras'sus and Pom'- 
pey, who was greatly esteemed for his talents, virtues, and engaging 
manners. But this appointment gave great offence to O'tho, who had 
been foremost to espouse the cause of Gal'ba : taking advantage of the 
discontent of the praetorian guards, he went to their camp, and easily 
induced these turbulent warriors to proclaim him emperor. Gal'ba pre- 
pared to make a vigorous struggle for his crown, but his soldiers refused 
to obey the orders of their commander ; and when he was borne in a 
litter to enforce obedience, those who carried him, terrified by the tu- 
mult, threw down the chair, and the aged emperor, thus lying helpless, 
was slain by one of the veterans (a. d. 69). His body was treated 
with the greatest indignity by the factious troops ; Piso, his appointed 
successor, was murdered; and the praetorian guards threatened destruc- 
tion to all who did not acquiesce in their decision. 

O'tho, thus raised to the empire, was, during his brief reign, a pas- 
sive instrument in the hands of the licentious soldiers. Scarcely had 
he been fixed upon the throne, when he found that he would have to 
struggle for empire with a formidable rival, Vitel'lius, the commander 
of the legions in lower Germany. Valens and Caecina joined the 
usurper with numerous forces, and intelligence soon arrived of their 
advance toward Italy through Gaul. Their arrival in Italy filled Rome 
with consternation, which the licentious indolence in which O'tho in- 
dulged by no means tempted to abate. But on the near approach of 
danger, the emperor laid aside his pleasures and debaucheries, making 
the most vigorous measures for resistance. Most of the provinces de- 
clared in his favor, and could he have protracted the war, he would 
probably have preserved his crown. But the praetorian guards, wearied 
of the unusual hardships of a campaign, and eager to return to the 
pleasures of the capital, demanded to be led instantly against the en- 
emy. O'tho withdrew to a place of safety, but ordered his generals to 
give battle without delay. The decisive engagement was fought at 
Bedriacum, near the banks of the Po : early in the day, the praetorian 
guards, attacked in flank by a Batavian column, fled in disorder, and 
threw the rest of the army into confusion. This unexpected disaster 
gave Vitel'lius an easy victory ; and following up his success, he took 
possession of the imperial camp. O'tho, having learned the news of 
the battle, convened the rest of his soldiers, thanked them for their fi- 
delity, and intimated his resolution not to permit his life to be the cause 
of further bloodshed. That night he committed suicide, having only 
reigned three months. He was honorably interred by his soldiers, who 
showed sincere sorrow for his loss. 

Vitel'lius was a slave to gluttony and debauchery : he received very 
coldly the congratulations of the senate on his victory and accession, 
and he was reluctant to expose himself to the dangers of the turbu- 
lences that the soldiers, both of his and O'tho's army, excited in Italy. 



ROMAN EMPIRE. 267 

At length he made his public entrance into Rome, and endeavored to 
win the favor of the populace by large donatives and expensive enter- 
tainments in the circus. Intrusting all the power of the state to unworthy 
favorites, he devoted himself wholly to the pleasures of the table, on 
which he squandered nearly seven millions of money in less than four 
months. Nothing, however, gave greater scandal to the higher ranks 
of the senators, than his solemnizing, with great pomp, the obsequies 
of Nero, and compelling the Augustal priests, an order consecrated by 
Tiberius for superintending the religious rites of the Julian family, to 
attend at that ceremony. While he was thus insulting his subjects, and 
wasting the wealth of the- empire, fortune, or rather Providence, was 
raising him up a competitor in a distant province. Vespasian was car- 
rying on the war against the Jews with great success, when he heard 
of the death of Nero, and the election of Gal'ba : he sent his son Ti- 
tus to present his allegiance to the new emperor : but ere he could 
reach Italy, Gal'ba was no more, and O'tho and Vitel'lius were con- 
tending for the empire. Titus returned to his father, whom he found 
ready to swear allegiance to Vitel'lius, though the army wished him to 
declare himself emperor. Vespasian's reluctance, whether real or af- 
fected, was overcome by the exhortations of Mucianus, governor of 
Syria, and the tributary monarchs of the east, whose friendship he had 
won by his justice and moderation. No sooner did he commence his 
march toward Europe, than the legions quartered in lUyr'icum and 
Pannonia declared in his favor ; nor was there any province on which 
Vitel'lius could rely for support except Africa. Primus and Varus, at 
the head of the Illyrian armies, crossed the Alps, and made themselves 
masters of Verona, and at the same time the fleet at Ravenna declared 
in favor of Vespasian. Csecina, who had the principal share in raising 
Vitel'lius to the throne, followed the same course, but his soldiers dis- 
approved his conduct, and put him in irons. Primus, advancing south- 
ward, encountered the forces of Vitel'lius near Cremona, and totally 
routed them, after a battle which lasted the entire day and a great part 
of the following night. The city of Cremona, after a desperate resist- 
ance, was taken by storm, and the greater part of the inhabitants put to 
the sword. Valens, who went to raise an army in the western provin- 
ces to support the emperor, was taken prisoner, upon which Gaul, 
Spain, and Britain, declared in favor of Vespasian. 

Vitel'lius at first refused to believe the evil tidings that reached him 
om every quarter ; but at length on the near approach of danger, he 
hasted to secure the passes of the Apennines. Primus, however, by a 
hazardous march through the snow, forced his way over the mountains, 
and sent the head of Valens to be displayed to the imperial army, as a 
proof of Ids success in other quarters. Immediately Vitel'lius was 
abandoned by his troops : he fled hastily to Rome, and receiving no en- 
couragement from senate or people, abdicated his authority. Some of 
the praetorian guards, however, dreading the strict discipline of Vespa- 
sian, compelled the wretched monarch to resume the purple. The city 
was distracted by a horrid civil tumult, in which many of the principal 
nobles perished, and the Capitol was burned to the gi-ound. Primus, 
hearing of these disorders, advanced with all speed to Rome, forced an 
entrance into the city, and took the camp of the praetorian guards by 



268 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

storm. Vitel'lius hid himself in the palace, but was discovered in his 
retreat by the licentious populace, ready to rise under any pretext 
through hopes of plunder, dragged ignominiously through the streets to 
the place of common execution, and put to death with a thousand 
wounds (a. d. 69). His brother, Lucius ViteVlius, who was advancing 
to his aid with an army from the south of Italy, surrendered at discre- 
tion, and was put to death. The factions that had been formed during 
this disgraceful reign of eight months, took advantage of the confusion 
to wreak mutual vengeance. Primus, and Vespasian's second son, Do- 
mit'ian, abandoned themselves to debauchery and plunder : Rome ap- 
peared on the very brink of ruin from the madness of its own citizens. 

At length tranquillity was restored by the arrival of Vespasian, whose 
accession diffused universal joy. His first care was to restore the dis- 
cipline of the army, which he found in a shocking state of demoraliza- 
tion : he next revived the authority of the senate, supplying its dimin- 
ished ranks with eminent men from the provinces and colonies ; finally, 
he reformed the courts of law, which had long ceased to be courts of 
justice. The virtues of Vespasian, supported by a firm temper, led to 
a great improvement in the social condition of Rome. His only fault 
was an extravagant love of money, which, however, was probably ex- 
aggerated by those who compared his parsimonious expenditure with 
the lavish extravagance of former emperors. 

The early part of his reign was signalized by the final termination 
of the Jewish war, and the destruction of Jerusalem and its holy tem- 
ple. It would be impossible to give even a faint outline of this mem- 
orable war here ; suffice it to say, that the Jews, deceived by false 
prophets, who promised them a temporal deliverer, persevered in their 
rebellion long after every reasonable chance of success had disappeared ; 
that they were divided into hostile factions, who fought against each 
other in the streets of Jerusalem, while the walls of the city quivered 
under the battering engines of the common enemy ; and that they re- 
fused proffered mercy when the Roman ensigns were waving above 
their battlements. Dreadful was the punishment of this fated nation : 
their city and temple were reduced to heaps of shapeless ruins ; their 
best and bravest fell by the swords of the Romans or each other ; most 
of the wretched survivors were sold into slavery, and the Jews, since 
that period, dispersed over the face of the earth, have become a mock- 
ery, a by- word, and a reproach among nations. Titus and his father 
triumphed together on account of this success, and the rich ornaments 
of the temple were displayed in the procession. A triumphal arch was 
also erected for Titus, on which his noble deeds were sculptured : it 
continues nearly perfect to the present day, a lasting monument of his 
victories over the Jewish nation. The Batavian war, which threatened 
great dangers to the Roman dominions in Gaul and Germany, was con- 
cluded about the same time by the prudence and valor of Cerealis ; and 
Comagene, which had been permitted to retain its own sovereigns, was 
reduced to a province. 

Britain had yet been very imperfectly subdued, and the completion 
of its conquest was intrusted to Cneius Julius Agric^ola, a native of 
Gaul, justly celebrated for his great merits as a general and a states- 
man. His first enterprise was to recover the island of Anglesey from 



EOMAN EMPIRE. 269 

the Ordovices. His success was owing to his promptitude as much as 
to his valor : he appeared in the midst of the hostile country before the 
enemy knew of his having passed the frontiers ; and the Britons, dis- 
concerted by a sudden attack, agreed to purchase safety by submission. 
The advantages thus won by military prowess, he resolved to confirm 
and secure by enlightened policy. He induced the Britons to lay aside 
their own barbarous customs, and adopt the Roman manners ; but un- 
fortunately, in giving them a knowledge of the arts of civilization, he 
also inspired them with a taste for luxury. He next proceeded to attack 
the Caledonians ; a fleet was ordered to examine the coast ; and by this 
expedition Britain was first discovered to be an island- The Caledo- 
nians drew together under the command of Gal'gacus, and hazarded a 
pitched battle with the army of Agric'ola, in which they were utterly 
routed, and pursued with great slaughter ; but the fastnesses of the 
Scottish highlands were too formidable to be overcome ; and the north- 
ern part of Britain was never subdued by the Romans. 

Several conspiracies were forme^ against Vespasian, whose rigid 
rule was found a severe check on the licentiousness of the nobles ; but 
they were all detected and punished. At length, his close attention to 
the affairs of state brought on a mortal disease. He retired to his 
country-seat for change of air ; but the sickness was aggravated by the 
alteration, and he died in the seventieth year of his age (a. d. 78). He 
was the second of the Roman emperors that died a natural death, though 
some suspicion is attached to the fate of Augus'tus, and he was the first 
who was succeeded by his son. His obsequies were performed with ex- 
traordinary pomp by Titus ; but the solemnity was disturbed by a ludi- 
crous circumstance, too characteristic of the age to be omitted. The 
Romans were so preposterously fond of mimics and farces, that they 
were even exhibited at funerals, where actors personated the deceased, 
imitated his actions, mimicked his voice, and satirized his peculiarities. 
At Vespasian's obsequies, a pantomime named Favor personated that 
emperor, and took an opportunity of attacking his parsimony. Imita- 
ting the voice of the deceased emperqr, he loudly demanded the price 
of the ceremony ; a large sum was named in reply. " Give me the 
money," he continued, holding out his hand, " and throw my body into 
the Tiber." 

Vespasian was succeeded by his son Titus, whose first action after 
his accession was a sacrifice of his dearest aflfections to the popular 
will. He dismissed the beautiful Berenice, daughter to Agrip'pa, the 
last king of Judea, because that his connexion with a foreigner was 
displeasing to the senate and people. Nor was this the only instance 
of his complaisance ; he allowed the spectators to choose their own 
entertainments in the circus ; and he never refused audience to a peti- 
tioner. His clemency was equally remarkable ; he abolished the law 
of treason ; and severely punished spies and informers. 

In the first year of his reign, Campania was alarmed and devastated 
by the most dreadful eruption of Vesuvius on record ; it laid waste the 
country for many miles round, overwhelming several cities with their 
inhabitants, among which Herculaneum and Pompeii were the most 
remarkable. This was followed by a dreadful conflagration at Rome, 
which lasted three days, and destroyed a vast number of edifices, both 



ANCIENT HISTORY. 

public and private. The exertions of Titus to remedy both these 
calamities procured him, from his grateful subjects, the honorable title 
of " benefactor of the human race." A plague afforded him fresh op- 
portunities of displaying his native goodness of heart ; but these exer- 
tions proved too much for his constitution ; he was seized with a fever, 
which terminated fatally in a few days (a. d. 81). His death diffused 
universal sorrow throughout the empire ; every family lamented as if it 
had been deprived of its natural protector ; and his name has become a 
proverbial designation for wise and virtuous princes. 

Fhivius Domit'ian succeeded his brother without any opposition, 
though his character for debauchery and cruelty was sufficiently noto- 
rious. He was naturally timorous, and fear, of course, aggravated his 
sanguinar}.' disposition ; yet he professed a passionate attachment to 
military sports, and possessed so much skill in archery, that he could 
shoot arrows through the expanded fingers of a domestic placed at a 
considerable distance without ever inflicting a wound. In the begin- 
ning of his reign, he studied to gain the favor of the people by a line 
of conduct worthy of an upright sovereign — disguising his vices, and 
aff'ecting the opposite virtues. He presented large sums to his minis- 
ters and officers of state, that they might be raised above the temptation 
of receiving bribes ; he refused the inheritances bequeathed to him, 
distributing the legacies among the nearest relations of the deceased ; 
and he pretended to have such a horror of shedding blood, that he is- 
sued an edict forbidding the sacrifice of oxen or any other living ani- 
mals. He confirmed all the grants made by the preceding emperors, 
increased the pay of the soldiers, and finished, at an immense charge, 
all the public buildings which had been begun by Titus. 

In the second year of his reign he attacked the Cat'ti, the most war- 
like of the German tribes ; and, as the invasion was unexpected, made 
several of the peasants prisoners. Hearing, however, that the enemies 
were preparing an army, he retreated with great speed ; yet the servile 
senate voted him a triumph for this pretended success. But flattery 
could not hide from the emperor his vast inferiority to Agric'ola, whose 
conquests in Britain were the tteme of universal praise : he recalled 
this victorious general, who deemed it prudent to decline a triumph, 
and retire, into the seclusion of private life. From this time forward 
the emperor indulged in the most sanguinary excesses, putting to 
death, without the form of trial, the most eminent senators and knights. 
The herd of informers, discouraged and punished during the preceding 
reign, once more came into favor ; and such was their activity, that the 
most iimocent conversation was frequently made the ground of a capi- 
tal charge. The infamous vices of the palace were so far from being 
hidden, that they were ostentatiously displayed to the public ; and when 
Domit'ian had thus degraded himself in the eyes of his subjects to the 
condition of a beast, he required to be worshipped as a god, and all the 
streets leading to the Capitol were daily crowded with victims to be 
offered in sacrifices before his altars and statues. 

The Daci and Getae, under their gallant king Deceb'alus, invaded 
the Roman frontiers, and defeated the generals sent to oppose them in 
two great battles. Domit'ian, encouraged by the news of a subsequent 
victory, resolved to take the field in person ; but instead of marching 



ROMAN EMPIRE. 271 

agamst the Ddci, he attacked the Quadi and Marcomanni, and was 
shamefully beaten. Discouraged by this overthrow, he concluded a 
dishonorable peace with the Dacians, engaging to pay Deceb'alus a 
yearly tribute : but he wrote to the senate, boasting of extraordinary 
victories ; and that degraded body, though well aware of the truth, im- 
mediately decreed him the honors of a triumph. 

Wearied by the tyranny of Domit/ian, Ldcius Antonius, the governor 
of upper Germany, raised the standard of revolt in his province, but 
was easily defeated and slain. This abortive insurrection stimulated 
the cruelty of the emperor : vast numbers were tortured and executed, 
under pretence of having been accomplices af Antonius. An edict 
was published, banishing all philosophers from Rome, and prohibiting 
instruction in the liberal sciences ; for Domit'ian felt that all learning 
was a satire on his own ignorance, and all virtue a reproof of his infa- 
my. But though thus tyrannical, Domit'ian had little fear of rebellion ; 
he had secured the support of the troops by increasing their pay, and 
his splendid entertainments rendered him a favorite with the degraded 
populace. The adherents to the national religion were also gratified 
by a second general persecution of the Christians, who were odious to 
the emperor because they refused to worship his statues (a. d. 95). 
Among the most illustrious martyrs in the cause of truth on this occa- 
sion was Flavins Clem'ens, cousin-german of the emperor, whose 
example proves that the new religion was now beginning to spread 
among the higher ranks of society. 

It was the custom of Domit'ian to inscribe on a roll the names of the 
persons he designed to slaughter. One day a young child with whom 
he used to divert himself took this paper from under the pillow on 
which the emperor was sleeping, and unaware of its important con- 
tents, gave it to the empress Domit'ia. She saw with surprise and 
consternation her own name on the fatal list, as well as those of the 
imperial chamberlain and the captain of the praetorian guards, to whom 
she immediately communicated their danger. They at once conspired 
for his destruction, and he was murdered in his bed (a. d. 96). The 
Roman populace heard his fate with indifference ; but the soldiers, 
whose pay he had increased, and with whom he had often shared his 
plunder, lamented him more than they had Vespasian Titus ; it is even 
said that they would have avenged his fate by a general massacre, had 
they not been restrained by their officers. 

During this reign flourished a philosopher, Apollonius Tyaneus, 
whose austere life and extensive knowledge procured him so much 
fame, that he pretended to have the power of working miracles, and 
aspired to become the founder of a new religion. Like Pythag'oras, he 
travelled into the remote east, and incorporated in his system many of 
the tenets that are now held by the Buddhists. During his life, this 
impostor enjoyed the highest reputation ; but, in spite of all the efforts 
of his disciples, his system, after his death, sank rapidly, into merited 
oblivion. 



272 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

Section III. — From the Extinction of the first Flavian Family to the last of 

the Antonincs. 

FROM A. D. 96 TO A. D. 193. 

Domit'ian was the last of the emperors commonly called the twelve 
CcBsars : he was succeeded by Mar'cus Cocceius Ner'va, who was 
chosen to the sovereignty by a unanimous vote of the senate. He was 
a native of Narn^ia in Umbria, but his family came originally from Crete ; 
and we may therefore regard him as the first foreigner placed at the 
head of the empire. Though past the age of seventy, he applied him- 
self to the reformation of abuses with all the zeal of youth, punishing 
informers, redressing grievances, and establishing a milder and more 
equitable system of taxation. His greatest fault was excessive lenity, 
which encouraged the profligate courtiers to persevere in their accus- 
tomed peculations. The turbulent praetorian guards raised an insurrec- 
tion, under pretence of avenging the death of Domit'ian, and not only 
compelled the emperor to abandon such victims to their fury as they 
demanded, but actually forced him to return them public thanks for their 
proper and patriotic conduct. This outrageous indignity, however, pro- 
duced a highly beneficial result. Ner'va, finding himself despised on 
account of his old age and infirmities, resolved to adopt Mar'cus Ul'pius 
Trajan, the greatest and most deserving person of his age, as his col- 
league and successor, though he had many relations of his own, who 
might, without incurring the imputation of presumption, aspire to that 
dignity. The news of this appointment was received with great joy by 
the senate and people, and the soldiers immediately returned to their 
duty. Soon after, Ner'va, while chiding severely an infamous informer, 
so heated himself, that he was seized with a fever, which proved mor- 
tal, in the sixteenth month of his reign (a. d. 98). He was ranked 
among the gods by his subjects ; and Trajan, out of gratitude, caused 
several temples to be erected to his memory, both at Rome and in the 
provinces. 

Trajan was by birth a Spaniard, descended from a family that had 
some claim to royal honors. He was equally great as a ruler, a general, 
and a man ; free from every vice, except an occasional indulgence in 
wine. After completely abolishing the trials for high treason {judicia 
majestdtis), he restored as much of the old constitution as was con- 
sistent with a monarchy ; binding himself by oath to observe the laws, 
reviving the comitia for the election of civic officers, restoring freedom 
of speech to the senate, and their former authority to the magistrates. 
Deceb'alus having sent to claim the tribute granted to him by Domit'ian, 
Trajan peremptorily refused to be bound by such a disgraceful treaty, 
and hastily levying an army, marched against the Dacians, who had 
already crossed the Danube. A dreadful battle was fought, in which 
the Romans gained a complete victory ; but so great was the carnage 
on both sides, that linen could not be found to dress the wounds of the 
soldiers, and Trajan tore up his imperial robes to supply that want. 
Pursuing his advantages, the emperor soon reduced Deceb'alus to such 
distress, that he was forced to purchase peace by giving up all his 
engines of war, and acknowledging himself a vassal of the Romans. 
After sometime, however, the Dacian monarch, imused to servitude, 



ROMAN EMPIRE. 273 

again had recourse to arms, and was proclaimed a public enemy by the 
senate. Trajan once more took the field in person. To facilitate the 
advance of his army, he constructed a stupendous stone bridge over the 
Danube, fortified with stong castles at both ends ; and having thus 
secured his communications, he marched into the very heart of the 
country, and made himself master of the capital (a. d. 106). Deceb'alus, 
despairing of success, committed suicide ; and after his death, the coun- 
try was easily formed into a province, and several Roman colonies and 
garrisons for the first time planted north of the Danube. In the same 
year Arabia Petrsea was subdued, and annexed to the empire by the 
governor of Syria. 

These successes rendered Trajan ambitious of further conquest, and 
he resolved to contend with the Parthians for the sovereignty of cen- 
tral Asia. He commenced by subduing Armenia, which he made a 
new province, and thence he advanced into Mesopotamia. A bridge 
not less remarkable than that over the Danube was constructed across 
the Tigris ; and the Romans passing this river to a country where their 
eagles had never before been seen, conquered the greater part of ancient 
Assyria. Seleucia and Ctes'iphon [El Modain), the capital of the 
Parthian kingdom, were besieged and taken ; after which, the emperor, 
descending the Tigris, displayed the Roman standards for the first time 
in the Persian gulf. Thence he sailed to the southern part of the 
Arabian peninsula (^Arabia Felix), a great part of which he annexed to 
the empire. He is said to have meditated the invasion of India ; but 
was probably deterred by considering the great difiiculties with which 
he would have to contend in the deserts of eastern Persia. 

No permanent advantages resulted from these conquests. No sooner 
had the emperor returned, than most of the nations which he had con- 
quered revolted, and massacred the Roman garrisons. The Jews, 
prompted by false prophets, raised a dangerous insurrection in the prov- 
inces through which they had been dispersed : after having committed 
the most shocking excesses, they were subdued, and their treason pun- 
ished with remorseless severity. Trajan was making vigorous prep- 
arations to regain his conquests, when he was attacked by dropsy and 
palsy, which induced him to return to Italy. He, however, only pro- 
ceeded so far as Selinus in Cilicia, when the disease assumed a mortal 
character ; and in this little town the best of the Roman monarchs died, 
in the twentieth year of his reign (a. d. 117). His ashes were carried 
to Rome, and deposited under the stately column he had erected to 
commemorate his Dacian victories, though it stood within the city, 
where no one had ever been buried before. One stain on Trajan's 
character must not be omitted ; he sanctioned the persecution of the 
Christians, and even when convinced that they were innocent of the 
atrocious charges brought against them by the pagans, he only forbade 
inquisitions to be made, but continued the punishment of all who were 
accused. 

Adrian, the cousin-german and pupil of Trajan, succeeded to the empire, 
it is said, by adoption ; but there is some reason to doubt the truth of the 
assertion. A much stronger claim was the unanimous declaration of 
the Asiatic armies in his favor, whose potent choice was ratified by the 
senate. Anxious to preserve peace, he at once abandoned all the con- 

18 



274 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

quests made by his predecessors, but in Asia and Europe, destroying 
the bridges over the Tigris and Danube. On his return to Rome the* 
senate olFered him a triumph, which he had the good sense to refuse j 
at the same time, to show his moderation and love of tranquillity, he 
diminished the military establishments, and lowered the taxes through- 
out the empire. But the virtues of Adrian were not unalloyed ; he was 
a cruel persecutor of the Jews and Christians ; he allowed himself to 
be influenced by unworthy favorites, and too often lent an ear to the 
tales of slanderers and informers. Deeming that all parts of the empire 
had a claim to the protection of the sovereign, he resolved to make a 
tour through the provinces, and began his course by visiting Gaul, 
Germany, and Britain. He found the Britons far advanced in civiliza- 
tion ; but no longer able to contend with the barbarous Caledonians. 
In order to check the incursions of these savages, he erected the first 
Roman wall from the Eden to the Tyne, as has been mentioned in a 
preceding chapter. 

He twice visited Asia, and ordered that a Roman colony should be 
established at Jerusalem, whose name he changed to iElia Capitolina 
(a. d. 131). The introduction of idolatry into the holy city provoked 
a fierce insurrection of the Jews, headed by an impostor calling him- 
self Bar-Cochab [the son of a star), who pretended to be the expected 
Messiah. After a sanguinary war, which lasted three years, the infat- 
uated insurgents were subdued, but their revolt was punished by the 
most horrible cruelties, and their name and nation were all but exter- 
minated. 

"\Vhile Adrian continued in the East, SaFvius Julianus, the most 
eminent lawyer in the empire, was employed in compiling the edictum 
perpetuum, a code containing all the laws which had been published by 
the prsetors in their annual edicts. This celebrated statute gave per- 
manence and uniformity, to the system of Roman jurisprudence, and in 
some degree raised law to the dignity of a science. Athens, which had 
long been neglected, naturally engaged the attention of a sovereign so 
enthusiastically attached to literature and the arts as Adrian. He com- 
pleted many of its buildings, which had remained incomplete since the 
fall of the republic, and added so many new edifices, that a whole quar- 
ter of the city was called after his name. In commemoration of the 
great benefits he had conferred on the empire a medal was struck in his 
honor, bearing the inscription Restitutori orhis terrdrum — " to the 
Restorer of the World." 

On his return to Rome he fell into a lingering disease, and adopted 
Com'modus Verus as his successor ; but he soon repented his choice 
of a weak, debauched young man, whose constitution was greatly im- 
paired by lais guilty excesses. When he was suflSciently recovered, he 
retired to his magnificent villa at Tusculum ( TivoU), where he sank into 
the same filthy debauchery as Tiberius at Caprese. These excesses 
brought on a relapse ; sickness rendered him cruel and jealous, and 
some of the most eminent men of Rome were sacrificed to his diseased 
suspicions. On the death of Verus, Adrian adopted Titus Antoninus, 
on condition of his adopting Mar'cus AureUus and Verus, the son of his 
former choice. Scarcely had this arrangement been completed when 
the emperor's ailments were aggravated to such a degree, that no medi- 



EOMAN EMPIRE. 275 

cines could give him relief ; and, through impatience of pain, he made 
several attempts to commit suicide. Hoping for some relief from ba- 
thing, he removed to Baiae, where he soon died (a. d. 139). 

Adrian, by his cruelties toward the close of his reign, provoked public 
hatred to such a degree, that the senate was disposed to annul all his 
acts ; but the entreaties of Antoninus, and the fear of the soldiers, with 
whom Adrian had been a great favorite, induced them not only to aban- 
don their intention, but to enrol him in the number of gods, and order 
temples to be erected to his honor. 

Antoninus, immediately after his accession, gave his daughter Faus- 
tina in marriage to Mar'cus Aurelius, procured for him the tribunitian 
and proconsular power from the senate, and associated him in all the 
labors of government ; but he showed no regard for the profligate young 
Verus, whose misconduct he tolerated solely from respect for the 
memory of Adrian. The mild and merciful reign of this emperor, 
deservedly surnamed Pius, was imdoubtedly the most tranquil and hap- 
py to be found in the Roman annals. He suspended the persecution of 
the Christians throughout the empire, and ordered that their accusers 
should be punished as calumniators. Peace prevailed through the wide 
dominions of Rome ; the virtues of the sovereign conciliated the aflfec- 
tion of foreigners, and distant nations chose him to arbitrate their differ- 
ences. For the first time the government of the provinces engaged the 
earnest attention of the sovereign : the lieutenants of thcemperor, per- 
ceiving that their conduct was closely watched, ceased to oppress those 
intrusted to their charge ; and instead of seeing their revenues wasted 
to support a profligate court, or gratify a degraded populace, the provin- 
cials beheld public schools erected for the instruction of youth, harbors 
cleaned out and repaired, new marts of trade opened, and every exer- 
tion made to realize the magnificent project formed by Alexander the 
Great, of constituting an empire whose parts should be held together by 
the bonds of commerce and mutual interest. After a useful reign of 
twenty-two years, the prosperity of which is best proved by its afford- 
ing no materials for history, he died of a fever at one of his villas, be- 
queathing nothing beyond his own private fortune to his family (a. d. 
163). The Romans venerated so highly the memory of this excellent 
monarch, that during the greater part of the ensuing century, every 
emperor deemed it essential to his popularity to assume the surname of 
Antoninus. 

Mar'cus Aurelius, surnamed the Philosopher, on account of his at- 
tachment to the doctrines and austerities of the Stoics, succeeded to the 
empire ; but his power was shared by Lucius Verus, to whom he gave 
his daughter in marriage. He took, however, an early opportunity of 
sending his unworthy colleague from Rome, intrusting him with the 
command of the army sent against the Parthians, who had overnm 
, Syria. Verus took up his residence at Antioch, where he abandoned 
himself to every species of infamy and debauchery, while the conduct 
of the war was intrusted to his lieutenants. Fortunately, these officers 
were worthy of the high trust confided to them : they upheld the repu- 
tation of the Roman arms in four brilliant campaigns, and conquered 
some of the principal cities of Parthia. 

While Verus was disgracing himself in Asia, Rome enjoyed happi- 



2M ANCIENT HISTORY. 

ness and tranquillity under the merciful but firm administration of Au- 
relius. But this prosperity was interrupted by the return of Verus, who 
came to claim a triumph for the victories obtained by his officers. The 
eastern army unfortunately brought the plague with it into Europe : in- 
fection was communicated to every province through which they passed: 
the violence of the pestilence did not abate for several years, and 
among its victims were some of the most illustrious men in Rome and 
the principal cities of Italy. 

Scarcely had the affairs of the east been arranged, when a dangerous 
war was commenced by the Marcoman'ni on the German frontiers : 
both emperors took the field ; but at the very opening of the campaign, 
Verus fell a victim to his intemperance (a, d. 171). Aurelius honored 
his remains with a magnificent funeral, and even persuaded the senate 
to enrol this miserable debauchee in the number of the gods. The em- 
peror now devoted his entire attention to the conduct of the German 
war ; but in the first engagement the Romans were routed with great 
slaughter ; and it was only by the sale of the imperial plate, furniture, 
and crown jewels, that a sum could be raised sufficient to repair their 
great losses. Aurelius having by this sacrifice assembled a fresh army, 
soon restored the fortune of the empire. He took up his residence at 
Sir'mium (^Sirmich), and from this central position directed the move- 
ments of liis officers, whom he had directed to harass and wear out the 
barbarians, by marches, counter-marches, and skirmishes, rather than 
peril their armies in pitched battles. Once only he abandoned this 
prudent policy, advancing beyond the Danube into the territory of the 
Quadi. This temerity had nearly proved his ruin : the barbarians, 
craftily pretending flight, drew the Romans into a barren defile, where 
the army was on the point of perishing by thirst. In this distress the 
Romans were relieved by a great thunder-storm ; the lightning fired the 
tents of their enemies, and the rain relieved their pressing wants. The 
barbarians, believing this event miraculous, at once submitted ; and Au- 
relius was, for the seventh time, proclaimed imperator by the senate. 
Many ancient fathers ascribe this seasonable shower to the prayers of 
a Christian legion in the imperial army ; but the evidence by which the 
miracle is supported has been more than once shown to be a fraudulent 
falsification. 

In consequence of this success, the German nations besought terms 
of peace, which Aurelius readily granted, as he was anxious to suppress 
a dangerous rebellion in the east, where his lieutenant, A%'id'ius Cas'- 
sius, had proclaimed himself emperor. But Cas'sius, though a formi- 
dable rival, had not the prudence necessary for success in a civil war ; 
he disgusted his soldiers by the excessive severity of his discipline, 
and was murdered by one of his own centurions. Aiu-elius showed 
great regret for the destruction of his rival, lamenting that he had been 
deprived of an opportunity of showing mercy. He forbade the prose- 
cution of those who had joined in the revolt, and took the young family 
of Cas'sius under his own protection. Having restored tranquillity, the 
emperor retimied to Rome, which he entered in triumph with his son 
Com'modus, whom he had recently declared his successor, and invested 
with the tribunitian power. 

The persecution of the Christians had been renewed in this reign. 



ROMAN EMPIEE. 277 

probably at the instigation of the Stoic philosophers, to whom the su- 
perior purity of the Christian doctrines gave great offence ; and among 
the most illustrious victims of imperial bigotry was the celebrated Jus'- 
tin Mar'tyr, whose apologies for Christianity, addressed to the emperors 
Antoninus and Aurelius, are among the best, as well as the earliest 
works, written to refute the calumnies with which in every age the true 
faith has been assailed. Toward the close of his reign the emperor 
became more tolerant ; some say in consequence of the miraculous 
shower ; others, with more probability, ascribe the change to his hav- 
ing learned the falsehood of the charges brought against the Christians. 

Aurelius had not been long in Rome when war was unexpectedly re- 
newed along the Rhine and Danube. The great migration of nations, 
which was ere long to change the entire face of the civilized world, 
had now commenced, and the German tribes along the frontiers, pressed 
forward by hordes in their rear, were necessarily forced to encroach on 
the limits of the empire. So formidable was the invasion, whose 
cause was as yet unknown, that the emperor found it necessary to take 
the field in person. He gained several important victories, and was 
preparing to reduce Germany into a province, when he was seized with 
a violent fever at Vindobona ( Vienna), to which he fell a victim in a 
few days (a. d. 180). The glory of the empire may be said to have 
expired with Aurelius : he was the last emperor who made the good of 
his subjects the chief object of his government ; and he was one of the 
few princes who attained a high rank in literature. His Meditations, 
which have come down to our time, contain a summary of the best rules 
for a virtuous life that have ever been devised by unassisted reason or 
simple philosophy. 

Com'modus was the first emperor that was born in his father's reign, 
and the second that received the empire as a paternal inheritance. He 
had been spoiled in youth by his mother Faustina, a woman of very 
violent passions and sanguinary temper, who corrupted her son's mind 
both by precept and example. His debaucheries exceeded those of all 
his predecessors in extravagance and iniquity : even his own sisters 
became the victims of his lust, and one of them, having reproached 
him, was murdered by his hand, All his sports were cruel : he loved 
to roam through the streets wounding and slaying the unsuspicious pas- 
sengers ; he frequently contended with the gladiators on the public 
stage, and delighted to display feats of strength, for his muscular pow- 
ers were unrivalled. But he showed no disposition for foreign war ; 
on the contrary, he concluded a peace with the Quadi and Marco- 
man''ni, abandoning the territories that had been conquered by his fa- 
ther. An attempt made to asassinate this monster, in the third year of 
his reign, stimulated his natural cruelty to the most savage excess : his 
assailant, aiming a blow at him with a dagger, exclaimed, " The senate 
sends thee this !" and though the murder was prevented by the prompt 
interference of the guards, the words sank deep into the emperor's 
breast, and thenceforward he showed inveterate suspicion and hatred 
to the whole body of senators. Scarcely had he escaped this danger, 
when he was exposed to one more formidable, arising from the war of 
the deserters. A common soldier, named Mater'nus, guilty of the un- 
usual crime of abandoning his colors, assembled a band of robbers in 



278 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

Gaul, and being joined by profligates from every part o{ the empire, 
pillaged and laid waste that province- Being reduced to great straits 
by the exertions of Pescen'nius Niger, Mater'nus divided his men into 
several small bands, and marched privately with them by different ways 
into Italy, designing to murder Coni'modus at a public festival, and in 
the confusion seize the empire. The conspirators reached Rome in 
safety, but just as the plot was on the point of exploding, they were be- 
trayed by their accomplices, arrested, and put to death. 

An alarming insurrection of the Roman populace, directed not so 
much against the emperor as his minister Clean'der was produced by 
the exhortations of an unknown woman. The praetorian horse charged 
the multitude, but were defeated with loss, as cavalry generally are 
when acting against a mob in narrow streets. Cojn'modus, alarmed by 
the tumult, sacrificed his minister, and the fury of the Romans was 
appeased. 

Having formed the wild project of entering on the consular dignity 
armed as a gladiator, and marching in procession from the gladiatorial 
school instead of the palace, he was so enraged by the remonstrances 
of his concubine Mar'cia, that he resolved to put her to death. Having 
accidentally discovered her danger, she determined to murder Com'- 
modus, and being aided by some officers of the household, sti^angled 
him in his bed (a. d. 192). No sooner was his death known, than the 
senate, without waiting for the return of day, assembled hastily, annulled 
his acts, ordered all his statues to be thrown down, and demanded that 
his body should be dragged through the streets and cast into the Tiber. 
The latter indignity was prevented by a private and hurried funeral. 

Section IV. — Foreign Commerce of the Romans in the age of the Antonines, 

If the reign of Augustus be justly celebrated for the perfection of Ro- 
man literature, those of the Antonines, including even that of the wick- 
ed Com'modus, deserve to be honored for the great improvements made 
in trade and commerce especially by the opening of new communica- 
tions with India. Tad'mor, or Palmyra, the wondrous city of the des- 
ert, distant only eighty-five miles from the Euphrates, and about one hun- 
dred and seventeen from the nearest coast of the Mediterranean, was 
the centre of the trade between Europe and southern Persia, including 
the countries bordering on the Indus, and the districts now attached to 
the Bombay presidency. In consequence of the great exports that this 
trade naturally caused from the harbors of the Levant, great numbers 
of Syrian merchants settled in Rome, some of whom attained the high- 
est honors of the state. It would appear that some merchants used a 
more northern route by the Caspian and Oxus ; for we find the Roman 
geographers tolerably well acquainted with the countries that now form 
the kingdoms of Khiva and Bokhara. The great caravan route across 
Asia, however commenced at ^jzcintiwm. {Constantinople), which was 
long the seat of flourishing commerce before it became the metropolis 
of an empire. Having passed the Bos'phorus, the merchant adventu- 
rers proceeded through Anatolia, and crossed the Euphrates near Hie- 
rap'olis (^Bambuch) ; thence they proceeded to Ecbatana [Hamadan), the 
ancient capital of the Medes, and Hecatompy'los {Damaghan), the me- 



ROMAN EMPIRE. 279 

tropolis of t!te Parthians. Thence they proceeded circuitously to Hyr- 
cania (Jorjan) and A'ria (Herat). Finally they came to Bactra {Balkh), 
long the principal mart of central Asia. From Bactra there were two 
caravan routes, one to north India, over the western part of the Hima- 
laya, called the Indian Caucasus [Hindu Kusk), the other toward the 
frontiers of Ser'ica [China), over the lofty mountain-chain of Imaus 
{BeUcr Taff), through a winding ravine which was marked by a celebra- 
ted station called the Stone Tower, whose ruins are said still to exist, 
under the name of Chikel Sutun^ or the Forty Columns. Little was 
known of the countries between the Imaus and Ser''ica, which were prob- 
ably traversed by Bactrian rather than European merchants ; but the 
road Avas described as wonderfully difficult and tedious. 

As the progress of the caravans was liable to frequent interruptions 
from the Parthians, and the conveyance of manufactured silks through 
the deserts very toilsome, the emperor Antoninus attempted to open a 
communication w-ith the Chinese by sea. Of this singular transaction 
no record has yet been found in any of the Greek or Latin authors ; 
but M, de Guignes discovered it stated in a very old Chinese historical 
work, that an embassy had come by sea from Antun, the king of the 
people of the western ocean, to Yan-ti, or rather Han-huan-ti, who 
ruled over China in the hundred and sixty-sixth year of the Christian 
era. The name and date sufficiently identify Antun with Antoninus, and 
the projected intercourse was well worthy the attention of that en- 
lightened emperor ^ but nothing is known respecting the results of this 
embassy. 

We have already mentioned the great increase of intercourse between 
Egypt and India, when the former country was governed by the Ptole- 
mies. The navigation was long confined to circuitous voyages round 
the peninsula of Arabia and the coasts of the Persian gulf; but about 
a century after the establishment of the Roman dominion, Har'palus, 
the commander of a ship long engaged in the Indian trade, observing 
the regular changes of the periodical winds, ventured to steer from the 
Angus'tiae Durae [straits of Bal-el-Mandeb or " the Gate of Tears ") 
right across the Erythraean sea [Indian ocean), and was wafted by the 
western monsoon to Muslris (Marjan), on the Malabar coast. This 
great improvement was deservedly regarded as of the highest import- 
ance ; and the western monsoon received the name of Har'palus, in 
memory of the courageous navigator, who had turned it to such a good 
account. 

The route of the Egyptian trade under the Romans has been de- 
scribed with considerable accuracy by Pliny. Cargoes destined for 
India were carried up the Nile in boats to Cop'tos [Ghouft), thence they 
were transferred by caravans to My'os Hor'mus [Cosseir), or Berenice 
(Hubbesh). The latter, though the longer, was the more frequented 
road, because the Ptolemies had raised excellent stations and watering- 
places at convenient distances along the road. From Berenice the fleet 
sailed in June or July for O'celis [Gella), at the mouth of the Arabian 
gulf, and Cane [Fartash), a promontory and emporium on the south- 
east coast of Arabia Felix. Thence they steered right across the 
ocean for the Malabar coast, and usually made Musiris in forty days. 
They began their voyage homeward early in December, and generally 



380. ANCIENT HISTORY. 

encountered more difficulty on their return on account o{ iJie unsteadi- 
ness of the winds. 

The chief imports from India were spices, precious stones, and mus- 
lins. There is a singidar confusion in the Latin authors between the 
finer cotton goods and manufactured silks, which has led to their mix- 
ing up the Chinese and Indian trade together. The principal exports 
were light woollens, chequered linens, glass, wine, and bullion. 

Com'modus, with a providence which could scarcely have been ex- 
pected from him, made some efforts to open the old Carthaginian trade 
with the interior of Africa ; but the result of his labors is unknown. 
He also paid some attention to the corn-trade, so essential to the pros- 
perity of his central dominions, when Italy had long ceased to produce 
sufficient grain for the support of its inhabitants ; and he established a 
company to supply corn from northern Africa whenever the crops failed 
in Egypt. 

The trade of the Black sea, so flourishing in the age of the Greek 
republics, appears to have been greatly diminished after the Romans 
became masters of the countries at both sides of the JEgean ; and it 
seems probable that little or no commerce passed through the straits of 
Hercules (straits of Gibraltar) into the Atlantic ocean. In conse- 
quence of this change, the amber-trade was transferred from the coasts 
of the northern sea to the banks of the Danube, and the barbarous 
tribes who brought it from the shores of the Baltic are said to have been 
astonished at the prices they received for what seemed to them so use- 
less a commodity. Furs were purchased from the Scythian tribes ; but 
this branch of trade appears never to have been of any great amount. 
The British tin-trade was rather neglected by the Romans ; indeed, it 
appears to have been monopolized by the Gauls, and consequently was 
confined to the British channel. From this slight sketch it will be seen 
that the Romans were not naturally a mercantile people. We must now 
return to the history of the civil wars and revolutions which frustrated 
the plans of the Antonines for making commercial pursuits the source 
of imity and happiness to the empire. 

Section V. — From the Extinction of the Flavian Family to the Establish- 
ment of Military Despotism, after the murder of Alexander Severus, 

FROM B. C. 183 TO A. D. 235. 

After the conspirators had miirdered Com'modus, they proceeded 
to the house of Pub'lius HelVius Per'tinax, and declared that they had 
come to offer him the empire, as being the person who best deserved 
sovereignty. Per'tinax at first believed that this was some plot for his 
destruction ; but on further inquiry, having learned that Com'modus was 
really dead, he proceeded to the praetorian camp, and was saluted em- 
peror rather reluctantly by the guards. He met a much wanner recep- 
tion from the senators, who expected that his firmness and virtue would 
be displayed in checking the turbulence of the soldiers, now the real 
masters of the empire. Nor did his conduct disappoint their expecta- 
tions : he diminished the lavish expenditure of the palace, restored the 
property that his predecessor had unjustly confiscated to the rightful 



^1. 



ROMAN EMPIRE. 281 

owners, and punished those who, by false informations, had stimulated 
Com'niodus to cruelty. These reforms endeared him to the senate and 
people, but provoked the anger of the turbulent praetorians : three days 
after his accession, they attempted to make Laciv'ius emperor, but that 
senator fled from their violence and sought shelter with Per'tinax him- 
self. Their next choice was the consul FaFco, who showed equal re- 
luctance to accept the precarious station. The emperor, to prevent the 
recurrence of similar outrages, prepared to restore the ancient military 
discipline : but this exasperated the mutineers still more, and a party of 
them, breaking suddenly into the palace, slew Per'tinax, after a brief 
reign of less than three months. The Romans lamented, but did not 
venture to revenge his death ; most of the citizens shut themselves up in 
their houses, leaving the soldiers to choose a master for the empire at 
their discretion. 

When the praetorians heard that Per'tinax was dead, they issued a 
proclamation, declaring that the empire was for sale, and would be 
given to the highest bidder. Did''ius Julianus, the wealthiest man in 
Rome, offered to become a purchaser ; his money, and his promise that 
he would restore all things to the condition in which they were under 
Com'modus, so pleased the dissolute soldiers, that they proclaimed 
him emperor, and compelled the senate to recognise their choice. But 
the Roman populace showed their indignation at this scandalous traffic 
by showering curses and reproaches on Did'ius whenever he appeared 
in public, and even assailing him with stones and other missiles. The 
weak emperor bore these attacks with great equanimity, relying for se- 
curity on the praetorians, whose favor he secured by fresh largesses. 

But though Did'ius, by the favor of the household troops, was able 
to secure himself in Rome, he could not secure the respect or allegiance 
of the provinces ; and the distant armies, deeming that they had as good 
a right to confer empire as the praetorian cohorts, offered sovereignty 
to their commanders. Three competitors together appeared to contest 
the throne with the ambitious merchant ; Clodius Al'binus in Britain, 
Pescen'nius Niger in Syria, and Septim'ius Severus in lUyria. Did'ius 
prepared to meet the storm with more fortitude than could have been 
expected ; he convoked the senate, and had Severus, the nearest of his 
rivals, declared a public enemy : he also sent deputies to exhort the 
Illyrian soldiers to return to their allegiance. But the unfortunate em- 
peror was betrayed by his own officers ; the deputies tendered their 
homage to Severus, and exhorted him to expedite his march toward 
Rome. The rapid advance of the lUyrians, the capture of Ravenna 
and the Roman fleet, and the desertion of the troops sent to guard the 
passes of the Apennines, so alarmed the praetorians, that they resolved 
to abandon Did''ius, and make terms with Severus. They communica- 
ted their resolutions to the consul, who forthwith convoked the senate. 
A decree was passed for the deposition and death of Did'ius, and ere it 
was enrolled, the band of executioners was on its march to the palace. 
Did'ius was found trembling and in tears, ready to resign empire, pro- 
vided his life might be spared. At sight of the armed band, he ex- 
claimed " What crime have I committed 1 whose life have I taken 
away ?" But his remonstrances were cut short, by one of the soldiers, 
who struck off" his head. The body was exposed to insult and mockery 



282 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

in the public streets, and thus ended the two months' reign of " the im- 
perial merchant." 

Severus, as he approached Rome, issued orders for the execution of 
all who had shared in the murder of Per'tinax, and for disbanding the 
praetorian cohorts ; but he chose new guards, four times as numerous, 
in the place of those he had dismissed, which filled Rome with soldiers, 
and proved the fruitful source of many future disorders. Having con- 
ciliated AFbinus by procuring for him the titles of Cajsar and emperor 
from the senate, he marched to contend against Pescen'nius Niger in 
the east, previously inducing the senate to declare him a public enemy. 
His progress appears to have been uninterrupted until he reached 
Cyz'icus, where he routed the lieutenant of his rival, and by this vic- 
tory gained possession of lower Asia. Niger did not despair, but col- 
lecting a numerous army, occupied the mountain-passes between Cilicia 
and Syria, posting his main body along the Is'sus, where Alexander 
and Darius had long before contended for the sovereignty of Asia. 
After several engagements, Niger was completely defeated : he at- 
tempted to seek safety among the Parthians, but was overtaken near 
Antioch, and put to death (a. d. 194). Severus made a cruel use of 
his victory, slaughtering without mercy all who had favored the cause 
of his competitor. Byzantium remained faithful to the defeated general 
even after his death : it sustained a siege of three years' duration ; but 
was finally taken by storm, its inhabitants sold as slaves, and its walls 
levelled to the ground. 

Thus successful, Severus resolved to destroy Al'binus, whose sus- 
picions he had calmed while he was engaged in war with Niger. He 
first attempted to remove him by assassination ; but Al'binus discovered 
the plot, and made vigorous preparations for open war. This second 
contest for empire was decided in Gaul ; Al'binus, having been com- 
pletely routed near Lugdunum (Lyons), committed suicide ; and Severus 
could only vent his brutal spite on a senseless carcass. The friends 
of Al'binus met the same fate as the partisans of Niger. Severus re- 
turned to Rome, where he insulted the senate by pronouncing a labored 
eulogy on Com'modus ; and imitated that wicked monarch's example, 
by sentencing to a cruel death the most eminent of the nobility. 

A war with Parthia recalled the emperor to Asia. He Avas accom- 
panied by his sons Caracal'la and Geta, who were, like their father, 
learned in camps from infancy. Severus obtained distinguished suc- 
cess ; he captured Seleucia, Ctes'iphon, and Bab'ylon ; but he was com- 
pelled to raise the siege of Hat'ra (Hadhr), which had previously 
baffled the exertions of Trajan. These exploits might have procured 
the empire all the advantages to be derived from the rule of a gallant 
soldier, had not Severus chosen for his prime minister Plautianus, the 
captain of the praetorian guards : a man of insatiable avarice, whom he 
intrusted with almost absolute power. The ruin of the premier, how- 
ever, was occasioned by the very means he took to confirm his secu- 
rity : he procured the marriage of his daughter with Caracal'la ; but 
the young prince, disgusted by her imperious temper, became the bitter 
enemy of her and Plautianus. He soon inspired his father with a sus- 
picion that the minister secretly aimed at empire ; a charge to which 
the conduct of Plautianus gave some color of probability ; and when 



ROMAN EMPIRE. 283 

Sev^rus called his servant to account, the prince rushed upon him, and 
slew him in the imperial presence. 

A revolt in Britain once more called the emperor into the field. He 
proceeded to that island, easily quelled the disturbances, and marching" 
northward, gained several victories over the Caledonians. He extended 
the frontiers beyond Adrian's wall, and erected a new line of fortifica- 
tions between the friths of Clyde and Forth ; but the additional ter- 
ritory was abandoned in the reign of his successor. The fatigues of 
these campaigns, and the grief caused by the misconduct of his son 
Caracal'la, brought the emperor's gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. 
He died at Eboracum (York), in the eighteenth year of his reign (a. d. 
211). Severus deserves to be ranked among great rather than good 
princes ; he was cruel on system, attributmg the misfortunes of Pompey 
and the murder of Caesar to their excessive clemency : indeed, he 
wrote a vindication of his excessive severity, which, unfortunately, has 
not come down to our times. 

Caracal'la and Geta succeeded their father ; but the former was the 
bitter enemy of his more virtuous brother, and soon after his return to 
Rome, he slew him in his mother's arms. To prevent the consequen- 
ces of this atrocious murder, he gained the support of the praetorian 
cohorts by large donatives, and then, with strange inconsistency, pre- 
vailed upon the senate to rank his brother in the number of the gods. 
His sole dependance being on the army, he used the most iniquitous 
means to procure money for purchasing their venal support. The 
richest men in Rome were massacred under false accusations of trea- 
son, their properties confiscated, and their families insulted. He im- 
poverished his subjects in all the provinces of the empire by excessive 
taxes ; yet he gave away such immense sums to his guards, and paid, 
such heavy annuities to the barbarous tribes on the frontiers, that he 
was forced to debase the coinage. To lower the pride of the Romans, 
he granted the name and privileges of free citizens to all the subjects 
of the empire, and soon after commenced a tour through the provinces, 
to escape from his unpopularity at home. He undertook an expedition 
against the Cat'ti and Alleman'ni, but was defeated with great loss, and 
forced to buy a peace. From Germany he passed into Asia, where he 
gained some advantages over the Armenians ; and then visiting Egypt, 
he almost depopulated Alexandria, massacring the greater part of its 
citizens, on account of some lampoons that had been published against 
him. He was at length assassinated near Edes'sa by Macrinus, the 
prefect of the praetorian guard, an officer who since the time of Se- 
verus, ranked next to the emperor (a. d. 217). 

The soldiers were greatly enraged at the murder of Caracalla ; but 
Macrinus, by concealing his share in it, procured his election to the 
empire. Immediately after his accession, he proclaimed his son Dia- 
dumenus his successor, giving him the names of Caesar and Antoninus : 
when the troops were assembled to witness this ceremony, they de- 
manded, with one accord, the deification of Caracal'la ; and this dis- 
grace to humanity was actually ranked among the gods. While he 
was thus engaged, the Parthians passed the Roman frontiers, defeated 
the imperial armies, and compelled Macrinus to purchase a disgraceful 
peace by a vast sacrifice of wealth and territory. His extreme severity 



28 1 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

at length provoked the resentment of the licentious soldiery ; they were 
persuaded by Mce'sa, maternal aunt of the late emperor, that her grand- 
son Heliogabalus, a youth of fourteen, was the son of their favorite 
Caracal'la ; and a conspiracy was formed to place this young Syrian 
priest upon the throne. Macrinus, deserted by most of the legions, 
marched against his competitor with the praetorian cohorts ; but he fled 
from his men the moment that a battle commenced ; and the guards, 
enraged by liis cowardice, pursued and slew him (a. x>. 218). His son 
was at the same time taken prisoner, and executed as a common male- 
factor. 

Heliogabalus being thus victorious, sent intelligence of his success 
from Antioch to the senate, and was immediately acknowledged emperor. 
Though a mere boy, he was the most infamous monster that ever dis- 
graced a throne. He exceeded Nero in cruelty, Calig'ula in prodigality, 
and Com'modus in lewdness and debauchery. Soon after his arrival 
in Rome, he brought his grandmother to the senate, and ordered that 
she should for the future rank among the members ; he also instituted a 
a senate of women, under the presidency of his mother, the subjects of 
Avhose debates, consultations, and decrees, were the dresses of the 
Roman ladies, and the ceremony and etiquette to be observed in visits 
and entertainments. The Roman ladies scarcely wanted such an in- 
centive, they were at this time remarkable for the great attention they 
paid to decorating their persons, and especially ornamenting the head ; 
false hair was very commonly worn, and imported from Gaul, Germany, 
and the northern parts of Europe. 

The lascivious and superstitious idolatry of Syria was established in 
Rome, and the old forms of the national worship neglected — a change 
which gave great offence even to the demoralized guards. Mce'sa, 
foreseeing that the Romans would not long endure the yoke of so con- 
temptible a profligate, persuaded him to nominate his cousin, the Adr- 
tuous Alexander Severus, heir to the empire ; but scarcely had the ap- 
pointment been made, when Heliogabalus attempted to assassinate the 
worthy prince. This crime provoked a mutiny of the preetorian cohorts. 
Heliogabalus, and his mother Sce'mis, were murdered by the enraged 
soldiers, and their bodies thrown into the Tiber (a. d. 222). The 
senate immediately passed a decree excluding women from their body 
for ever. 

Alexander Severus commenced his reign by revoking all the edicts 
that had been issued by former emperors against the Christians. It is 
probable that his mother was a convert to the faith ; for he was well 
acquainted with its principles, and constantly repeated the golden rule, 
" Do unto others as you would they should do unto you," which he 
caused to be inscribed on his palace and several other edifices. Sup- 
ported by the favor of the guards, he introduced many beneficial re- 
forms, restoring the authority of the senate, and purifying the adminis- 
tion of justice. 

In the fourth year of his reign (a. d. 226), an important revolution in 
the east produced a total change in the political condition of central 
Asia. Ardeshir Babegan, called Artaxerxes by the western writers, 
restored the ancient dynasty and religion of Persia, or, as it Avas called 
by the natives, Iran. His standard was the apron of a blacksmith 



EOMAN EMPIRE. 285 

named Gavah, who, at an unknown age, had headed an insurrection 
against the oppressors of his country, similar to that of Wat Tyler in 
England. Multitudes flocked to the popular flag, and the Parthian, or 
Arsacid dynasty, was speedily subverted. One great effect of this rev- 
olution was to give a sudden and complete check to the progress of 
Christianity eastward ; it was thrown back upon the west ; but it long 
retained the marks of its contact, with the mystic and gloomy doctrines 
that have from unknown ages prevailed in central Asia. The Magian 
religion was restored to its pristine splendor : the sacred fire, that had 
been concealed in the mountains, once more burned on the ancient 
altars ; and the Sassanides, as Ardeshir's dynasty was named from 
Sassan, the most celebrated of his ancestors, refused to tolerate any 
faith but that of Zerdusht, or Zoroaster. 

The great aim of the Sassanid dynasty was to restore the nationality 
of Persia ; many of the edifices of the Hystaspid times were repaired, 
and all new buildings erected by the successors of Ardeshir were, as 
much as possible, constructed on ancient models. Hence many of their 
buildings are attributed to the earlier races of kings ; and it is not often 
easy to determine from external evidence to which age of Persian his- 
tory their splendid halls and palaces should be assigned. The remains 
of the magnificent palace of the Persian kings in Ctesiphon, which 
bears the name of Cyrus, may be unquestionably regarded as a Sassanid 
monument ; and as such the building affords proof of the great power 
and wealth of the house of Sassan. 

Ardeshir, placed upon the throne of Cyrus, claimed that monarch's 
empire as his inheritance, and prepared to drive the Romans from Asia. 
Alexander hastened to Antioch, and marched against the Persians, over 
whom he gained a great victory ; but a pestilence breaking out in his 
army prevented him from improving his advantages. He returned to 
Rome, and entered the city in triumph, his chariot being drawn, not, as 
was usual, by four white horses, but by four of the elephants he had 
captured. Soon after his return, intelligence arrived that the Germans 
had passed the Rhine, and were devastating Gaul ; upon which the 
emperor, to the great grief of the senate and people, led his victorious 
armies to protect that province. He found the legions quartered in 
Gaul demoralized by a long course of indulgence, and immediately ex- 
erted himself to restore the ancient discipline. The licentious soldiers 
could not endure the change, and their discontents were fomented by 
Maximin, a Thracian peasant, who had risen from the ranks to high 
command by his uncommon strength and valor. The prince's guards 
were bribed to quit their posts ; and a band of assassins entering the 
imperial tent slew him without resistance (a. d. 235). Thus fell this 
excellent prince in the very bloom of youth, just as his plans for resto- 
ring the ancient glory of the empire were beginning to be matured. 

Section VI. — From the Murder of Alexander to the Captivity of Valerian 
and the Usurpation of the Thirty Tyrants. 

FROM A. D. 235 TO A. D. 259. 

The murder of Alexander occasioned a great tumult, and confusion 
in the camp, during which the Pannonians proclaimed Maximin em- 



286 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

peror ; and the rest of the army seeing no other candidate come for- 
ward, acquiesced in their choice. Great personal strength was the 
first cause of the new emperor's elevation : it is said he could draw a 
Avagon which two oxen could not move, tear trees up by the roots, and 
crush pebbles to dust in his hands. But he was a brutal, ignorant bar- 
barian, uniting the cunning to the ferocity of a savage. He commenced 
his reign by massacring all who had been intimate with the late emperor, 
or who had shown sorrow for his death ; and he sent orders to the 
senate to register his sanguinary decrees, without asking that body to 
confirm his election. The war against the Germans was continued 
with great success ; one hundred and fifty of their villages were burned 
to the ground ; their country, to an extent of four hundred square miles, 
laid desolate ; and an incredible number of prisoners sent to be sold as 
slaves in Italy. Maximin marched next against the Dacians and 
Sarmatians, over whom he gained several victories ; and it is believed 
that he Avould have extended the frontiers of the empire to the northern 
ocean, had not his avarice and cruelty provoked a civil war. The 
revolt commenced in Africa, where two young men of high rank being 
condemned by the emperor's receiver-general to pay a fine that would 
have reduced them to beggary, conspired to save their fortunes by de- 
stroying him ; they were joined by several of the legionaries, and so 
rapid was their success, that they ventured to proclaim Gordian, pro- 
consul of Africa, then in the eightieth year of his age, sovereign of the 
empire. When news of this event reached Rome, the senators with 
one accord revolted from Maximin, and ordered all his friends in the 
city to be murdered. Intelligence of these events being conveyed to 
Maximin, he made peace with the northern barbarians, and led his 
army toward Italy, promising his soldiers that they should be enriched 
by the forfeited estates of his enemies. On his march he learned that 
Gordian and his son had been defeated and slain by Capelianus in 
Africa, but that the senate, undaunted by this calamity, had conferred the 
empire on Pupienus and Balbinus. This choice did not satisfy the 
people ; a vast multitude assembled while the new emperors were offer- 
ing the usual sacrifice, and demanded with loud clamor a prince of the 
Gordian family. After vainly attempting to disperse the mob, Balbinus 
and Pupienus sent for young Gordian, then only twelve years old, and 
proclaimed him Ceesar. In the meantime, Maximin entered Italy, and 
laid siege to Aquileia. The garrison made a very brave defence ; and 
the besiegers, hated by the entire empire, suffered more than the 
besieged, their stragglers being cut off, and their convoys intercepted. 
Exasperated by their sufferings, the imperialists resolved to remove the 
cause ; a large body marched in the noonday to the tent of Maximin, 
and slew him, his son, and all his principal favorites (a. d. 238). 
Though several legions of Pannonians and Thracians were in the camp, 
they did not attempt to revenge the death of an emperor who had 
always shown more favor to the barbarian than the Roman legions. 

Scarcely had domestic tranquillity been restored, Avhen the empire 
Avas involved in foreign wars. The Car'pi and Goths, passing the 
Danube, ravaged the province of Mce'sia ; while the Persians renewed 
their hostilities on the eastern frontiers. It was agreed among the 
princes, that Pupienus should undertake the defence of Syria, Balbinus 



■ROMAN EMPIRE. 287 

march against the Goths, and Gordian remain at the head of the admin- 
istration in Rome. But while the necessary armaments were in prepa- 
ration, a dangerous mutiny broke out among the praetorians : Pupienus 
and Balbinus, divided by mutual jealousies, could not unite for its sup- 
pression : they were both ntiurdered, and young Gordian remained sole 
emperor. 

Misitheus, captain of the praetorian guards, and father-in-law of the 
emperor, acted as minister and guardian of young Gordian. He was 
admirably qualified for such an important office, uniting the valor of a 
soldier to the wisdom of a statesman. The rapid successes of Shah- 
pur, or, as he was called by the Romans, Sapor, the second prince of 
the Sassanid dynasty, directed the attention of the emperor to the Per- 
sian war, and he went in person to protect the province of Syria. On 
his march toward the Hellespont, Gordian was defeated in a tumultu- 
ous engagement by the Alans ; but the barbarians did not know how to 
improve their success, and, after a short delay, he arrived safely in 
Asia. The Persians were defeated in every engagement ; and Sapor, 
forced to abandon Mesopotamia, was pursued to the very gates of 
Ctes'iphon. But these victories were more than counterbalanced by 
the death of Misitheus, who showed his patriotism, even in his last 
moments, by bequeathing all his estates to the Roman people. Gordian, 
having appointed Philip, the Arabian, his prime minister, continued the 
war against Sapor, and gave the Persians a decisive overthrow on the 
banks of the Chab'oras {Khabur), a tributary to the Euphrates, in Mes- 
opotamia. But while the young conqueror was pursuing the advantages 
of his victory, a mutiny was excited in his army by the traitor Philip, 
whom he was compelled to make a partner of his empire. Not content 
with this elevation, Philip procured the assassination of his youthful 
benefactor (a. d. 244) ; but the soldiers soon repented of their crime, 
and raised a splendid mausoleum to the memory of the youthful hero. 

Philip, being elevated to the empire by the army, wrote to the sen- 
ate, ascribing the death of Gordian to a natural disease : he then con- 
cluded a hasty peace with the Persians, and, returning to Syria, made 
all speed to Rome. Though the senate and people, warmly attached 
to the Gordian family, at first regarded him with aversion, he soon won 
their affections by his mild administration and obliging behavior. He 
is said to have been secretly a Christian, but many of his actions show 
that he had little regard foT any religion ; however, he was a decided 
enemy to persecution. His reign was rendered remarkable by the 
celebration of secular games for the thousandth anniversary of the 
foundation of the city : it was also disturbed by several insurrections, 
especially in Pannonia, the suppression of which he intrusted to Traja- 
nus Decius. Scarcely had this general reached lUyr^icum", when his 
soldiers compelled him, by the threat of instant death, to assume the 
imperial purple. Philip, leaving his son to protect Rome, marched 
against Decius, but was defeated and slain near Verona (a. d. 249) 
His son was massacred by the praetorian guards. 

Decius commenced his reign by one of the most sanguinary perse- 
cutions that ever oppressed the church. The Christians throughout 
the empire were driven from their habitations, dragged to execution 
like common malefactors, and subjected to the most exquisite tortures 



288 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

cruelty itself could invent. The laws of nature and humanity were 
violated, friend betrayed friend, brother informed against brother, chil- 
dren against their parents, and parents against their children ; every 
one thinking it meritorious to discover a Christian and procure his 
death. Decius vented his rage chiefly against the bishops. Among 
his victims were Fabian, bishop of Rome ; Bab'ylaz, bishop of Anti- 
och ; and Alexander, bishop of Jerusalem. Great numbers of Chris- 
tians betook themselves to mountains, rocks, and deserts, choosing 
rather to live among wild beasts than with men who had divested them- 
selves of reason and humanity. Among these was the celebrated 
Paul, who withdrew into the deserts of Eg}'pt, where he is said to 
have lived a solitary life for the greater part of a century. He is usu- 
ally regarded as the father and founder of the order of anchorets, or 
hermits, whose superstitious austerities appear to have been derived 
from the extraordinary penances practised by the fanatics of central 
and southern Asia. 

This persecution was interrupted by an invasion of the Goths, who, 
for the first time, crossed the Danube in considerable . numbers, and 
devastated Mce'sia. Decius marched against them, and gained some 
important advantages ; but in his last battle, charging into the midst of 
the enemy to avenge the death of his son, he was overpowered and 
slain (a. D. 251). A great number of the Romans, thus deprived of 
their leader, fell victims to the barbarians ; the survivors, grateful for 
the protection afforded them by the legions of Gallus, who commanded 
in the neighborhood, proclaimed that general emperor. 

Gallus concluded a dishonorable peace with the Goths, and renewed 
the persecutions of the Christians. His dastardly conduct provoked 
general resentment ; the provincial armies revolted, but the most dan- 
gerous insurrection was that headed by iEmilianus, who was proclaimed 
emperor in Mcs'sia. He led his forces into Italy, and the hostile armies 
met at Interamna (Terni) ; but just as an engagement was about to 
commence, Gallus Avas murdered by his own soldiers (a. d. 253), and 
iEmilianus proclaimed emperor. In three months iEmilianus him- 
self met a similar fate, the army having chosen Valerian, the governor 
of Gaul, to the sovereignty. 

Valerian, though now sixty years of age, possessed powers that 
might have revived the sinking fortunes of the empire, which was now 
invaded on all sides. The Goths, who had formed a powerful monar- 
chy on the lower Danube and the northern coasts of the Black sea, 
extended their territories to the Borys'thenes (Dnieper) and Tanais 
{Don) : they ravaged Mce'sia, Thrace, and Macedon ; while their fleets, 
which soon became formidable after the capture of the Tauric Cherso- 
nese (Crim Tartary), devastated the coasts both of the European and 
Asiatic provinces. The great confederation of the Franks became for- 
midable on the lower Rhine, and not less dangerous was that of the 
AUemanni on the upper part of that river. The Carpians and Sarma- 
tians laid Mce'sia waste. 

The Sarmatians Avere particularly formidable for their cavalry : both 
horses and men were covered with a curious kind of scale armor 
formed of the sliced hoofs of animals, which hung sufficiently loose not 
to impede the motions of the warrior, and was yet strong enough to 



^#. 



ROMAN EMPIRE. 289 

turn aside arrows and javelins. The light cavalry of the Persians at 
the same time devastated the greater part of western Asia, extending 
their ravages even to the shores of the Mediterranean. 

Gallienus, the emperor's son, whom Valerian had chosen for his col- 
league, and Aurelian, destined to succeed him in the empire, gained 
several victories over the Germanic tribes, while Valerian marched in 
person against the Scythians and Persians, who had invaded Asia. He 
gained a victory over the former in Anatolia, but, imprudently passing 
the Euphrates, he was surrounded by Sapor's army near Edes'sa, in a 
situation where neither courage nor military skill could be of any avail, 
and was forced to surrender at discretion (a. d. 259). During nine 
years Valerian languished in hopeless captivity, the object of scorn and 
insult to his brutal conqueror, while no effort was made for his libera- 
tion by his unnatural son. 

Section VII. — From the Captivity of Valerian to the Resignation of 
Dioclesian. 

FROM A. D. 260 TO A. D. 305. 

Gallie'nus succeeded to the throne, receiving the news of his fa- 
ther's misfortunes with secret pleasure and open indifference. He 
seemed to be versed in everything but the art of government ; " he was 
master of several curious but useless sciences, a ready orator and ele- 
gant poet, a skilful gardener, an excellent cook, and most contemptible 
prince."* At the moment of his accession, the barbarians, encouraged 
by the captivity of Valerian, invaded the empire on all sides. Italy 
itself was invaded by the Germans, who advanced to Raven'na but 
they were forced to retire by the emperor. Gallienus, after this exer- 
tion, sunk into complete inactivity : his indolence roused a host of com- 
petitors for the empire in the different provinces, commonly called " the 
thirty tyrants," though the number of pretenders*did not exceed nine- 
teen. It would be impossible to describe the various struggles for 
power between these rivals, which distracted every part of the empire 
Far the most remarkable of them was Odenatus, who assumed the pur- 
ple at Palmy'ra, gained several great victories over the Persians, and 
besieged Sapor in Ctes'iphon. Though he failed to take the city, he 
checked for a long time the progress of the Sassan^ides. Gallienus, 
hearing of these great achievements, resolved to convert a rival into a 
friend, and proclaimed Odenatus his partner in the empire. But this 
great man was murdered by some of his own family : he was succeeded 
by his wife, the celebrated Zenobia, who took the title of Queen of the 
East. Gallienus did not long survive him : he was murdered while be- 
sieging Aureolus, one of his rivals, in Mediolanum {Milan) ; but before 
his death he transmitted his rights to Claudius, a general of great rep- 
utation (a. d. 268). Most of the other tyrants had previously fallen in 
battle or by assassination. 

Mar'cus Aurelius Claudius, having conquered his only rival, Aureo- 
lus, marched against the Q^mans and Goths, whom he routed with 
great slaughter. He then prepared to march against Zenobia, who had 

• Gibbon. 
19 



290 ANCIENT HISTORY 

conquered Egypt ; but a pestilence broke out in his army, and the em- 
peror himseir was one of its victims (a. d. 270). Extraordinary hon- 
ors were paid to his memory by the senate. His brother was elected 
emperor by acclamation ; but in seventeen days he so displeased the 
army by attempting to revive the ancient discipline, that he was deposed 
and murdered. 

Aurelian, a native of Sir'mium, in Pannonia, was chosen emperor by 
the army ; and the senate, well acquainted with Jiis merits, joyfully 
confirmed the election. He made peace with the Goths, and led his 
army against the Germans, who had once more invaded Italy. Aure- 
lian was at first defeated ; but he soon retrieved his loss, and cut the 
whole of the barbarian army to pieces. His next victory was obtained 
over the Vandals, a new horde that had passed the Danube ; and hav- 
ing thus secured the tranquillity of Europe, he marched to rescue the 
eastern provinces from Zenobia. 

The queen of PaFmyra was one of the most illustrious women re- 
corded in history : she claimed descent from the Egyptian Ptolemies, 
but was probably of Jewish origin, since she is said to have professed 
the Jewish religion. She was well acquainted with the principal lan- 
guages of the eastern and western worlds, skilled in the leading sci- 
ences of her day, and so well versed in affairs of state, that the suc- 
cesses of her husband, Odenatus, are generally attributed to his having 
acted by her advice. For nearly six years she ruled Syria and Meso- 
potamia, discharging all the duties of an excellent sovereign and intrepid 
commander. Ambition, however, precipitated her ruin : not satisfied 
with the conquest of Egypt, she aspired at the sovereignty of Asia, and 
Aurelian resolved to put an end to usurpations so disgraceful to the 
Roman fame. 

On his march through Thrace, the emperor fought a great battle with 
the Goths. Not satisfied with a single victory, he pursued them across 
the Danube, routed their forces a second time, and slew one of their 
kings. Passing over into Asia, he encountered the forces of Zenobia 
near Antioch ; the battle was sanguinary and well contested, but in the 
end the Romans prevailed. A second victory enabled Aurelian to be- 
siege Palmy'ra, which the dauntless queen defended with great spirit 
and resolution. At length, finding that there was no hope of succor, 
she attempted secretly to fly into Persia, but was betrayed by her ser- 
vants, and taken prisoner. Palmy'ra surrendered ; but the citizens 
soon revolting, this great commercial capital was stormed, its inhabitants 
put to the sword, and its trade and prosperity irretrievably ruined. 

Scarcely had this revolt been subdued, when Aurelian was called 
upon to quell a formidable insurrection in Egypt. The celerity of his 
march disconcerted the rebels ; they were speedily conquered ; and the 
emperor, having thus suppressed all the troubles of the east, resolved to 
recover Gaul, Spain, and Britain, which had now for thirteen years 
ieen the prey of different tyrants. A single campaign restored these 
provinces to the empire ; and Aurelian, returning to Rome, was honored 
with the most magnificent triumph that th^|ity had ever beheld. Far 
more honorable to him, however, was his ^lerous treatment of his cap- 
tives — a suitable estate was granted at Tibur [Tivoli) to Zenobia and 
ner children. The princess, reconciling herself to her lot, became a 



EOMAN EMPIRE. 291 

respectable Roman matron ; and her family was not extinct in the fifth 
century. 

Tranquillity was first disturbed by a violent insurrection excited at 
Rome by the debasing of the coinage. The imperial troops, sent to 
drive the mob from the Ccelian hill, were routed with the loss of seven 
thousand men, and it was with the utmost difficulty that the insurgents 
were reduced. Aurelian punished the principal authors of the tumult 
with great severity, not to say cruelty, and, finding that he had thus be- 
come unpopular, left the city. He directed his course to Gaul, where 
he appeased some growing disturbances ; thence he marched to Vinde- 
llcia, and restored it to the empire : but he abandoned the province of 
Dacia to the barbarians, withdrawing all the Roman garrisons that had 
been stationed beyond the Danube. 

Aurelian's virtues were sullied by the sternness and severity that 
naturally belongs to a peasant and a soldier. His officers dreaded his 
inflexibility, which had been already shown in his sentencing his own 
nephew to death. While he was thus preparing to lead his army 
against the Persians, he discovered an act of peculation committed by 
Mnestheus, one of his secretaries, and threatened a severe punishment. 
The guilty functionary, having no other hope of escape, conspired with 
several others exposed to legal vengeance : they assailed the emperor, 
escorted only by a few friends, on his road to Byzantium, and slew him 
with innumerable wounds (a. d. 275). But the assassins did not escape 
the punishment due to their crimes ; the soldiers, attached fondly to an 
emperor who had so often led them to victory, tore the authors of his 
death to pieces. They showed, at the same time, greater respect for 
the law than had ever been displayed by their predecessors, cheerfully 
referring the choice of an emperor to the senate. 

After a tranquil interregnum of more than six months, the senate elect- 
ed Mar'cus Claudius Tacit/us, a member of their own body, in spite of 
his great age, for he was already passed his seventy-fifth year. Having 
enacted some useful laws, the emperor marched against the A'lans, who 
had overrun Asia Minor. He defeated the barbarians ; but the fatigues 
of the campaign proved too much for his constitution, and he died in 
Cappadocia, after a short reign of about seven months, 

Floran, the brother of Tacit'us, was elected emperor by the senate, 
but Mar'cus Aurelius Probus was the choice of the Syrian army ; and 
a civil war soon began between these rivals. But Florian's own soldiers 
took oflence at some part of his conduct, rose in sudden mutiny, and put 
him to death. Probus, now undisputed master of the empire, led his 
troops from Asia to Gaul, which was again devastated by the German 
tribes ; he not only defeated the barbarians, but pursued them into their 
own coimtry, where he gained greater advantages than any of his pre- 
decessors. Thence he passed into Thrace, where he humbled the 
Goths ; and returning to Asia, he completely subdued the insurgent 
Isaurians, whose lands he divided among his veterans. Alarmed at 
these victories, Bahram II., king of Persia, called Var'ames by the 
western writers, sent ambassadors to solicit peace, and submitted to the 
terms dictated by the emperor. Three competitors in different provin- 
ces were next subdued ; but when wars were at an end, the emperor 
employed his armies in useful public works, which so offended the licen- 



292 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

tious soldier)', that they siuldenly attacked and slew him (a. d. 282), 
They subsequently repented of the crime, and united to raise a stately 
monument to his memory. 

Cams, the captain of the praetorian guards, was elected emperor by 
the army ; and the senate, not without reluctance, assented to the ar- 
rangement. The new emperor gave the title of Csesar to his sons Ca- 
rinus and Numerianus, the former of whom was one of the most 
depraved young men of his time ; the latter a model of every virtue. 
The new emperor signalized his accession by a brilliant victory over 
the Sarmatians : he would have pursued these barbarians into their na- 
tive wilds, had he not been summoned to Asia by a new invasion of the 
Persians. Leaving the care of the western provinces to Carinus, the 
emperor, accompanied by Numerianus, hastened into Mesopotamia, 
where he defeated Bahrain, and, pursuing the Persians into their own 
country, besieged Ctes'iphon. The city would probably have been 
taken, had not the emperor fallen a victim to disease, or, as others say, 
to a thunderbolt (a. d. 283). Numerianus was chosen his successor; 
but, after a iew months' reign, he was assassinated by A'per his father- 
in-law and captain of his guards. The crime, however, was discovered, 
and the murderer put to death by the army. 

Dioclesian, said to have been originally a slave, was unanimously 
saluted emperor, by the army. He was proclaimed at Chal'cedon on 
the 17th of December, a. d. 284 ; an epoch that deserves to be remem- 
bered, as it marks the beginning of a new era, called " the era of Dio- 
clesian," or " the era of martyrs," which long prevailed in the church, 
and is still used by the Copts, the Abyssinians, and other African na- 
tions. When Carinus heard of his brother's death, he assembled a nu- 
merous army, marched from Gaul into lUyr'icum, where he conquered 
a usurper named Julianus, and thence advancing into Mce'sia, inflicted 
a severe defeat on the army of Dioclesian, in the plains of Mar'gus 
[Morava Hissar). But in the very moment of victory a tribune, whose 
wife he had seduced, seized the opportunity of revenge, and by a single 
blow put an end to the civil war. 

Dioclesian made a generous use of his victory : in an age when death, 
exile, and confiscation, were the usual fate of the conquered party, the 
new emperor did not even deprive his rival's ministers of office. The 
troubles of the empire appearing too great to be managed by a single 
mind, Dioclesian voluntarily gave himself a colleague, selecting for this 
high situation his friend Maximian, a brave and skilful soldier, but un- 
fortunately also au ignorant and ferocious barbarian. Scarcely had the 
appointment been made, when Maximian was called upon to exert his 
military talents in Gaul, both in suppressing insurrections and checking 
the barbarians. He effected his purposes with great skill ; while his 
colleague gained several victories over the Sarmatians in the east. 

A brief interval of tranquillity was followed by new and more alarm- 
ing disturbances in every part of the empire. The two sovereigns, in 
great alarm, resolved on a further division of authority ; each chose an 
associate and successor, with the title of Csesar, who was to be invested 
with a considerable share of imperial power : to this new dignity Dio- 
clesian nominated Max'imin Galerius ; and Maximian, Constan'tius 
Chlorus. A division of the empire followed : Dioclesian took the prov- 



ROMAN EMPIRE. 293 

inces beyond the ^gean sea ; Thrace and Illyr'icura were assigned to 
Galerius ; Maximian received Italy and Africa ; Gaul, Spain, and Brit- 
ain, were intrusted to Constan'tius. 

Although this arrangement appears to have been rendered necessary 
by the circumstances of the empire, it undoubtedly hastened its decline : 
four courts, with all their expensive adjuncts, were now to be maintain- 
ed, instead of one : taxes were multiplied ; the inhabitants of several 
provinces reduced to beggary, and agriculturists, unable to meet the 
imposts levied on land and produce, left the fields in many districts un- 
cultivated. Italy, which had hitherto borne a very light share of the 
public burdens, was no longer permitted to claim exemption as the seat 
of domestic empire, and was soon reduced to a deplorable condition. 

Britain, which had been usurped by Caraiisius, early claimed the at- 
tention of Constan'tius : it was, however, necessary to prepare a fleet 
for the invasion, as the usurper was powerful by sea ; and while the 
naval armament was preparing, Constan'tius gained several victories 
over the German hordes. Just as he was about to set sail, he learned 
that Carusius had been deposed and murdered by a new usurper, named 
Allec'tus, far inferior to his victim in talent and popularity. The Ca3sar 
instantly hastened to cross the channel ; Allec'tus was defeated and slain 
in Kent, the remainder of the province quickly reduced to obedience, 
and the ravages of the barbarians on the northern frontiers prevented. 
Galerius was as successful on the Danube as Constan'tius in Britain 
and on the Rhine ; Maximian reduced the barbarous tribes that had in- 
vaded Africa, while Dioclesian quelled a dangerous revolt in Egypt. 
He was soon summoned to protect the empire from a dangerous inva- 
sion of the Persians ; Galerius had been sent from the Danube to the 
Euphrates to check their progress, but he was defeated by the Sassa- 
nid monarch Narsi, on the very field which had been so fatal to Cras'- 
sus and his legions. Dioclesian showed great indignation at the mis- 
conduct of Galerius, to which he attributed the recent calamity ; but at 
length he permitted himself to be mollified, and intrusted the Caesar 
with a new army for a second campaign. 

In the following year the Romans again invaded Persia ; but, profit- 
ing by recent and bitter experience, the leader left the plains of Meso- 
potamia on the right, and led his forces through the Armenian mount- 
ains, which were more favorable for the operations of his infantry, in 
which the principal strength of his army consisted. Masking his 
course from the enemy, Galerius unexpectedly rushed down from the 
the hills on the Persian lines : the surprise, the impetuosity of the at- 
tack, and the desire for revenge which animated the Romans, rendered 
their onset irresistible. Narsi was severely wounded, but escaped by 
the swiftness of his horse, leaving his entire family, his magnificent 
tents, and his sumptuous camp-equipage, as a prize to the conquerors. 
A bag of embossed leather filled with pearls, fell into the hands of a 
private soldier : unacquainted with the value of his prize, he flung the 
pearls away, keeping the bag as something that might be useful. Ga- 
lerius treated his royal captives with the greatest kindness and gener- 
osity ; his conduct produced such an efl'ect on Narsi's heart, that he so- 
licited peace. The great province of Mesopotamia {(Juzirah) was 
yielded to the Romans, together with five districts beyond the Tigris, 



294 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

inclu'ling the greater part of Carduchia (Kurdistan), a country more 
fruitful in soldiers than grain, but which, from its strength and position, 
coininands the greater part of western Asia. These districts were taken 
from Tiridates, king of Armenia, the ally of the Romans ; but he was 
indemnified, at the expense of Persia, by the fine province of Atropa- 
tcnc [Azrrhijdn). When the Armenian took possession of this country, 
he made its chief city, Tauris (Tabriz), the metropolis of his kingdom, 
and greatly improved that ancient capital. 

But these triumphs were sullied by a general persecution of the 
Christians (the tenth and last), which Dioclesian is said to have com- 
menced at the instigation of Galerius (a. d. 303). It lasted ten entire 
years, and exceeded all the preceding in its indiscriminate massacres 
and severities. Such multitudes of Christians sufTcred death, in all the 
provinces of the empire, that the emperors believed that they had ac- 
complished their purpose, and completely extirpated Christianity. 
They told the world in a pompous inscription, that they had extinguish- 
ed the Christian name and superstition, and everywhere restored the 
worship of the gods to its former purity and lustre. But the church 
triumphed over all their artifices and power ; and, in spite of the ut- 
most efforts of tyranny, many years had not elapsed after the publica- 
tion of this boast, when it reigned triumphant in the very metropolis of 
idolatry and superstition. 

Dioclesian prepared to return to Rome, but was delayed for some 
time by a strange revolt in Syria. Eugenius, an officer of little or no 
reputation, had been intrusted with the command of five hundred men 
in Seleucia, who, being employed all day in cleansing the harbor, and 
compelled to work all night baking their ow^n bread, resolved to de- 
liver themselves from such insupportable drudgery ; and forthwith pro- 
claimed their governor emperor. Eugenius at first refused the dignit■^" ; 
but being threatened wdth instant death, he allowed himself to be in- 
vested with the purple, and by a rapid march, got possession of Anti- 
och. When the citizens, however, recovered from their surprise, they 
fell upon the insurgents, and cut them to pieces. Dioclesian, instead 
of rewarding the people of Antioch for their fidelity, ordered their chief 
magistrates to be put to death without inquiry or trial ; a crime which 
rendered him so odious to the Syrians, that for more than ninety years 
they could not hear his name pronounced without a shudder. 

Rome, on the return of the two emperors, witnessed for the last time, 
the splendid ceremonial of a triumph ; it was less costly than those of 
Aurelian and Probus, but it commemorated greater and more useful vic- 
tories. In his triumph, and in the spectacles that followed it, however, 
Dioclesian having displayed more parsimony than was pleasing to the 
people, he was assailed by jests and lampoons, which annoyed him so 
much, that he quitted the city for Raven'na. On his journey a severe 
storm arose, and the cold which he caught produced a long and linger- 
ing disease that affected his reason. After he had begiin to recover, he 
was induced, or perhaps compelled, to resign the empire, by Galerius 
(a. d. 305). He persuaded Maximian to abdicate also. The two 
Caesars became emperors, and chose two other nobles to fill the station 
they had occupied. 

Dioclesian survived his abdication nearly nine years ; lie resided 



ROMAN EMPIRE. 295 

during this time at his country-seat near Salona (Spalatro), where the 
ruins of his palace may still be seen. He never regretted the power 
he had resigned ; and when Maximian and others wrote, inviting him 
to make a struggle for empire, he replied : " I wish you would come to 
Salona, and see the cabbages I have planted : after having once visited 
luy garden, you would never again mention to me the name of empire." 
The close of his life was embittered by domestic misfortune, by the in- 
gratitude of Constantine and Licin'ius, and by the calamities which he 
foresaw that the dissensions of these rivals would bring upon the em- 
pire. There are various accounts given of the manner of his death, and 
it is impossible to discover whether he fell by his own hand or by 
natural disease. 

Section VIII. — From the Abdication of DiocUsian to the Death of Constan- 
tine the Great. 

FROM A. D. 303 TO A. D. 337. 

The Caesars, Severus and Max'imin, owed their elevation to Gale- 
rius ; but they were not quite so subservient to his wishes as he ex- 
pected, both showing themselves favorable to the toleration of the 
Christians. Arrangements were made for the division of the empire ; 
Constan'tius and Severus received the western provinces ; Galerius and 
Max'imin ruled all the territories east of the Adriatic. Constantine, the 
celebrated son of Constan'tius, was sick in the provinces assigned to 
Galerius when the empire was thus divided ; some efforts were made 
to assassinate a prince whose talents and popularity had already ren- 
dered him formidable. He escaped the danger by a rapid flight, and 
came to his father, who was just about to embark at Gessoriacum 
{^Boulogne) for Britain. The presence of Constantine was required in 
that island by a formidable invasion of the Picts, a nation now for the 
first time mentioned in history ; but while on his march against these 
barbarians, he was seized with a mortal disease, and died at Ebor'acum 
{York), where his body was honorably interred by his son Constantine 
(a. d. 306). 

Constantine was instantly proclaimed Augustus by the soldiers ; but 
Galerius would only give him the title of Caesar, declaring that Severus 
was his partner in the empire. Maxen'tius, the son of Maximian, in- 
dignant at his exclusion from power, caused himself to be proclaimed 
emperor by the dissatisfied soldiery, and induced his father to abandon 
his solitude, and remount the throne. Severus led an army against 
them ; but he was abandoned by the greater part of his troops, taken 
prisoner, and put to death (a. d. 307). Maximian, knowing that Ga- 
lerius would revenge the murder of Severus, strengthened himself by 
entering into close alliance with Constantine, to whom he gave his 
daughter Fausta in marriage. Nor did he dread Galerius without a 
cause : that emperor hastened from the east with a large army, and 
attempted to besiege Rome ; but failing in this enterprise, he permitted 
his soldiers to devastate Italy. Maximian had gone to Gaul, hoping to 
receive aid from Constantine ; but finding that prudent prince by no 
means disposed to encounter the hazards of a dangerous war, and hear- 
ing that Galerius had retreated precipitately, he returned to Rome^ 



296 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

where he reigned conjointly with his son. In the meantime, Galerius 
conferred the title of emperor on his friend Licinius ; and thus the em- 
pire was shared between six sovereigns.* 

Maxiniian liaving quarrelled with bis son, returned to Gaul, where he 
began to plot against the life of Constantino ; but his treachery Avas 
discovered, and he was deservedly executed (a. d. 310). In the fol- 
lowing year a loathsome disease, produced by debaucher}', removed 
Galerius from the stage ; his dominions were divided between Maximin 
and Licinius. It was scarcely possible that peace could long continue 
between the four princes who now shared the empire. Constantine 
<iiad won the affections of his subjects by his wise and beneficent ad- 
ministration in Gaul, while the cruelty and rapacity of Maxen'tius filled 
Italy and Africa with confusion. But the tyrant was not conscious of 
the weakness that resulted from his crimes. Under pretence of re- 
venging the death of his father, he ordered all the statues erected in 
honor of Constantine throughout Italy to be thrown down, and thus pro- 
voked a war with the most able prince of the age. Constantine having 
passed the Alps, defeated the lieutenants of Maxen'tius at Augusta Tau- 
rinorum ( Turin) and Ver'ona, while the tjrrant himself remained sunk in 
sloth and luxury at Rome. At length he was roused from his lethargy 
by the rapid approach of the victorious army ; a dreadful battle was 
fought at a place called Sax'a Rubra, within nine miles of Rome, near 
the little river Cremera, so memorable for the destruction of the Fabii. 
The result was fatal to Maxen'tius ; the prseiorian guards, on whom he 
chiefly relied, were broken and cut to pieces by the repeated charges 
of the Gallic horse. The tyrant himself was drowned in the Tiber, 
while attempting to make his escape through the crowd over the Milvian 
bridge (a. d. 312). It was during this campaign that Constantine is 
said to have seen a miraculous vision of a luminous cross in the heavens, 
a little before sunset ; and to have been warned in a dream to take this 
sacred symbol as his standard. The principal evidence for the truth 
of this miracle is the emperor's own account of the event, related many 
years afterward to Eusebius ; one circumstance, however, greatly 
weakens his testimony ; the vision was so far from producing the con- 
version of Constantine, that he did not receive baptism until a short 
time before his death. 

No sooner had the death of Maxen'tius made Constantine master of 
Rome, than he removed the great source of all the calamities that had 
befallen the city under the empire, by disbanding the praetorian guards, 
and destroying their fortified camp. He restored the authority of the 
senate and magistrates, recalled all those who had been banished by 
Maxen'tius, and dismissed the entire tribe of spies and informers. He 
revoked all the edicts that had been issued against the Christians and 
paid great respect to the bishops and clerg)', either on account of the 
miraculous vision already mentioned, or, as is more probable, through 
gratitude for the efficient aid he had received from the Christians in the 
recent contest, and anxiety to secure their assistance in any future 
struggle. 

Maximin was a devoted adherent of paganism ; he viewed the in- 
novations of Constantine with great hostility ; and when Licinius mar- 
* Maximian, Galerius, Licinius, Maximin, Constantiae, and Maxeatios. 



aOMAN EMPIRE. 297 

tied the sister of that prince, he resolved to destroy both. Taking ad- 
vantage of the w^ar in which Constantine was involved with the Franks, 
he marched against Licin'ius, hoping to destroy him before any as- 
sistance could arrive from the west. His first efforts were crowned 
with success ; but being totally defeated near Adrianople, he fled with- 
out attendants to Nicomedia, Avhere he soon died of rage and disap- 
pointment (a. d. 313). Licin'ius made a cruel use of his victory, 
slaughtering without mercy all whom he deemed likely to become com- 
petitors for empire : among the most illustrious of his victims were the 
wife and daughter of Dioclesian. 

Constantine, during this war, was engaged in securing the tranquil-^ 
lity of western Europe ; he gave an unquestionable proof of his attach- 
ment to Christianity by convening a general council of the bishops at 
Arelate (Aries), to suppress the heresy of the Donatists ; but before the 
assembly met, he was forced to take the field against Licin'ius, who had 
thrown down his statues in ^Enona (Lat/bach), a city of upper Pan- 
nonia. With his usual celerity, Constantine hastened into Pannonia 
before Licin'ius could expect his arrival ; but he found that prince al- 
ready in the field. A fierce battle was fought at the little town of 
Cib'alis or Ceb'alae (Sevilei), not far from Sir'mium, in which Licin'ius 
was defeated, and forced to fly into Thrace. Thither he was followed 
by Constantine, vanquished a second time, and forced to consent to 
an accommodation, by which lUyr'icum, Macedon, Greece, and lower 
Mce'sia, were yielded to Constantine (a. d. 314). The conqueror im- 
mediately took the most prudent measures to secure his new acquisi- 
tions ; while Licin'ius continued to provoke his subjects by repeated 
cruelties and exactions. 

Foreign invasions led to a renewal of the civil war. Constantine 
having conquered the Sarmatians and Goths, pursued the latter into ter- 
ritories of Licin'ius, and that prince immediately declared that the 
recent articles of peace had been violated (a. d. 322). Great prepara- 
tions were made on both sides for the renewal of hostilities, but Con- 
stantine was the first to take the field, and entering Thrace he found 
his rival encamped on the Hebrus (Maritza), not far from Adrianople. 
The battle was in some measure a struggle between Christianity and 
paganism : Constantine displayed the banner of the cross, Licin^ius 
the ancient idolatrous standards of the empire : the struggle was 
fierce — it ended in the total overthrow of Licin'ius, who had the further 
mortification of learning that his fleet had been destroyed in the straits 
of Callip'olis (GaWijooZi) by Crispus, the eldest son of Constantine. 
An attempt was made to terminate the struggle by negotiation, but it 
was frustrated by the insincerity of Licin'ius : he hazarded a second 
engagement, and was irretrievably ruined. From the field of battle the 
defeated tyrant fled to Nicodemia, but he was soon taken prisoner, and 
put to death (a. d. 324). Constantine being thus sole master of the 
empire, restored the churches, of which the Christians had been de- 
prived in the eastern provinces, to their respective pastors, and issued 
several edicts for the suppression of idolatry. 

New controversies in the church led to the convocation of the cele- 
brated council of Nice, in which the doctrine of the Trinity was fixed 
and defined, the heresy of Arius condemned, and the spiritual suprem- 



298 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

acy of the emperor virtually acknowledged (a. d. 325). When the 
labors of this celebrated assembly terminated, Constantine returned to 
the western provinces, and paid a visit to Rome. His reception in the 
city was anything but flattering ; the populace loaded him with insults 
and execrations for abandoning the religion of his forefathers ; and his 
rage at such injurious treatment is said to have greatly influenced his 
determination of transferring the seat of government from Rome to By- 
zantium. At the same time he was harassed by domestic troubles, 
which led him to commit a horrid crime. Instigated by the empress 
Fausta, he put his eldest son, the virtuous Crispus, to death without a 
trial ; and when he too late discovered his error, he caused Fausta 
and her accomplices to be slain. These horrors aggravated his unpop- 
ularity among the Romans ; but he no longer regarded their displeas- 
ure, having finally resolved to give a new capital to the empire (a. d. 
330). 

Anger and caprice were not the only causes that induced Constan- 
tine to make such an important change ; indeed, the removal of the 
seat of government was justified by considerations of the soundest 
policy. The eastern provinces were exposed to the attacks of a pow- 
erful dynasty, the Persian Sassan'ides, who openly aspired to the an- 
cient empire of Cy'rus ; the frontier of the Danube was not sufficient 
to restrain the Goths and Sarmatians ; the emperors would therefore 
have endangered the most faithful and wealthy portions of their domin- 
ions, had they continued to reside in western Europe. A metropolis 
on the confines of Europe and Asia Avas at once recommended, by the 
political advantages of its central situation, and the opportunities it af- 
forded for reviving the lucrative commerce of the Euxine and the east- 
ern Mediterranean. A slight glance at the natural advantages of By- 
zantium, Avill show that it was worthy of being made the metropolis of 
an empire by the wise sovereign whose name it bears. 

The area of Constantinople is an irregular triangle, whose apex, an 
obtuse point advancing to the east and toward the Asiatic coast, meets 
and repels the waters of the Thracian Bosphorus. On the north is a 
winding harbor, known both in ancient and modern times by the name 
of Chryso-Keras, or the Golden Horn : it is about seven miles in 
length, with good anchorage through the greater part of its extent : the 
entrance is not more than five hundred yards wide, and may be easily 
defended against a hostile armament. On the southeastern side the 
walls of the city are washed by the Propon'tis {^sea of Marmora), and 
the west forms the base of the triangle which is connected with the 
continent. Thus situated, the Euxine sea on the one side, and the 
iEgean on the other, could supply it with the richest productions of 
Europe and Asia ; while its shape rendered it easily defensible against 
the savage and plundering tribes of Thrace. 

Enormous sums were expended by Constantine in embellishing his 
new capital ; unfortunately, there was equal prodigality in the other 
branches of the administration, and the emperor's rule became grinding 
and severe. But he did not abandon his warlike character ; he se- 
verely chastised the Goths and Sarmatians, who invaded Thrace, and 
compelled them to give hostages for their future good conduct. In the 
decline of his life, he appears to have adopted much of the pomp and 



ROMAN EMPIRE. 299 

luxury cliaracteristic of Asiatic despots ; but when increasing disease 
warned him of approaching dissolution, he received the sacrament of 
baptism, and expired ten months afterward, in the thirtieth year of his 
reign (a. d. 335). He left three sons to inherit his empire. 

The removal of the seat of government consummated the revolution 
in the Roman constitution which had been commenced in the reign of 
Dioclesian ; it became a simple despotism, with more of a political 
than military character. An entire change was made in the form of 
administration ; the magistrates being divided into three classes, the 
iUuslrissimi, the spectab' iles, and the clarissimi (illustrious, respectable, 
and honorable). 

The magistrates of the first class were, the consuls and patricians, 
the praetorian and metropolitan praefects, the masters-general of cavalry 
and infantry, and the seven great officers of the household. The titles 
of consul and patrician were merely honorary. They were conferred 
by the emperor at his pleasure, and in both cases the distinctions were 
personal, not hereditary. The power of the praetorian praefects ranked 
next to that of the emperors. The Roman dominions were divided 
into four great prajfectures, and these again were subdivided into dio- 
ceses and provinces. The praefectures were named, those of the East, 
Illyr'icum, Italy, and Gaul. To the prfetorian praefects was assigned 
the civil government of these several divisions ; but Constantine had 
taken care that such power should not be rendered too dangerous by 
being united with military command. To their charge were intrusted 
the coinage, the highways, the ports, the granaries, the manufactures, 
and everything that could interest the public prosperity of their respect- 
ive districts. They were empowered to explain, enforce, and in some 
cases modify, the imperial edicts. They could remove or punish the 
provincial governors ; an appeal lay to their tribunal from all inferior 
jurisdictions ; and the sentence of the praefect was final. 

Rome and Constantinople had pYaefects of their own. The superior 
dignity of their tribunals caused those of the praetors to be deserted, 
and the most ancient title of Roman magistracy soon fell into desue- 
tude. The peace of both capitals was preserved by a vigilant police ; 
and so numerous were the statues with which they were adorned, that 
a magistrate was specially appointed to preserve them from injury. 

The great officers of the state and court were, 1. The prcepositus 
sancti cubiculi (lord chamberlain), whose duty it was " to attend the 
emperor in his hours of state or amusement, and to perform about his 
person all those menial offices which can only derive their splendor 
from the influence of royalty." Under him were all the comites palatii 
(lords of the palace), and cuhicularii (chamberlains), many of whom, at 
a later age, were eunuchs of great influence. 2. The magister afflcio- 
rum (minister for the home department) : to him was intrusted the man- 
agement of all correspondence between the prince and his subjects, 
memorials, petitions, letters, and their answers. He was also inspector- 
general of the civil and military schools, and appeals lay to his tribunal 
from every part of the empire, in cases where the privileges of the 
imperial officers were concerned. 3. The comes sacrarum largitionum 
(lord high treasurer), was the chief minister of finance : his duties 
were not confined to the charge of the exchequer and superintendence 



300 ANCIENT HISTOEY. 

of tax-gatherers : he had also the charge over manufactures and com- 
merce, which Constantino, with more wisdom than most of his prede- 
cessors, brought under the especial care of the state. 4. The qucestor 
(principal secretary of state) was the representative of the emperor's 
legislative power, and the original source of civil jurisprudence ; some 
of his functions appear to have fceen similar to those of the British lord 
chancellor. 5. The comes rei principis (keeper of the pri\y purse) 
had the charge of the imperial private estates, which were scattered 
through the provinces, from Mauritania to Britain. 6 and 7. The com- 
ites domesticorum (commanders of the household guards) presided over 
the seven scholm (troops or squadrons) of cavalry and infantry that 
guarded the emperor's person. 

The commanders of the army were the magistri equitum (generals of 
cavalry), magistri peditum (generals of infantry), and the magistri utri- 
usque militicE (commander-in-chief) ; those who commanded under them 
were called duces and comites (dukes and counts) ; they were distin- 
guished by wearing a golden belt, and received, in addition to their pay, 
a liberal allowance, sufficient to maintain one hundred and ninety ser- 
vants, and one hundred and fifty-eight horses. Constantine changed 
the entire constitution of the legions, diminishing their number to less 
than one fourth : to secure a regular supply of young soldiers, he made 
it one of his conditions, in assigning lands to the veterans, that their 
sons should be trained to the profession of arms. But the necessity for 
such a stipulation is not the only proof we have of the decay of military 
spirit. Such was the dislike the degenerate Romans entertained for a 
soldier's life, that many young men in Italy mutilated the lingejs of 
their right hand to avoid being pressed into the service. In conse- 
quence of this reluctance, the custom of employing the barbarians as 
soldiers became every day more frequent and more fatal. They were 
not only enlisted in the ranks, but many of them were raised to the 
highest dignities of the state. 

These changes in the constitution of the civil and military adminis- 
tration of the empire rendered the government more costly, and required 
an entirely new system of taxation for their support. It is one of the 
few advantages of an arbitrary government, that it is not tempted to de- 
lude its subjects by the onerous and expensive machinery of indirect 
taxation through the excise and customs, where an apparent choice is 
left to the purchaser, and his payment of the tax, by buying the taxed 
article, seems to be voluntary. A despot may venture on direct taxa- 
tion of property or person ; and, though this is apparently more harsh, 
it is in reality more favorable to the subject. The first of the new 
taxes was the indiction, an annual land-tax, levied proportionately to the 
fertility of the estates possessed by landed proprietors ; and a general 
census, or survey of property, was made throughout the empire every 
fifteen j-ears, to regulate this assessment. Hence the name of indiction 
is given indiflferently to the tax and to the cycle of registration. Trade 
and commerce were subjected to an impost called the aurum lustrale, 
which was collected every fourth year. " The honorable merchant of 
Alexandria, who imported the gems and spices of India for the Avestem 
world ; the usurer, who derived from the interest of money a silent and 
ignominious profit ; the ingenious manufactmrer, the diligent mechanic, 



ROMAN EMPIRE. 301 

and even tlie most obscure retailer of a sequestered village, were obliged 
to admit the officers of the revenue into the partnership of their gain ; 
and the sovereign of the Roman empire, who tolerated the profession, 
consented to share the infamous gain of prostitutes."* The last impo- 
sition that need be noticed was originally a free gift, called auriim coro- 
narium, being a compensation for the crown of gold presented by the 
allies of the Romans to generals who had been the authors of their de- 
liverance, or who had conferred upon them any remarkable favor. This 
spontaneous offering was at length exacted as a debt, whenever the 
emperor announced any remarkable event which might give him a real 
or apparent claim to the benevolence of his subjects, such as his ac- 
cession, the birth of a son, or a victory over the barbarians. To these 
must be added, the municipal expenses, which fell almost wholly on the 
civic officers. Instead of having a system of local taxation, the rich- 
est citizens were obliged to take in turn the duty of providing for the 
administrative wants of the towns in which they resided ; but our in- 
formation respecting the practical operation of this plan is too limited 
for us to pronounce any opinion upon its efficiency. 

It must not be supposed that evil alone resulted from these changes ; 
on the contrary, under the circumstances of the empire, Constantine's 
innovations were for the most part useful reforms. The great curse of 
the Romans during several centuries had been military despotism ; but 
the license of the turbulent soldiery was checked and restrained by 
" the pride, pomp, and circumstance," with which the civil administra- 
tion was surrounded. The despotism of a court was put in place of 
the despotism of a camp, and it needs not to be told, how vast was the 
improvement that must have resulted from such an alteration. 

Under Constantine, Christianity became the established religion of 
the empire. He found the constitution of the church already organized 
— its form of government firmly established. Even in the reign of Dio- 
clesian the bishops held an honorable rank in their respective provinces, 
and were treated with proper respect, as men of high and sacred sta- 
tion, not only by the people, but the magistrates themselves. Constan- 
tine saw clearly the advantages that would result to the extent and sta- 
bility of his power by cementing the union between the church and the 
state ; he therefore appropriated a great portion of the revenue of cities 
to the endowment of churches and the support of the clergy. Thus 
religion came to the aid of police in checking turbulence, and, but 
for the crimes and follies of the rulers, the Roman empire might have 
enjoyed a long course of prosperity under the constitution of Constan- 
tine. 



Section IX. — From the Death of Constantine to the Reunion of the Empire 
under Theodosius the Great. 

FROM A. D. 337 TO A. D. 394. 

Constantine bequeathed portions of his dominions to his nephews 
Dalmatius and Hannibilianus ; but no notice was taken of their claims 
by the army or the Roman senate, the late emperor's three sons being 

• Gibbon. 



302 ANCIENT HISTOEY. 

proclaimed unanimously heirs of his dominions. These princes had 
been educated with the greatest care ; the most pious of the Christian 
teachers, the most celebrated professors of Grecian philosophy and Ro- 
man jurisprudence, were engaged to superintend their instruction ; but 
the youths, Constantine, Constan'tius, and Constans, resembled their 
mother Fausta more than their illustrious father, and were as similar in 
depravity of disposition as they were in name. Some portion of their 
faults, must, however, be attributed to paternal weakness. Ere they 
had emerged from boyhood they were successively invested with the 
title of Caesar and invited to share in the administration. Such inju- 
dicious indulgence necessarily surrounded them with a crowd of flatter- 
ers, ready to take advantage of the warm passions and confiding dispo- 
sitions of youth : they were summoned too early from their studies, and 
were permitted to exchange the pursuit of knowledge for the enjoyment 
of luxury, and the expectation of a throne. 

Constan'tius was the nearest of the brothers to the capital when their 
father died ; he hastened to take possession of the palace, and, to re- 
move the apprehensions of his kinsmen, who justly suspected his 
jealous temper, he took a solemn oath to protect them from all danger. 
In a very few days a forged scroll was placed in his hands by the bishop 
of Nicomedia, purporting to be the genuine testament of the late emperor, 
in which Constantine was made to declare that he had been poisoned 
by his brothers, and to exhort his children to vengeance. The soldiers, 
secretly prepared to second this incredible charge, loudly demanded 
the punishment of the accused ; all legal forms were violated ; a pro- 
miscuous massacre was made of the Flavian family. The two brothers 
of the great Constantine, seven of his nephews, the patrician Optatus, 
who had married his sister, and his chief favorite, the praefect Ablavius, 
were butchered, without being permitted to speak a word in their own 
defence. Gallus and Julian, the youngest sons of Julius Constantius, 
were with difficulty concealed until the rage of the assassins had sub- 
sided. 

A new division of the empire was made by the princes. Constan- 
tine, the eldest, took possession of the capital"; Constan'tius received 
Thrace and the Asiatic provinces ; the western dominions were as- 
signed to Constans. Ere long, the enemies of Rome, that had been 
daunted by the fame of Constantine, began to harass his successors ; 
but far the most dangerous of the wars in which they had to engage 
was that waged by Shah-pur II., king of Persia, against Constan'tius. 

Shah-pur's previous history deserves to be noticed. His father Hor- 
rauz (^Hormisdas) died, leaving no son (a. d. 310) : the kingdom was 
on the point of being thrown into confusion, when it Avas announced by 
the principal mobeds, or priests, that one of the ladies in th-e harem Avas 
pregnant, and that from certain indications, they knew that the child 
would be a male. A strange ceremony of coronation was performed 
for the unborn infant. From the hour of his birth the whole nation 
watched over his progress with the most affectionate interest, and the 
early proofs he exhibited of spirit and ability spread universal joy 
through Persia. He had not emerged from boyhood, when the fierce 
Arab tribes from the neigboring peninsula took advantage of his minor- 
ity to desolate his kingdom : the royal youth marched against them, 



ROMAN EMPIRE. 303 

routed their forces, slew many, and took a greater number prisoners. 
To terrify their countrymen from renewing such an invasion, he caused 
the shoulders of his captives to be pierced, and then dislocated by a 
string passed through them ; and from this circumstance he received 
the formidable title of Zulaktaf, or " Lord of the shoulders." 

Shah-pur, or Sapor as he is called by western writers, inherited the 
pretensions of the Sassanides to the empire of Cyrus ; but he was par- 
ticularly anxious to recover the five provinces that had been ceded to 
the Romans beyond the Tigris, and to assert the ancient supremacy of 
his family over Mesopotamia. Constan'tius hastened to the banks of the 
Euphrates on the first news of the approach of so formidable an inva- 
der ; but the war long continued to be a series of petty skirmishes and 
predatory incursions. Nine sanguinary but indecisive engagements 
were fought ; but at length the Romans, by their own imprudence, re- 
ceived a decisive overthrow in the plains of Sin'gara (Sinjar), not far 
from the ruins of Bab'ylon (a. d. 348). Sapor, encouraged by this 
victory, laid siege to Nis'ibis (Nisibin) ; but, after he had lost more than 
twenty thousand men before the walls, he was forced to relinquish the 
enterprise, and hasten to the defence of his eastern provinces, which 
were invaded by the fierce tribes from beyond the Oxus. This war in- 
duced him to propose terms of truce to Constan'tius, which that prince 
readily accepted (a. d. 350), as the troubled state of the empire ren- 
dered his presence necessary in Europe. 

Three years had scarcely elapsed from the partition of the empire, 
when the ambition of Constan'tine kindled the flames of civil war 
(a. d. 340). Not content with wresting the African provinces from 
Constans, he invaded that prince's dominions through the Julian Alps, 
and devastated the country round Aquileia. But, advancing with great 
imprudence, he fell into an ambuscade near the little river Al'sa [Ansa), 
and was slain with the greater part of his followers. Constans took 
possession of his brother's provinces, and showed no inclination to re- 
. serve any share for the absent Constan'tius. 

During ten years Constans remained master of two thirds of the em- 
pire, which he plundered by his rapacity, and disgraced by his vices. 
He usually resided in Gaul, whose forests afforded him opportunities 
for hunting, the only manly sport to which he was addicted. While 
pursuing game in a neighboring forest, Magnen'tius, who commanded 
the imperial forces stationed at Augustodunum {Autun), caused himself 
to be proclaimed emperor, and closed the gates of the city. Tidings 
of the revolt were, however, conveyed to Constans : he fled toward 
Spain, but was overtaken at Ellib'eris (Elne), or, as it was then called, 
Hel'ena, in memory of the mother of Constantine, and put to death. 

The usurpation of Magnen'tius in Gaul was followed by that of Ve- 
tranio in Illyria ; but the latter general assumed the purple very reluc- 
tantly, being compelled by the clamors of his soldiers, and urged by the 
princess Constantina, who placed the crown on his head with her own 
hand. This ambitious woman had been the wife of Hannibilianus, her 
cousin, whose sad fate has been already mentioned. She was eager to 
possess power, and so unscrupulous about the means, that she persuaded 
Vetranio to form an alliance with Magnen'tius, whose hands yet reeked 
with the blood of her brother Constans. 



304 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

Coiistan'tius, having concluded a truce with Sapor, intrusted the cate 
oF the east to his lieutenants, but afterward to his cousin Gallus, whom 
he thus raised from a prison to a throne. He then hastened to Europe, 
deceived Vctranio by oirering to make him his colleague, and obtained 
admission into Constantinople. In a public assembly of the army and 
people, the artful prince, in a studied address, asserted his claims to the 
empire ; a unanimous burst of applause was followed by shouts for the 
deposition of the usurpers ; Vetranio quietly submitted, and, taking the 
diadem frona his head, tended his homage to Constan'tius. The prince 
not only spared his rival's life, but assigned him a considerable pension. 
Vetranio retired to Prusa [Brusa), where he spent the rest of his life in 
retirement, without ever expressing a desire to resume the sceptre. 
Magnen'tius foresaw that he would be the next assailed, and he led his 
army into lower Pannonia, which became the theatre of a fierce and 
sanguinary war. 

The armies finally met for a decisive battle on the plains of Mur'sa 
{Exsek) ; the heavy cavalry of Constan'tius, sheathed in full panoply of 
plates of steel, decided the fate of the day, the very weight of their 
onset breaking the lines of the western legions, while the light archers 
of Asia harassed the naked German auxiliaries, on whom Magiien'tius 
chiefly relied, and reduced them to such despair, that battalions threw 
themselves into the rapid stream of the Drave. Still, so obstinate was 
the battle, that fifty-four thousand fell in the field, and the victors suf- 
fered more severely than the vanquished. It has been justly observed, 
that the destructive plains of Mur'sa absorbed the strength of the 
empire ; for never again could the Roman rulers collect such noble 
bands of veterans as perished there by mutual slaughter. 

Magnen'tius fled to Italy, whither he was followed by Constan'tius 
in the following spring. The peninsula soon submitted to its legitimate 
sovereign ; but the usurper escaped into Gaul. Finding, however, that 
he could not long protract resistance, he batfled the vengeance of Con- 
stan'tius by suicide ; his associates were reduced either to follow his . 
example, or suffer the penalties of treason. 

Constan'tius had given Constantina in marriage to his cousin Gallus, 
invested him wdth the title of Caesar, and intrusted him with the admin- 
istration of Asia. The Caesar, naturally of a sullen and morose temper, 
had been soured by the sufferings of his early youth, and his evil 
passions were stimulated by the ambitious intrigues of the princess to 
whom he was unfortunately united. His excesses at length compelled 
Constan'tius to send commissioners to investigate the state of the east : 
these olficers proceeded to Antioch, where they seem to have conducted 
themselves with unnecessary and offensive haughtiness ; but their faults 
afford no sufficient excuse for the crime of Gallus, who urged the 
populace of Antioch to put the commissioners to death with torture and 
insult, and then ordered their bodies to be thrown into the Oron'tes 
(Aaszy). Constan'tius, instead of openly resenting the outrage, invited 
Gallus to visit him : the Caesar delayed until further procrastination was 
impossible ; he proceeded on the road to Milan through Asia and 
Thrace, in safety ; but when he passed the frontiers of Pannonia, he 
was placed under arrest, hurried to a distant castle in Istria, and secretly 
put to death (a. d. 354). Julian, the only surviving descendant of Con- 



^ ROMAN EMPIRE. 305 

staH^tius Cblorus, except the reigning emperor, would have shared His 
brother's fate, but for the generous interference of the empress Eusebia. 
She procured him permission to prosecute his studies in Athens, where, 
dazzled by the false philosophy of the schools, he forsook Christianity 
for paganism, and earned for himself the unenviable title of Apostate. 
After he had been more than a year in retirement, he was summoned 
to court, united to Hel'ena, the sister of the emperor, and appointed to 
govern the countries north of the Alps, with the title of Cassar. 

Constan'tius himself had gained several victories over the Germanic 
tribes ; but he delayed in the west after the departure of Julian, to sup- 
port the cause of the Arians against the orthodox prelates. Before re- 
turning to the east, he resolved to visit the ancient capital of the ern- 
pire ; and Rome, after an interval of thirty-two years, was gladdened 
with the presence of its sovereign. Constan'tius was so pleased with 
his reception, that he presented to the city the splendid Theban obelisk, 
with which his father had intended to adorn Constantinople. He was 
compelled to hurry his departure by intelligence of the Sarmatians hav- 
ing invaded Pannonia. Constan'tius soon appeared on the Danube : 
he gained several important victories over the barbarians ; biit scarcely 
had he secured the tranquillity of his northern frontiers, when he was 
threatened with more dangerous hostilities on the side of Persia. 

Having subdued the fierce tribes of Turkestan, Sapor renewed his 
attacks upon the Roman empire, and, guided by a deserter, entered 
Mesopotamia. Irritated by the insolence of the inhabitants, he laid 
siege to Am^ida (Diarbekr) ; and though he captured that strong city, he 
lost the favorable season of invading Syria, and was forced to content 
himself with reducing Sin'gara (Sanjar) and Bezabde (Jezirah). Con- 
stan'tius made an effort to recover Bezabde, but was compelled to raise 
the siege. He returned to - Antioch, where his mortification was 
increased by intelligence of the brilliant achievements of Julian in 
Gaul. The young prince had vanquished the AUemans, the Franks, 
and several other formidable tribes ; he had pursued his victorious 
career beyond the Rhine, and by his rapid conquests filled Germany 
with confusion ; while the prudence of his civil administration raised 
Gaul to unexampled prosperity. Constan'tius resolved to weaken the 
strength of the Caesar, and summoned his best legions from Gaul to 
defend the east ; the soldiers refused to obey, and proclaimed Julian 
emperor. Preparations for civil war were made on both sides ; but its 
calamities were averted by the death of Constan'tius (a. d. 361). During 
this entire reign, the Christian church was scandalized and distracted 
by fierce disputes arising out of the Arian heresy : Constan'tius was 
the avowed partisan of the Arians, and encouraged them in their per- 
secution of the orthodox, especially sanctioning the efforts made for the 
destruction of the celebrated Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria. 

When Julian reached Heraclea {Erekli), though he was still sixty miles 
distant from the capital, the whole population of Constantinople came 
out to welcome his arrival, and he made his triumphal entry amid 
general acclamations. One of his earliest measures was to constitute 
a court at Chal'cedon (Scutari) for the trial of such ministers of Con- 
stan'tius as might be accused of peculation. Many of them indeed well 
deserved punishment ; but the ostentatious mode in which they were 

20 



306 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

brought to trial was an ungenerous attack on the memory erf the late 
emperor, and the inquisitions were conducted with such indiscriminate 
severity, that many innocent persons suffered with the guilty. He then 
commenced a complete reform of the court, banishing the eunuchs and 
other ministers of luxury ; but with the idle parade of pomp, Julian 
discarded many of the decencies of life, ostentatiously exhibiting a dis- 
regard for personal cleanliness, as if filth was a necessary element of 
philosophy. But the great object of his ambition was to restore ancient 
paganism ; he revoked the edicts that had been issued against idolatry, 
under the plausible pretext of granting freedom of opinion to all his sub- 
jects ; he encouraged the philosophers to veil the most revolting fictions 
of mythology under allegorical explanations ; he showed a marked dis- 
like to the Christians who visited the court ; and finally he closed the 
schools which were kept by the clergy. 

But the most remarkable of his enterprises for the overthrow of 
Christianity was his celebrated attempt to rebuild the temple of Jeru- 
salem, which appears to have been miraculously defeated. Seeing that 
the condition of the Jews was a standing miracle in proof of Chris- 
tianity, he resolved to weaken or destroy its effect, by restoring to that 
people their ancient city and national worship, erecting for them at the 
same time a temple on Mount Moriah, whose splendor should surpass 
that of the church of the holy sepulchre. This measure was frustrated, 
after great expense had been incurred in making preparations for its 
execution, as most historians declare, in consequence of balls of fire that 
burst from the earth, and scared the workmen employed to dig the foun- 
dation. Whether these phenomena were supernatural, or whether they 
ever had existence, is really of little importance in the great weight 
that the occurrence gives to the evidence in favor of the divine origin 
of Christianity : the most powerful monarch of the earth attempted to 
erect a building in one of his cities ; he was aided by a wealthy and 
zealous people ; pride, passion, and interest, equally urged him to per- 
severe ; yet was he forced to abandon the enterprise. Assuredly we 
must say, " the finger of God is here !" 

While Julian, by withholding his countenance from sincere believers 
on the one hand, and placing every possible impediment in the way of 
instruction on the other, was using all his efforts to check the progress 
of Christianity, he was summoned to take the field against the Persians, 
who had renewed their incursions. Julian invaded their dominions, 
and gained several great triumphs, though he was unable to bring the 
enemy to a decisive engagement. His march led him through the 
deserts of Hat'ra, which skirt the Tigris ; but the city of Hat'ra, erected 
like Palmy'ra in a fertile oasis, appears to have been deserted at his 
approach. From the magnificence of its ruins, and the fact that the 
city continued to be inhabited until the twelfth centuiy of our era, it is 
probable that this, with several other cities, was dismantled by the 
Persians to deprive the Romans of the resources wliich these " settle- 
ments in the desert," might have supplied. At length, deceived by 
treacherous guides, he burned his boats, and advanced into a desert 
countr}', where his army was soon reduced to great distress from want 
of provisions. Under these circumstances he resolved to return ; but 
his retrograde march was greatly impeded by the light cavalry of the 



^ ROMAN EMPIRE. 307 

Persians, who hovered round the flanks and rear, discharging showers 
of darts and arrows, but retreating, like the Parthians their predecessors, 
whenever any effort was made to bring them to a regular engagement. 
At length Julian himself was mortally wounded, in a skirmish which 
proved favorable to the Romans. He died the same night (a. d. 363), 
about twenty months after his becoming sole master of the empire. 

Jovian, the first of the domestics, was saluted Augustus by the army; 
and his first care was to conclude a dishonorable peace with the Per- 
sians, resigning to Sapor not only the five provinces beyond the Tigris, 
but the Avhole of Mesopotamia, including the fortified cities of Nis'ibis 
and Sin'gara, which had so often baffled the most vigorous efforts of the 
Sassan'ides. His next enterprise was more glorious : he restored the 
Christian religion to its ancient supremacy ; but he calmed the fears 
of his pagan subjects by a wise edict of toleration, in which he pro- 
hibited no rites, however idolatrous, save those of magic. On his jour- 
ney toward Constantinople, he slept in a damp room, which his attend- 
ants had heated with charcoal ; he was suffocated by the mephitic va- 
por, and found dead in his bed (a. d. 364). 

For ten days after the death of Jovian, the empire remained without 
a sovereign. At length the Count Valentinian was chosen by the coun- 
cil of ministers and generals, and the army unanimously acquiesced in 
their decision. Soon after his election the new emperor divided his 
dominions with his brother Valens, to whom he assigned the eastern 
provinces, reserving to himself lUyr'icum, Italy, Gaul, Spain, Britain, 
and Africa. The emperor of the west made Milan the seat of his gov- 
ernment ; Valens established his court at Constantinople. This divis- 
ion of the Roman dominions into eastern and western empires was so 
manifestly required by the necessity of the times, that it provoked nei- 
ther observation nor remonstrance. Henceforth their histories re- 
quire separate consideration ; and we shall, in the first place, direct our 
attention to the reign of Valentinian. 

The emperor had scarcely reached Italy, when he was summoned to 
cross the Alps by an invasion of the Germans, who devastated all north- 
ern and western Gaul, defeating two Roman armies that had been sent 
to check their inroads. Valentinian made the most vigorous efforts to 
retrieve the fame of the empire, and succeeded ; but his exertions 
brought on a disease that nearly deprived him of life. The angry dis- 
putes respecting the succession which had taken place during has ill- 
ness, filled him with just alarm : and immediately after his recovery^ 
he took care to have his son Gratian recognised as his heir, and pro- 
claimed Caesar in the presence of the army. The piracies of the Sax- 
ons in the northern seas first began to attract attention in the reign of 
Valentinian ; and so severely did they harass the northern coasts of 
Gaul, that it was necessary to appoint a maritime court for their pro- 
tection. At the same time the province of Britain was invaded by the 
Picts and Scots : so rapid was the progress of the barbarians, aided 
probably by some of the discontented natives, that Britain would have 
been lost to the empire, but for the heroic exertions of Theodosius, to 
whom Valentinian intrusted the pacification, or rather the recovery of 
the island. This able commander not only restrained the barbarians, 
but in some measure restored the ancient prosperity of the province : 



s 



808 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

he was rewarded by the emperor with the office of master-general of 
the cavalry, and appointed to protect the frontier of the upper Danube 
from the inroads of the AUemans, until he was chosen to a more im- 
portant station, and intrusted with the suppression of the formidable re- 
volt of Africa. 

Count Romanus, the military governor of Africa, had provoked gen- 
eral resentment by his avarice and exactions ; complaints were made 
of him to Valentinian, and a commissioner appointed to investigate his 
delinquency ; but the count bribed the imperial ministers and commis- 
sioners, purchased security from a venal court, and severely punished 
those who had been guilty of the treason of complaint. Provoked by 
such accumulated wrongs, the Africans revolted, choosing for their 
leader Fin'nus, the son of the wealthy Nabal, who had been summoned 
to appear before the governor's tribunal on a charge of murdering his 
brother. Numidia and Mauritania were already in possession of the 
insurgents, when the entire face of the war was changed by the arrival 
of Theodosius : from the moment of his landing, the revolters seem to 
have lost all courage ; after a weak struggle, Fin'nus abandoned his 
army, to seek refuge with the prince of a native tribe in the interior ; 
but he was betrayed to the Romans, and could only escape a public ex- 
ecution by committing suicide. Scarcely had this war terminated, 
when Valentinian died suddenly, while waging war against the Quadi 
(a. d. 375). He had conquered these savage warriors, and deputies 
had been sent to deprecate his resentment ; but while reproaching the 
ambassadors with national perfidy, he worked himself into such a pas- 
sion, that he burst a blood-vessel, and instantly expired. Valentinian 
was naturally cruel and severe, but he was disposed to be inflexibly 
just ; and the many unmerited executions that he sanctioned must be 
attributed to the artifices of corrupt ministers. He was warmly attached 
to the orthodox faith, and readily gave shelter to the bishops and clergy 
who sought refuge in his court from the persecutions of his brother 
Valens. 

The emperor of the east, soon after his accession, went into Syria, 
which was threatened by a Persian invasion ; but before he could 
complete his preparations for war, he was alarmed by the revolt of Pro- 
copius, a kinsman of the emperor Julian, but possessing no other merit, 
whose pretensions were acknowledged by a considerable body of the 
army, and the citizens of Constantinople. Valens was defeated in his 
first efforts to overthrow the usurper ; but Procopius soon disgusted his 
supporters by excessive haughtiness and tyranny ; he was deserted by 
those who had been foremost in placing him upon the throne, and was 
taken prisoner almost without a contest. His fate involved that of many 
others, for Valens was a stranger to mercy. The emperor was soon 
more honorably engaged in a war with the Goths, whom he completely 
subdued, and compelled to submit to humiliating conditions of peace. 

The dangerous schism in the church caused by the heresy of A'rius 
was greatly aggravated by the intemperate zeal, and in some instances, 
by the unhallowed ambition of rival prelates : Valens declared himself 
a patron of the Arians, and caused no fewer than eighty orthodox 
ecclesiastics to be murdered, for maintaining the election of a bishop of 
their creed to the see of Constantinople. Armenia was at the same 



ROMAN EMPIRE. 309 

time invaded by the Persians ; but Sapor having received a severe de- 
feat, and the Armenian prince Paras, on whose aid he relied, having 
been treacherously murdered by the Romans, the truce was once more 
renewed. 

In the western empire Valentinian had been succeeded by his sons 
Gratian and Valentinian II. ; the latter, a child only five years old, was 
added as a colleague to Gratian by the general council of the army. 
Gratian II. commenced his reign by punishing those ministers and sen- 
ators who had been guilty of extortion ; but yielding to the suggestions 
of envious courtiers, he sanctioned the execution of the gallant Theodo- 
sius, who had just completed his conquest of the Moors : the emperor, 
after some time, discovered by what gross misrepresentations he had 
been led to commit so great a crime, and bitterly repented of his guilt. 
He made several laws favorable to the interest of the church, ordaining 
that all controversies respecting religion should be decided by the bishop 
and synod of the provinces in which they occurred ; that the clergy 
should be free from personal charges ; and that all places where hetero- 
dox doctrines were taught should be confiscated. 

The western empire was enjoying profound peace, and the eastern 
provinces were beginning to taste the unusual sweets of repose, when 
a people more ferocious than any barbarians hitherto known appeared 
for the first time on the northeastern frontiers. The Huns, crossing 
the Tanais (Don) and Palus Maeotis [Sea of Azov)., drove before them the 
nations that dwelt north of the Danube ; and these fugitives, hurled one 
upon another, were forced to invade the Roman provinces, and com- 
mence the dismemberment of the empire. The earliest accounts of the 
Huns are to be found in the Chinese historians, who call these savages, 
*' Huing Nii," and describe them as masters of the country between 
the river Irtish, the Altaian mountains, the Chinese wall, and Mantchew 
Tartary. Their personal appearance was almost a caricature of hu- 
manity ; so that the Romans compared them to a block of wood which 
had been only partially trimmed : this is said to have been in some de- 
gree caused by the strange custom of flattening the nose of male in- 
fants the moment they were born, in order that the vizor which they 
wore in battle should fit closer to the face, and also to their plucking 
out the beard by the roots as soon as it began to grow. They lived on 
raw flesh, or at best only sodden by being placed under their saddles 
and pressed against the backs of their steeds during a sharp gallop : 
devoted to war and the chase, they left the cultivation of their fields to 
women and slaves ; they built no cities ; they erected no houses ; any 
place encircled by walls they looked upon as a sepulchre, and never 
believed themselves in safety beneath a roof. About the commence- 
ment of the second century of the Christian era, the southern Huns, 
aided by the Chinese and the eastern Tartars, expelled their northern 
brethren from their ancient habitations, and compelled them to seek 
refuge in the territories of the Bashkirs. Here they were brought into 
contact with a fiercer but less warlike race, the A'lans, whom they 
gradually drove before them, being pressed forward themselves by fresh 
hordes from the east, until they took possession of the plains between 
the Rha (Fo/o-a) and the Tanais. 

Joined by the Allans and other barbarous tribes that they had con- 



i 



310 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

quered, the innumerable cavalry of the Huns passed the lower Tanai's, 
and swept the rich fields of the Ostrogoths. The Gothic aniiies were 
defeated, and at length the greater part of that nation abandoned the 
country that they had laboriously brought to a high state of cultivation ^ 
and retired beyond the Borys'thenes [Dnieper) and the Danas'tus 
(Dniester). The Huns made a horrible carnage of those who remained, 
sparing neither women nor children ; and all who did not save them- 
selves by a precipitate flight, perished by the edge of the sword. Tlie 
conquerors soon passed the Danas'tus, and inflicted the same calami- 
ties on the Visigoths to which they had already subjected their eastern 
brethren. Athan'aric, the Gothic monarch, after having suffered a se- 
vere defeat, saw no better mode of defence than to fortify himself be- 
tween the Hieras'sus {Pruth) and the Danube, by a wall extending from 
one river to the other, leaving the rest of his country exposed to the 
ravages of the dreadful Huns. 

The whole Gothic nation was reduced to despair ; their warriors, 
Avho had so often maintained a fierce struggle against the legions, now 
appeared as suppliants on the banks of the Danube, petitioning for per- 
mission to cultivate the waste lands of Thrace. Their request was 
granted, on condition of their resigning their arms ; but the officers sent 
to see this stipulation enforced were bribed to neglect their duty : most 
of the Goths retained their weapons, which they regarded as the means 
of obtaining more valuable possessions than those they had lost. 

About the same time, Arianism was established among the Goths, 
by the exertions of their bishop, the celebrated Ul'philas, who invented 
the Gothic alphabet : this subsequently aggravated their hostility to the 
Romans; for the enmity of rival sects had, toward the close of the 
fourth century, become greater than that between Christians and pa- 
gans. The officers whom Valens chose to superintend the settlement 
of the Goths were the most profligate extortioners even of his corrupt 
court ; instead of supplying provisions to the fugitives until their new 
lands vi^ould yield a harvest, as had been promised, they closed the mag- 
azines, and charged exorbitant prices for the worst and most revolting 
kinds of food. At length Lupicinus attempted to murder Frit'igern and 
the other chiefs of the Goths, at a banquet in Marcianop'olis [Pravadi) 
to which they had been treacherously invited. The plot exploded pre- 
maturely ; the Gothic leaders escaped ; and their followers took revenge 
for the atrocious breach of hospitality by massacring the greater part 
of the Roman legions. In the meantime, the Ostrogoths, pressed for- 
ward by the Huns, had crossed the Danube and reinforced Frit'igem 
just as the war was about to commence : thus supported, the irritated 
sovereign devastated Thrace, Macedon, and Thessaly, approached the 
walls of Constantinople, and destroyed its suburbs. Valens wrote to 
Gratian for aid ; and the young emperor, though harassed by wars with 
the Germanic tribes and the A'lans, marched to his assistance. He 
was delayed, however, by illness at Sir'mium ; and before he could re- 
sume his march, Valens was no more. The eastern emperor, baffled 
by the artifices and enraged by the boldness of Frit'igem, hazarded a 
decisive battle near Adrianople, in which he was defeated and slain 
(a. d. 378). The Romans had not suff'ered so severe a loss since they 
were overthrown by Han'nibal at Cannae : two thirds of the legions. 



ROMAN EMPIRE. 311 

including tliirty-five tribunes and commanders of cohorts, fell in the fatal 
field. 

Gratian was incapable of remedying this disaster without the aid of 
a colleague, for he could not advance against the Goths without leaving 
the western provinces a prey to the Germans. He chose as his asso- 
ciate Theodosius, afterward named the Great, son of the elder The- 
odosius, whom he had unjustly put to death. 

The accession of Theodosius was hailed with delight by all the east- 
ern provinces ; he defeated the Goths in the field ; but what was of still 
greater importance, he won their affections by his justice and modera- 
tion ; so that they voluntarily promised not only to abstain from hostili- 
ties, but to protect the frontiers of the Danube. Being Ijimself sin- 
cerely attached to the orthodox faith, he summoned a general council at 
Constantinople to check the progress of heresy, and issued several 
edicts to restrain the teachers of erroneous opinions. While he was 
thus engaged, Max/imus, the governor of Britain, revolted against Gra- 
tian, and was joined by the whole of the western legions. The em- 
peror, seeing himself abandoned by his troops, fled toward Italy, but 
was overtaken at Lugdunum [Lyons), and put to death (a. d. 383). 
St. Ambrose, bishop of Milan, courageously went into Gaul, claimed 
the body ol the deceased emperor from the usurper, obtained it after 
some delay, and honorably interred the remains of Gratian in the sep- 
ulchre that had been raised for the Valentinian family in the Milanese 
cathedral. 

Max'imus, to support his usurpation, had brought with him the flower 
of the British youth ; but the Roman province, thus deprived of its de- 
fenders, was exposed to the ravages of the Picts and Scots, who broke 
through the Roman wall, and pushed their incursions far into the south. 
Theodosius, harassed by the attacks of the barbarians in the east, at 
first entered into a treaty with Max'imus : but the usurper, encouraged 
by impunity, soon meditated depriving Valentinian II. of Italy, though 
that prince had shown little inclination to revenge the murder of Gra- 
tian, his brother and benefactor, Valentinia,n, unable to defend his ter- 
ritories, fled to Theodosius, who instantly marched against Max'imus. 
The usurper was defeated in two decisive battles ; he sought shelter in 
Aquileia ; but he was arrested by his own soldiers, brought in chains to 
Theodosius, and executed (a, d. 388). It is said that his death was 
hastened by the imperial ministers, who feared that he might extort a 
pardon from their master's compassion. 

The generous conqueror not only restored Valentinian to his ancient 
dominions, but resigned to him the provinces that had belonged to Gra- 
tian. Having visited Rome, and sanctioned some severe measures for 
extirpating idolatry in that city, he returned to the east, where he made 
similar efforts to crush pagan superstitions and Christian heresies. The 
young Valentinian did not long retain his throne ; he was murdered by 
Arbogas'tes, a Frank, whom he had unwisely admitted to too great a 
share of sovereign power (a. d. 392). The Frank did not dare to as- 
sume the purple himself, but he conferred the empire on one of the royal 
secretaries, named Eugenius, whom he trusted that he could make the 
mere instrument of his ambition. 

Theodosius refused to enter into any negotiation with the usurper, 



312 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

but made preparations for war. Having levied a powerful army, he 
forced the passes of the Alps (a d. 394), and encountering the forces 
of Eugenius on the banks of the Frig'idum (Wibach), put them to the 
rout. The usurper was murdered by his own soldiers, and Arbogas'- 
tes committed suicide. Theodosius, in consequence of this victory, be- 
came master of the whole Roman empire, which was thus once more 
reunited under a single head. 

Section X. — TJie Overthraic of the Western Empire. 

FROM A. D. 394 TO A. D. 476. 

Theodosius was well aware that the partition of the empire origin- 
ally made by Valentinian was rendered necessary by the condition of 
the Roman dominions in Europe and Asia ; he therefore invited his 
younger son Hondrius to receive the sceptre of the western empire, ap- 
pointing Arcadius, the elder, his successor on the throne of Constanti- 
nople. He did not long survive this arrangement ; the ease and luxury 
in which he indulged after his victory proved fatal to a constitution 
already enfeebled by the fatigues of a severe campaign : he died uni- 
versally lamented by his subjects, who knew too weU that they " ne'er 
should look upon his like again." 

Arcadius and Honorius ascended the thrones bequeathed to them by 
their father, but both abandoned the cares of empire to their ministers 
Rufinus and Stil'icho. There are few greater stains on the character 
of Theodosius than his elevation of such an unworthy favorite as Ru- 
finus, a wretch whom all parties describe as stained with every crime. 
He was the scourge of the east, and was universally hated : aware of 
his unpopularity, he resolved to secure his power by uniting Arcadius 
in marriage with his daughter ; but some courtiers, jealous of his in- 
fluence, took advantage of his absence to persuade the young emperor 
to share his throne with Eudox'ia, universally regarded as the most 
beautiful woman of her age. Though disappointed in this darling ob- 
ject of his ambition, the wealth and power of Rufinus enabled him to 
triumph over Arcadius and his courtiers ; but he dreaded more justly his 
great rival in the western empire. 

Stil'icho, the minister and master-general of the west, was worthy of 
the eminent station to which he had been raised by Theodosius. On 
his death-bed the emperor recommended to him the charge of both em- 
pires ; but some pretext was necessary for assembling a force suffi- 
cient to depose Rufinus, without giving such alarm as would put that 
wary statesman on his guard. The Gothic war furnished the desired 
excuse ; Stil'icho led his forces round the Adriatic ; but he had scarce- 
ly reached Thessalonica, when he received orders to return, with a 
threat that his nearer approach to Constantinople would be considered 
a declaration of war. Leaving the army in the charge of the Gainas, 
Stil'icho returned to Italy ; and Rufinus, believing all danger past, went 
to review the western troops. As he passed along the ranks, he was 
suddenly surrounded by a chosen band, and, on a signal from Gainas, 
pinned to the earth by a lance, and mangled with a thousand wounds. 
If Stil'icho had contrived this murder, he derived no advantage from it. 



ROMAN EMPIRE. 313 

Gamas, the eunuch Eutropius, and the empress Eudox'ia, combined to 
exclude him from Constantinople ; their puppet Arcadius procured a 
decree from his obsequious senate, declaring him a public enemy, and 
confiscating all his property in the east. 

Instead of hazarding a civil war, Stil'icho exerted himself to sup- 
press the revolt which Gil'do, the brother of Fir'mus, had excited in 
Africa. He intrusted the command of the forces raised for this pur- 
pose to Mas'cezel, the brother and deadly enemy of Gil'do. Accident 
left the Romans an almost bloodless victory. Before giving the signal 
to engage, Mas'cezel rode to the front of the lines with fair offers of 
peace and pardon ; he encountered one of the standard-bearers of the 
Africans, and, on his refusal to yield, struck him on the arm with his 
sword. The weight of the blow threw the standard and its bearer pros- 
trate. This was regarded by the rest as a signal of submission, which 
all the African legions hastened to imitate ; they flung down their en- 
signs, and, with one accord, renewed their allegiance to their rightful 
sovereign. Gil'do attempted to fly, but he was arrested by the citizens 
of Tab'raca (Tabarca), and thrown into a dungeon, where he commit- 
ted suicide, to avoid the punishment of treason. Mas'cezel was subse- 
quently murdered by Stil'icho, who feared the hereditary enmity of the 
house of Nabal. 

The Goths were now become more formidable than they had ever 
been. Instead of being guided by several independent chiefs, they 
were united into a compact body under the renowned Al'aric ; and the 
withholding of the subsidy paid them by Theodosius, afforded a plau- 
sible pretext for war (a. d. 396). Disdaining to ravage the exhausted 
lands .of Thrace, AFaric led his soldiers into Greece, passed the straits 
of Thermop'ylae without opposition, devastated Boeotia, At'tica, and the 
Peloponnesus, while Athens, Corinth, Ar'gos, and Spar'ta, yielded to 
the barbarous invaders without opposition. Stil'icho hastened to repel 
the Goths from Greece. His masterly movements drove Al'aric into a 
corner of Elis, whence his extrication appeared impossible ; but the 
Goth, perceiving that the watchfulness of his enemies was relaxed, 
gained the gulf of Corinth by a rapid march, passed over the narrow 
strait between the headlands of Rhium and Antir'rhium [Dardanelles of 
Lepanto), and was master of Epirus before StiFicho could renew his 
pursuit. The Romans were preparing to pass into northern Greece, 
when they received information that Al'aric had not only made his 
peace with the Byzantine court, but had been appointed master-general 
of Illyr'icum by the feeble Arcadius. 

Stil'icho returned to Italy, and was soon compelled to defend that 
peninsula against Al'aric, who forced a passage over the Julian Alps, 
and advanced toward Milan. Honorius fled from his capital, but was 
so hotly chased, that he was forced to seek refuge in As'ta (Asti), 
which the Goths immediately blockaded. Stil'icho hastened to the 
relief of his sovereign, and gained a complete victory over Al'aric at 
PoUentia [Polenza) ; but the Gothic sovereign, having rallied his shat- 
tered forces, crossed the Appenines, and made a sudden rush toward 
Rome (a. d. 403). The capital was saved by the diligence of Stil'- 
icho ; but Al'aric's departure from Italy was purchased by a large 
pension. 



314 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

Honorius went to Rome, where he enjoyed the empty honor of being 
received in triumph ; but after a short time he removed to Raven'na, 
which from this time began to be regarded as the most secure seat of 
Italian government. Scarcely had Al'aric departed, when Italy was 
invaded by new hordes of Vandals, Suevi, Burgundians, and Goths, 
under the command of Radagaisus. Once more the peninsula was 
saved by Stil'icho : he allowed the barbarians to lay siege to Florence, 
which was well garrisoned and provisioned ; then securing all the pas- 
ses, he blockaded them in their turn, and reduced them to such distress, 
that they surrendered at discretion (a. d. 406). Radagaisus was put to 
death ; his followers were sold as slaves ; but about two thirds of the 
hordes fell back upon Gaul, and laid waste that province from the Rhine 
to the Pyrenees. The provincials, receiving no aid from the court of 
Raven'na, proclaimed Constantine, the governor of Britain, emperor, 
who gained some advantages over the Germans, and wrested Spain 
from Honorius. Stil'icho entered into a treaty with Al'aric against the 
usurper ; but before it could take effect, the able minister was treach- 
erously murdered by his unworthy master (a. d. 408), and the wretched 
Olym'pus was appointed premier in his stead. The first measure of 
the new minister was as impolitic as it was monstrous. He ordered a 
promiscuous massacre of the families of the barbarians throughout Ita- 
ly, instead of retaining them as hostages for the fidelity of his merce- 
nary cohorts. The barbarous edict was too well obeyed; and thirty 
thousand of the bravest soldiers in the Roman pay invited AFaric to 
head them in avenging the slaughter of their wives and children. 

Al'aric was not slow in obeying the summons : he hastened into 
Italy, and, disregarding meaner prizes, marched directly against Rome 
(a. d. 408). "The eternal city" was closely besieged: plague, pesti- 
lence, and famine, raged within its walls. The emperor at Raven'na 
made no effort to relieve his hapless subjects ; and the senate at length 
purchased temporary safety by paying an enormous ransom. Al'aric 
led his forces into Tuscany, and was joined on his march by forty 
thousand Goths and Germans, whom his victorious career had enabled 
to burst the bonds of slavery. Honorius refused to ratify the treaty 
that had been concluded by the Romans ; and in the following year, 
Al'aric appeared once more before the city. He took possession of Os- 
tia, where the magazines were established for the corn that supplied 
the capital ; and having thus deprived the citizens of all means of sus- 
tenance, summoned them to surrender. They complied with great re- 
luctance : Al'aric raised At'talus to the empire, but soon deposed him, 
and renewed his negotiations with the court of Raven'na. Once more 
Honorius refused to treat, and once more AFaric marched to punish the 
Romans for the crime of their sovereign (a. d. 410). He marched 
against Rome ; the Gothic slaves in the city opened to him one of the 
gates, and the city became the prey of the barbarians. The horrors 
of the pillage that ensued were in some degree alleviated by the piety 
of the Goths, who spared the churches and religious houses. AFaric 
himself was unwilling that a city which had been so long the mistress 
of the world should be so totally ruined ; and on the sixth day after its 
capture evacuated the place, and took the road for southern Italy. He 
was preparing to invade Sicily, when he was seized with a mortal dis- 



ROMAN EMPIEE. "* 315 

ease, which brought him prematurely to his grave. His remains were 
interred in the bed of a small rivulet near Consen'tia (Cosenza), and 
the captives who prepared his grave were murdered, in order that the 
Romans might never learn the place of his sepulture. 

Adol'phus succeeded his brother Al'aric, and concluded a peace with 
the empire, on condition of receiving the' princess Placid'ia as his 
bride. He led his forces into Gaul, reunited that province to the do- 
minions of Honorius, and then passed into Spain, which had been inva- 
ded by hordes of Suevi, Vandals, and A'lans. He was murdered ; but 
his successor Wal'lia established the supremacy of the Visigoths in 
Spain and the east of Gaul. About the same time, the Franks, the 
Burgundians, and other barbarous tribes, established themselves in 
Gaul ; while Britain and Armorica, neglected by the emperor, became 
independent. The Britons had so degenerated under the empire, that 
they were unable to resist the barbarous Picts and Scots ; they there- 
fore applied for aid to the Angles and Saxons, warlike tribes (a. d. 448). 
The Saxons readily obeyed the summons ; but, after repelling the Picts 
and Scots, they took possession of southern Britain, which they named 
Angle-land, since contracted into England. 

In the meantime, the. reign of Arcadius in the east was dishonored 
by the profligate administration of the eunuch Eutropius and the em- 
press Eudox'ia, to whose cruelty the most illustrious persons, and 
among others St. Chrysostom, were victims. After his death (a. d. 
408), the young Theodosius succeeded to the purple ; but the adminis- 
tration was usurped by his sister Pulcheria, who ruled the east with 
singular energ)"- and ability for more than forty years. * During a great 
portion of this period, there was little sympathy between the courts of 
Rome and Constantinople ; but the family intercourse was renewed 
when Placid'ia, the widow of Adol'phus, was banished by her brother, 
after the death of her second husband Constantius. She sought refuge 
in the court of Theodosius, bringing with her Valentinian and Honoria, 
her infant children. She had scarcely time to enjoy the hospitality 
with which she was received, when news arrived of the death of Ho- 
norius (a. d. 423), and the usurpation of the empire by John, his prin- 
cipal secretary. Theodosius levied an army to support the claims of 
his relative ; John was deposed and slain ; Valentinian HI. was pro- 
claimed emperor of the west, under the guardianship of his mother 
Placid'ia ; and thus two women wielded the destinies of the civilized 
world. 

Placid'ia, seduced by the interested counsels of her minister ^E'tius, 
recalled Count Boniface, the most faithful friend of the imperial family, 
from Africa ; but that governor, deceived by the same crafty adviser, 
refused obedience, and invited Gen'seric, king of the Vandals, to his 
aid. That nation occupied the Spanish province, called from them 
Vandaiusia, a name which it still retains, with but slight alteration. 
They were still restless, eager to seek further conquests and fresh 
plunder, so that nothing could have been more grateful to Gen'seric 
than such an invitation. Boniface had soon reason to lament the effects 
of his precipitate resentment. When it was too late, he attempted to 
check the progress of the Vandals, and returned to his allegiance. 
Auxiliaries were sent to his aid from the eastern empire ; but the tm- 



316 4if ANCIENT HISTORY. 

fortunate count was irretrievably defeated. He returned to Italy, where 
he engaged in a civil war with iE'tius, and was slain by his rival. 
Placid'ia having discovered the double treachery of ^'tius, proclaimed 
him a traitor, and that general found it necessary to seek shelter in Pan- 
nonia Avith the Huns. At'tila, justly called " the scourge of God," was 
now the ruler of the formidable Hunnish hordes : he extorted vast 
sums, as the price of his forbearance, from the Byzantine empire. On 
the death of Theodosius H. he threatened war against Marcian his 
successor, the nominal husband of Pulcheria ; but the victories of 
iE'tius over the Franks and Vandals, when restored to Placid'ia's fa- 
vor, induced the fierce barbarian to turn his arms against the Avestem 
empire (a. d. 451). He had an additional pretext, through the malice 
of the princess Honoria, Avho secretly offered him her hand, to revenge 
her exclusion from power ; and the barbarian monarch, though he al- 
ready had several wives, proclaimed himself her champion. When the 
Huns appeared in Gaul, jE'tius entered into an alliance with the Visi- 
goths, aided by whom he gained a great victory over At'tila, and drove 
him beyond the frontiers. But in the ensuing spring (a. d. 452) the 
Huns poured like a torrent into Italy, and laid waste the peninsula. 
The death of At'tila, who fell a victim to inteipperance, and the civil 
wars betAveen his foUoAvers, delayed the utter ruin of the empire ; but 
the murder of iE^tius by the ungrateful Valentinian, and the unchecked 
ravages of the barbarians, rendered all the provinces miserable and 
wretched. Valentinian himself Avas murdered by the patrician Max^- 
imus, whose Avife he had debauched (a. d. 455), and the injured hus- 
band assumed thp imperial purple. 

Max'imus had. scarcely been three months upon the throne when 
the fleet of the Vandals appeared in the Tiber. His subjects, attributing 
this new calamity to his supineness, stoned him to death ; but ere a 
successor could be chosen, Gen^seric marched his soldiers into the de- 
fenceless city, and pillaged everything that had been spared by the 
piety or mercy of Al'aric. Many thousands of the unfortunate citizens 
were transported as slaves into Africa ; but their condition was in some 
degree alleviated by the generosity of Deogratias, bishop of Carthage, 
who sold the gold and silve;: plate of his churches to purchase the re- 
demption of his brethren. 

By the influence of Theod'oric, king of the Visigoths, Avitus, a Gaul 
of noble family, was installed emperor ; but he was soon deposed by 
Count Ricimer, the principal commander of the barbarian auxiliaries 
intrusted Avith the defence of Italy. He did not long survive his fall ; 
he died on his Avay to the Alps, as he was about to seek refuge among 
the Visigoths. Majoriam received the degraded sceptre from Ricimer, 
and made some vigorous eflbrts to remedy the disorders of the state. 
His virtues Avere not appreciated by his subjects. He was dethroned 
by a licentious soldiery (a. d. 461), and died in a few days after. 

Ricimer chose one of his own creatures, Severus, to be nominal em- 
peror, retaining all the poAver of the state in his oavh hands ; but the 
superior strength of the Vandals compelled him to have recourse to the 
court of Constantinople for aid, and to offer the nomination of a sov- 
ereign for the Avest to Leo, the successor of Marcian. Leo appointed 
the patrician Anthemius to this high but dangerous station, and sent a 



ROMAN EMPIEE. 317 

large armament against the Vandals in Africa. The imperial forces 
were completely defeated, and when the shattered relics of the arma- 
ment returned to Constantinople, Ricimer deposed Athemius, put him 
to death, and elevated Olyb'rius to the throne (a. d. 472). Both Rici- 
mer and Olyb'rius died within a few months : and Leo, after some de- 
lay, appointed Julius Nepos his colleague. 

Glycerins, an obscure soldier, trusting to the aid of the Burgundians, 
attempted to dispute the empire with Nepos ; but finding his strength 
inadequate to the contest, he resigned the sceptre for the crosier, and 
became bishop of Salona. Nepos himself was soon driven from the 
throne by Ores'tes, the successor of Ricimer in the command of the 
barbarian mercenaries. He fled into Dalmatia, where he was assassi- 
nated by his old rival Glycerins. 

Ores'tes gave the throne to his son Rom'ulus MomiFlus, whom he 
dignified with the title of Augus'tus, or, as he is more frequently called, 
Augus'tulus. Odoacer, the leader of the German tribes in the Roman 
pay, persuaded his countrymen to take arms against the usurper. 
Ores'tes was made prisoner, and put to death. Augus'tulus was sent 
into captivity, but was allowed a pension for his support ; and the con- 
queror, abolishing the name and ofiice of emperor, took the title of king 
of Italy (a. d. 476). The Ostrogoths finally conquered Italy (a. d. 
492), deposed Odoacer, and founded a new empire. 

During this calamitous period Christianity was sullied by the admix- 
ture of various superstitions, borrowed from ancient paganism. The 
Gnostics attempted to combine the truths of the gospel with the wild 
dreams of oriental philosophy, and they prepared medals with mystic 
devices, which were worn as charms or amulets, in the belief that they 
would protect men from danger and disease. 



318 ANCIET^T HISTORY. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 
INDIA. 

When India became known to the Greeks by the conquests of Alex- 
ander, its inhabitants were found in very nearly the same state of civil- 
ization as the Hindoos of the present day ; we may therefore fairly 
conclude that this civilized state must have been several hundred years 
in existence, else it could not have been so complete in its parts and so 
permanent in its influence. As Alexander's invasion took place about 
the fourth century before the Christian era, we may regard it as pretty 
certain that the civilization of India reaches back to at least one thou- 
sand years before Christ, but how much further it is impossible to de- 
termine with certainty. From the institution of caste, it seems probable 
that the Hindoos are of a mixed origin, for the difference between the 
castes is so very great that we are almost obliged to admit a corre- 
sponding difference of original extraction. " I could at all- times, and 
in every part of India," says Major Bevan, " distinguish a Brahmin by 
his complexion and peculiar features." All the Hindoo traditions unite 
in representing the neighborhood of the Ganges as the cradle of their 
race ; their most ancient records intimate that the first kingdoms in this 
sacred spot were founded by persons who came from the north, and 
the existing series of temples and monuments, both above and below 
ground, is a species of chronicle of the progressive extension of an im- 
migrating and highly-civilized race from north to south. This is the 
very reverse of what we find to have occurred in Egypt, where the 
social and religious advance was from south to north. 

The Brahmins in India, like the priests in Egypt, exercised an in- 
direct sovereignty over the other classes of society ; the kings, in both 
countries, were selected from the warrior caste, but the priestly caste 
restrained the power of the sovereign by religious enactments and in- 
stitutions which brought both public and private affairs under their cog- 
nizance. How this influence was obtained is merely matter of conjec- 
ture, but it certainly existed before the appearance of the two great In- 
dian epics, the Ramayana and the Maha-bharata, both of which contain 
several instances of the awful veneration in which the Brahmins Avere 
held by the kings themselves. In the interesting drama, " The Toy 
Cart," translated by Professor Wilson, we find a notice of a strange 
revolution eff'ected in the government of Ujayin (Oogein) by Brahmini- 
cal intrigue. The drama itself was written before the Christian era, 
but the incidents on which it is founded are of much earlier date ; it de- 
scribes how the Brahmins, off"ended by their sovereign Palaka's public 
disregard of them, brought about a change in the government, employ- 
ing a hermit and a cow-boy as their instruments. Arj'^aka, the cow- 



INDIA. ■? 319 

herd, is chosen king, and his accession is thus announced to a Brah- 
min whom Palaka had condemned to death : — 

" And Brahmin, I inform you, that the king, 
The unjust Palaka, has fallen a victim. 
Here in the place of sacrifice, to one 
Who has avenged his wrongs artd thine ; to Aryaka, 
Who ready homage pays to birth and virtue." 

The conchision of the drama still more forcibly shows the influence of 
the Brahmins, for reverence to their caste is invoked as one of the 
chief blessings of heaven : — 

" FuU-uddered be the kine, the soil be fertile ; 
May copious showers descend, and balmy gales 
Breathe health and happiness on all mankind; 
From pain be every living creature free, 
And reverence on the pious Brahmin wait ; 
And may all monarch s, prosperous and just. 
Humble their foes and guard the world in peace." 

It appears that there were two great dynasties in India proper ; that 
is, north of the Krishna river, and excluding the Dec'can ; the Solar 
race was established at Ayad'da, the modern Oude ; the Lunar race 
fixed itself more to the Avest, in the country round Delhi. The war be- 
tween the Pan'doos and Kooroos, both descended from the Lunar race, 
was to the Indians what the Trojan war was to the Greeks, by its in- 
fluence upon their poetry, literature, and arts. It forms the subject of 
the great Hindoo epic, the " Maha-bharata" (great war), which contains 
one hundred thousand slokas, or distichs. How far the events of this 
war are to be regarded as historical, would be an inquiry more curious 
than useful ; but it seems probable that, like the Trojan war, it was 
not less fatal to the victors than the vanquished, for a new dynasty 
arose at Magad'ha, which gradually acquired the supremacy of India. 

The kingdom of Magad'ha is identified with the province of Behar, 
and its capital was Paliboth'ra, which stood in or near the modern city 
of Patau. After the retreat of Alexander from India, the throne of 
Paliboth'ra was occupied by a celebrated conqueror, known to the 
Greeks by the name of Sandracop'tus or Sandracot'tus, who has been 
completely identified with the Chan'dra-Gup'ta of the Hindoo poets. 
The Greek and Hindoo v^rriters concur in the name, in the private his- 
tory, in the political elevation, and in the nation and capital of an In- 
dian king, nearly if not exactly contemporary with Alexander ; such an 
approximation could not possibly be the work of accident, and we may 
therefore regard this monarch's reign as historical. 

Combining and comparing the different accounts given of Chan'dra- 
Gup''ta it appears that about the time of Alexander the kingdom of 
Magad'ha was ruled by a monarch named Mahapad'ma Nan'da. He 
was a powerful and ambitious prince, but cruel and avaricious, by which 
defects, as well as by his inferiority of birth, he probably provoked the 
hostility of the Brahmins. By one wife he had eight sons, who, with 
their father, were called the nine Nan'das ; and by a wife of low ex- 
traction he had according to tradition, a son called Chan'dra-Gup'ta. I 
is, however, by no means certain that Chan'dra-Gup'ta was the son of 



320 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

Nan'da, but from uniform testimony he appears to have been closely re- 
lated to the royal family by his father's side, though his mother was of 
a very inferior caste. 

But whatever may have been the origin of this prince, it is very 
likely that he was made the instrument of the rebellious spirit of the 
Brahmins, who, having effected the destruction of Nan'da and his sons, 
raised Chan'dra-Gup'ta, while yet a youth, to the throne. In the drama 
Mudra Nahshasa, which represents the various artifices employed by 
the Brahmin Chanak'ya to establish the throne of Chan'dra-Gup'ta, 
Chanak'ya declares that it was he who overthrew the Nan'das : — 

" 'T is known to an the world 
I vowed the death of Nanda, and I slew him .... 
The fires of my wrath alone expire 
Like the fierce conflagration of a forest, 
From lack from fuel — not for weariness. 
The flames of my just anger have consumed 
The branding ornaments of Nanda's stem, 
Abandoned by the frightened priests and people, 
They have enveloped in a shower of ashes 
The blighted tree of his ambitious councils, 
And they have overcast with sorrow-clouds 
The smiling heavens of those moon-like looks 
That shed the light of love upon my foes." 

It is thus evident that the elevation of Chan'dra-Gup'ta to the throne 
was owing to the Brahmins ; they were, however, aided by a prince 
from the north of India, Pawats'wara, to whom they promised an ac- 
cession of territory as the reward of his alliance. The execution of 
this treaty was evaded by the assassination of the mountain-prince ; 
his son, Malayaketu, led a mingled host against Magad'ha to avenge his 
father's death : among his troops we find the Gavanas, the Lakas, or 
Lacae, and the Kambojas, or people of Arachosia, the northeastern 
province of Persia. The failure of Seleucus Nicator, in his attempt 
to extend his power in India, and his relinquishment of territory, may 
be connected with the discomfiture and retreat of Malayaketu, as nar- 
rated in the drama, although it is improbable that the Syrian monarch 
and the king of Magad'ha ever came into direct collision. The retreat 
of Malayaketu was occasioned by jealousies and quarrels among the 
confederates ; he returned, baffled and humbled, to his own country. 
Chan'dra-Gup'ta's power was now so firmly established that Seleucus 
Nicator relinquished to him all the country beyond the Indus, receiving 
fifty elephants in exchange ; he also formed a matrimonial alliance with 
the Hindoo prince, and sent Megasthenes as an ambassador to his 
court. Chan'dra-Gup'ta reigned twenty-four years, and left the kingdom 
to his son. 

There is a complete blank in Indian history from the death of Chan'- 
dra-Gup'ta to the accession of Vicramadit'ya, who is called the sover- 
eign of all India. He ruled with such extraordinary success that his 
reign forms an important era in history, commencing b. c. 58, according 
to one account, and ten years later, according to another. Toward the 
close of his reign he was conquered by Shapour, the second Persian 
monarch of the Sassanian dynasty, and the empire of India became 



INDIA. 321 

subject to that of Persia. The Hindoo accounts of Vicramadit'ya are 
intermingled with the most extravagant fables, and all that we can learn 
from them with certainty is, that this prince was a sedulous upholder 
of the influence of the Brahmins. 

From this period to the Mohammedan invasion, India appears to have 
been divided into a number of petty independent states, in which the 
rajahs were completely under the influence of the Brahmins. As the 
royal power declined, the rules of caste, on which the influence of the 
hereditary priesthood depended, were rendered more rigid and severe. 
The caste of the Brahmins arrogated to itself the exclusive privilege 
of studying and expounding the Vedas, and as these are the source of 
all Hindoo learning, whether religious or scientific, the priesthood thus 
obtained a monopoly of knowledge. Brahmins alone could exercise 
the medical art, for sickness being considered as the punishment of 
transgression, it is remedied only by penances and religious ceremonies : 
they alone had the right to interpret the laws, to offer sacrifices, and to 
give counsel to the sovereign. 

The Kshatriya or warrior caste, is generally regarded as extinct ; it 
was naturally viewed with great jealousy by the Brahmins, and the in- 
stitutions imposed upon it by them, were little calculated to foster a war- 
like spirit. Hence Hindoostan has so frequently and so easily become 
the prey of foreign conquerors, for the priestly caste made it the chief 
object of their policy to humiliate and weaken the caste of warriors. 

The Vaisy'a caste includes the higher industrial classes, and was 
perhaps one of the most numefous. The Sddras formed the lowest 
class, and were slaves to the rest. In process of time, the number of 
mixed castes was greatly multiplied, and the determination of their re- 
lations to each other became a matter of considerable difficulty. 

At a very early but uncertain period, the religious institutions of the 
Brahmins were opposed by a reformer named Bud'dha, who rejected 
the Vedas, bloody sacrifices, and the distinction of castes. His follow- 
ers, called Buddhists, must have been both numerous and powerful at a 
very remote age, for a greater number of the oldest rock-temples are 
dedicated to him. From the Christian writers of the second century it 
is evident that in their day the religion of Bud'dha was very prevalent 
in India, and iu the drama of the Toy-Cart, Bud'dha observances are 
described with great accuracy, and the members of the sect represented 
in a flourishing condition, for they are not only tolerated but publicly 
recognised. One of the characters in the play is a Bud'dha ascetic, 
and he describes his creed in the following hymn : — 

" Be virtue, friends, your only store, 
And restless appetite restrain, 
Beat meditation's drum, and sore 

Your watch against each sense maintain ; 
The thief that still in ambush lies, 
To make devotion's wealth his prize. 

" Cast the five senses all away 

That triumph o'er the virtuous wiU, 
The pride of self-importance slay. 
And ignorance remorseless kill; 
So shall you safe the body guard, 
And Heaven shall be vour last rewaid. 
21 



322 ANCIENT HISTORY. 

" 'Why shave the head and mow the chin, 

While bustling follies clioke the breast ? 
Apply the knife to parts within, 

And heed not how deformed the rest ; 
The heart of pride and passion weed, 
And then the man is pure indeed." 

At some \mcertain period, but probably not mucli later than the twelfth 
century of the Christian era, nor earlier than the fourth, the Buddhists 
were expelled from India by the Brahmins ; they sought shelter in Cey- 
lon, in the mountains of the north, in the countries beyond the Ganges, 
in Tartary, and in China, where their religion had been previously 
preached by active missionaries. By the persecution of the Buddhists 
in their native country, a great portion of the literature of India has 
been lost, and in particular, according to Professor Wilson, all the an- 
cient literature of the people that speak the Tamul language. But in 
the countries surrounding India, Buddhism still prevails ; it is indeed 
the most widely extended of any religion, being professed by not less 
than two hundred millions of people. Its success is mainly owing to 
the excellent organization of its hierarchy, and the solemnity of its cer- 
emonies. Celibacy is enjoined on its priesthood, and thus a monastic 
corporation is formed, which in Tibet possesses the sovereign power, 
and in the other countries enjoys considerable political influence. 

The Buddhists were not the only reformers that opposed the Brah- 
mins ; they were followed by the Jains, who cut down more extensively 
the vast forest of fraud and superstition. The rise of Jainism Avas con- 
temporary with the decline of Buddhism in Hindoostan. Both affect to 
be new doctrines produced by a fresh incarnation of Vishnoo, the con- 
servating principle of the Hindoo Triad. 

The ancient trade of the Egyptians and Phoenicians with India has 
been already noticed in the earlier part of this work ; but Indian com- 
merce did not excite much attention in the western world until the first 
Ptolemy ascended the throne of Egypt, and prepared to realize the vast 
projects of his master, Alexander the Great. His successor, Ptolemy 
Philadelphus, attempted to connect the Red sea with the Mediterranean, 
by cutting a canal from Arsinoe (^Suez) to the Pelusiac branch of the 
Nile. This was not found so useful as the king anticipated ; he there- 
fore built a city lower down the Red sea, nearly under the Tropic, 
called Berenice, which became the staple of the trade with India. 
G^ods were transported from Berenice to Cop'tos on the Nile, and 
thence floated down the river to Alexandria. The Egyptian vessels 
sailed from Berenice either to the mouths of the Indus or to the Mala- 
bar coast ; they were too small to venture directly out to sea, and there- 
fore crept timidly along the shores. The Persians had an insuperable 
aversion to maritime affairs, else they might have opened the same trade 
by a shorter and safer course of navigation through the Persian gulf. 
They procured Indian commodities overland from the banks of the In- 
dus, and the northern provinces were supplied by the caravans which 
travelled from the Indus to the Oxus, and sent their goods down that 
river into the Caspian sea. 

After Egypt had been some time subject to the Romans, the discovery 
of the reguiar shifting of the periodical winds or monsoons brought In- 



.^ INDIA. 323 

dia nearer to the rest of the world. Hippalus, the commander of a ship 
engaged in the Indian trade, about eighty years after Egypt was an- 
nexed to the Roman empire, stretched boldly from the mouth of the 
Arabian gulf across the ocean, and was wafted by the western monsoon 
to Musius on the Malabar coast, somewhere between Goa and Tel- 
licherry. From this time the Indian trade rapidly increased, and the 
merchants of Alexandria supplied Europe with spices, and aromatics, 
precious stones, pearls, silk, and cotton cloths. 

Taprobane or the island of Ceylon, was not known by name to Eu- 
ropeans before the age of Alexander the Great. The Egyptians seem 
not to have visited it or the Coromandel coast, until after the discovery of 
the periodicity of the monsoons, but so early as the reign of the empe- 
ror Claudius an ambassador was sent from the island to Rome. It sub- 
sequently became a great mart of trade for the commodities produced in 
the countries beyond the Ganges, and probably even for the productions 
of China. 

Little change was made in the commercial routes of communication 
with India from the time of the Romans, until the discovery of the pas- 
sage round the Cape of Good Hope by Vasco de Gama. The ancients 
were contented with traffic, and after the time of Alexander made no 
efforts to establish colonies in Hindoostan ; hence their accounts of the 
country and its inhabitants are very loose and indefinite. But even 
from these vague accounts we find that the social institutions of the 
Hindoos have scarcely been altered by the many changes of realm and 
chances of time which have since occurred ; and hence we may con- 
clude, that its system of civilization, so original and so stereotype in its 
character, belongs to an age of very remote antiquity, and that there is 
no improbability in its having been connected with that of ancient 
Egypt. 



THE 



STUDENT'S MANUAL 



MODERN HISTORY. 



iS 



THE 



STUDEIT'S MANUAL 

OF 

MODERN HISTORY. 



CHAPTER I. 

CONSEQUENCES OF THE FALL OF THE WEST- 
ERN EMPIRE. 

Section I. — The Gothic Kingdom of Italy. 

There is no period in the annals of the human race which presents 
to the historical student a greater scene of confusion than the century 
succeeding the overthrow of the Western Empire. The different 
hordes of barbarians, following no definite plan, established separate 
monarchies in the dismembered provinces, engaged in sanguinary wars 
that had no object but plunder, and were too ignorant to form anything 
like a political system. There is consequently a want of unity in the 
narrative of a time when nations ceased to have any fixed relations 
toward each other, and history must appear desultory and digressive 
until some one state, rising into command, assume such importance, 
that the fate of all the rest may be connected with its destinies. It is 
necessary, before entering on the various incidents of this calamitous 
time, to take a geographical survey of the places occupied by the prin- 
cipal nations who succeeded the Romans in the sovereignty of Europe. 

The Visigoths, after their establishment in Spain, began gradually 
to adopt the refinement of their new subjects ; that peninsula had ad- 
vanced rapidly in civilization under the Roman dominion, -and had 
escaped from much of the corruption which had degraded Italy ; the 
conquerors, more advanced than any other of the barbarians, soon 
learned to appreciate the advantages of social order, and began to cul- 
tivate the higher arts of life. In Pannonia, the Ostrogoths derived 
great improvement from their vicinity to Italy on the one side, and the 
court of Constantinople on the other ; they were thus gradually trained 
to civilization, and their early adoption of Christianity secured them the 
benefits of literature, which was sedulously cultivated by the clergy. 

Tribes of a very different character pressed into the empire from the 



328 MODERN HISTORY, 

German forests — the Burgundians, the Lombards, and the Franks, of 
whom the last were long distinguished for their hostility to all refine- 
ments, and their exclusive attention to the military virtues. Still more 
barbarous were the Saxons and Angles ; they were not only strangers 
to the civilization and religion of the empire, but were kept in their 
rude state by the practice of piracy, for which their maritime situation 
aflbrded them great facilities ; their government, divided among several 
petty chiefs, was favorable to personal independence, and furnished a 
striking contrast to the absolute despotism that had been established in 
the Roman empire. All the Germanic tribes were remarkable for the 
respect which they showed to the delicacy of the female character ; 
they neither treated their women like slaves, as most other barbarians 
have done, nor did they degrade them into mere objects of sensual 
gratification, like the Romans and Byzantines. The German woman 
was the companion and counsellor of her husband ; she shared his 
labors as an equal, not as a servant. It was from the sanctity of the 
domestic circle among the northern nations that races of conquerors 
derived the firmness and courage which ensured them victory. 

The northeastern part of Europe was occupied by Sclavonic tribes, 
differing from the Germans in language, manners, and tactics ; like the 
Tartars of more modem times, they placed their chief reliance on their 
cavalry ; and they were more opposed to civilization than any of the 
Germanic nations. Their form of government was a kind of aristo- 
cratic republic, but in war the tribes generally united under a single 
leader. They were very averse to fixed residences, and when they 
occupied a country they rarely entered the cities, but remained in their 
camps or in rude circular fortifications called rings. The Sclavonians 
hated the Germans, and could rarely be induced to unite with them 
against their common enemy, the Romans. 

After the fall of the "Western Empire, the court of Constantinople 
sunk into obscurity, from which it did not emerge for half a century, 
when its supremacy was restored during the memorable reign of Jus- 
tinian. The Isaurian Zeno, raised to the purple by his marriage with 
the princess Ariadne, was forced to fly into the mountains by a fierce 
revolt wliich his mother-in-law Verina had instigated. He was restored 
to the throne chiefly by the aid of Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, 
who had been carefully educated as a hostage at the court of Con- 
stantinople. The turbulence of the Goths, and the faithlessness of the 
Byzantines, soon destroyed the amity of the two sovereigns ; a desul- 
tory, but sanguinary warfare harassed the Eastern Empire, until Zeno 
purchased peace by ceding to Theodoric his right over Italy, or rather 
stimulated the Goth to undertake the conquest of that peninsula. The 
march of Theodoric was the emigration of an entire people ; the Goths 
were accompanied by their wives, their children, and their aged 
parents, a vast multitude of wagons conveyed their most precious ef- 
fects, and their store of provisions for a toilsome march undertaken in 
the depth of winter. Odoacer boldly prepared to meet this formidable 
invasion ; he took post on the river Sontius [Isonzo) with a powerful 
host ; but he was unable to resist the daring energy of the Goths, and 
his defeat gave Theodoric possession of the Venetian province as far 
as the walls of Verona (a. d. 489). Italy, however, was not won 



FALL OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE. 329 

witliout further struggles : Ravenna alone sustained a siege of more 
than three years ; but at length Odoacer capitulated (a. d. 493), and 
was soon after assassinated at a solemn banquet by his rival. 

Theodoric secured his conquest by distributing one third of the lands 
of Italy to his soldiers in military tenures. This partition was effected 
with very little violence to the ancient possessors ; the Goths were in- 
structed to spare the people, to reverence the laws, and to lay aside 
their barbarous customs of judicial combats and private revenge. The 
Gothic sovereignty was soon extended from Sicily to the Danube, and 
from Sirmium {SirmicK) to the Atlantic ocean ; thus including the fair- 
est portion of the Western Empire. The monarch of this new king- 
dom showed great wisdom and moderation in his civil government, but 
vmfortunately his attachment to the Arian heresy led him to persecute 
the Catholics. The legal murder of the philosopher Boethius and the 
venerable Symmachus were crimes which admit of no palliation ; they 
hastened Theodoric's death, for remorse brought him to the grave in 
the thirty-third year of his reign (a. d. 526). 

Section II. — Reign of Justinian. 

A D AC IAN peasant, named Justin, who had travelled on foot to Con- 
stantinople in the reign of the emperor Leo, enlisted in the imperial 
guards, and, during the succeeding reigns, so distinguished himself by 
his strength and valor, that he was gradually raised to the command of 
.the household troops. On the death of the emperor Anastasius, the 
eunuch Amantius, anxious to secure the throne for one of his creatures, 
intrusted Justin with a large sum of money to bribe the guards ; but he 
used it to purchase votes for himself, and was thus elevated to the em- 
pire (a. d. 518). Totally ignorant himself, Justin was not insensible 
of the value of education ; he made his nephew Justinian his associate 
in the empire ; and as this prince had been instructed in all the learn- 
ing of the times, he soon obtained the whole power of the state. 

After the death of Justin (a. d. 527), Justinian ruled alone; but his 
first exercise of authority fixed a lasting stigma on his reign. He chose 
for his empress, Theodora, a woman of mean birth and infamous char- 
acter, whose vices had disgusted even a capital so licentious as Con- 
stantinople. Among the most singular and disgraceful follies of the 
Eastern Empire were the factions of the circus, which arose from the 
colors worn by the charioteers who competed for the prize of swiftness. 
Green and blue were the most remarkable for their inveterate hostility, 
though white and red were the most ancient ; all, however, soon ac- 
quired a legal existence, and the Byzantines willingly hazarded life and 
fortune to support their favorite color. Justinian was a partisan of the 
blues ; his favor toward them provoked the hostility of the opposite 
faction, and led to a sedition which almost laid Constantinople in ashes. 
The disturbances first burst forth in the circus ; Justinian ordered the 
rioters to be secured ; both factions immediately turned against the 
monarch, the soldiers were called out, but they were unable to contend 
against the citizens in the narrow streets. Assailed from the tops of 
the houses, the barbarian mercenaries flung firebrands in revenge, and 
thus kindled a dreadful conflagration, which destroyed a vast number 



330 MODERN HISTORY. 

of public and private edifices. After tlie city had been for several days 
in the hands of the rioters, Justinian contrived to revive the ancient 
animosity between the greens and blues ; the latter faction declared for 
the emperor, a strong body of veterans marched to the Hippodrome, or 
race-course, and tranquillity was restored by the slaughter of thirty 
thousand of the insurgents. While the internal state of the empire 
was thus disturbed by faction, a costly and unprofitable war was waged 
against the Persians, until the emperor purchased a disgraceful and 
precarious truce, which both he and his rival chose to designate as an 
endless peace. 

The usurpation of the throne of the Vandals in Africa by Gelimer, 
who owed his success chiefly to the support of the Arian clergy, in- 
duced Justinian to undertake a war, in which he appeared both the 
generous friend of an allied sovereign and the protector of the Catholic 
faith. Belisarius, the best general of his age, was appointed to the 
command of the imperial forces, and a large fleet was assembled for 
the transport of the army in the harbor of Constantinople (a. d. 533). 
After the armament had been blessed by the patriarch it set sail ; and, 
after a prosperous voyage, Belisarius effected a landing on the coast of 
Africa without opposition. He advanced toward Carthage, defeating 
the Vandals on his march, and became master of the city with little 
opposition. Gelimer made one effort more to save his kingdom ; it 
was unsuccessful, his army was irretrievably ruined, and he was closely 
besieged in the castle where he sought refuge. The unfortunate king, 
after having borne the most dreadful extremities of famine, was forced 
to surrender unconditionally ; he was carried captive to Constantinople, 
Avhere he was led in the triumphal procession that honored the return 
of Belisarius. The dethroned monarch showed no sorrow for his fall, 
but consoled himself by Solomon's reflection on the instability of hu- 
man greatness, frequently repeating. " Vanity of vanities, saith the 
preacher, all is vanity." 

The murder of Amalasontha, queen of the Goths, by her ungrateful 
husband Theodatus, afforded Belisarius a pretext for attacking the king- 
dom of Italy. He sailed from Constantinople to Sicily, and easily con- 
quered that important island (a. d. 535). Theodatus, in great terror, 
hasted to avert danger, by declaring himself the vassal of Justinian ; 
but hearing in the meantime that two Byzantine generals had been de- 
feated in Dalraatia by the Gothic troops, he passed suddenly from ex- 
treme despair to the height of presumption, and withdrew his allegi- 
ance. Belisarius soon appeared to chastise his perfidy ; he transported 
his army across the Sicilian strait, and effected a landing at Rhegium 
{Reggio). The greater part of southern Italy, including the important 
city of Naples, was speedily subdued by the imperial forces ; while 
Theodatus, secure within the walls of Rome, made no effort to protect 
his subjects. At length the Goths, disgusted by the incapacity and 
weakness of their sovereign, removed him from the throne, and chose 
the valiant Vitiges for their king. But Vitiges was forced to commence 
his reign by abandoning Rome, of which Belisarius took possession 
without encountering any opposition (a. d. 537). During the ensuing 
winter, the Goths assembled from every quarter to save, if possible, 
their kingdom in Italy : a powerful army, animated by dauntless spirit, 



FALL OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE. 331 

was soon collected, and Vitiges led b^ followers to the siege of Rome. 
Belisarius concentrated his forces in the Eternal city, which was de- 
fended with equal skiU and bravery ; but famine soon appeared within 
the walls, and the citizens became anxious for a capitulation. A con- 
spiracy was formed under the sanction of the pope, Sylverius, for be- 
traying the city to the Goths ; but it was discovered by an intercepted 
letter. Belisarius sent Sylverius into banishment, and ordered the 
bishops to elect a new pontiff: before however a synod could be assem- 
bled for the purpose, the general's wife, the infamous Antonina, sold the 
Holy See to Vigilus for a bribe of two hundred pounds weight of gold. 
Reinforcements soon after arrived from the east, and the Goths were 
forced to raise the siege of Rome, having lost one third of their number 
before its walls. Belisarius pursued the retreating enemy to the 
marshes of Ravenna, and would probably have captured that city, but 
for the jealousy of the eunuch Narses, whom Justinian had intrusted 
with the independent command of a large division of the Byzantine 
army. Though the differences between the two leaders were finally 
adjusted, the Goths had taken advantage of the interval to collect new 
strength ; and ten thousand Burgundians, sent to invade Italy by the 
command of Theodobert, king of the Franks, had stormed and plun- 
dered Milan. Soon after, Theodobert passed the Alps in person at the 
head of one hundred thousand men. The Franks stormed Genoa, and 
devastated Liguria ; but their excesses brought pestilence into their 
camp, they perished by thousands and Theodobert was induced, by his 
increasing distresses, to enter into terms of accommodation with the 
emperor. Delivered from this pressing danger, Belisarius laid siege 
to Ravenna, which was forced to capitulate (a. d. 539) ; and thus the 
Gothic kingdom of Italy was destroyed. 

Belisarius returned to Constantinople in triumph, leading with him 
the captive Vitiges ; he was sent to conduct the Persian war, but was 
soon recalled and disgraced by the ungrateful Justinian. While the 
conquests of Belisarius were restoring the western provinces to the 
empire, barbarous hordes ravaged, almost with impunity, the northeast- 
em frontiers. Unable or unwilling to meet the Gepidse in the field, 
Justinian entered into alliance with the Longobardi or Lombards (so 
called from their long barts or lances), who had just thrown off the yoke 
of the Heruli, and gave them settlements in Pannonia. A war of forty 
years' duration, between the Lornbards and Gepidae, protected the em- 
pire from the invasions of both hordes ; but it was still exposed to the 
incursions of the Sclavonians and Bulgarians, who annually purchased 
a passage through the territories of the Gepidae, and extended their in- 
roads even into southern Greece. Commotions in the remote east 
brought Europeans, about this time, acquainted with new and more for- 
midable races of barbarians, the Avars and the Turks, whose impor- 
tance may justify a short digression on their origin. 

The Avars, from an unknown age, possessed the mountains and 
deserts that border on the lake Baikal in northeastern Asia. Thence 
they advanced southward under a monarch named Tulun, and extended 
their empire to the eastern sea, which separates Corea from Japan. 
The conqueror took the title of Chakan or Chagan, a name still used on 
the coins of the Turkish sultan. But the prosperity of the Avars was 



332 ' MODERN HISTORY. 

not of long duration ; they were TTssailed by rival tribes from tte nortli, 
and at the same time harassed by civil wars ; while thus distressed, 
they were attacked by a new horde, called Thiukhiu by the Chinese 
writers, but known to the Europeans as the Turks. The Avars were 
overthrown by these new competitors for empire, and their power totally 
destroyed ; but their name was taken by a new nation, the Ogors or 
Varchonites, who after being defeated by the Turks, migrated toward 
Europe by the route of the Volga. They chose the false designation, 
because the name of the Avars was still formidable, and they preserved 
it on account of the terror which they saw it produced. 

The Turks first appear in history as the slaves of the original Avars ; 
they inhabited the great Altaian mountains, and were engaged in work- 
ing the mines and attending the forges of those rich mineral districts. 
Their skill in fabricating armor and weapons was very great, and they 
prided themselves upon the excellence of their manufactures so much, 
that, when they became lords of eastern Asia, their Khakans annually 
forged a piece of iron in the presence of the heads of the nation. Un- 
der the guidance of Thu-men, they asserted their independence, and 
made slaves of their former masters. So rapid was their progress, 
that diu-ing the reigns of Thii-men and his successor Dizabul, their 
empire was extended from the Volga to the sea of Japan. They were 
thus brought to the frontiers of the Byzantine and Persian dominions, 
and engaged in commercial relations with both, by their occupation of 
the countries through which the silk-trade was carried. 

The great rival of Justinian was Chosroes or Nushirvan, the most 
celebrated Persian monarch of the Sissanid dynasty ; in the early part of 
his reign he won the affection of his subjects, by extirpating the perni- 
cious system of policy and religion which his predecessor Kobad, seduced 
by an impostor named Mazdak, had patronised. His next care was to 
give confidence to the laboring classes by judicious laws securing the 
rights of industry, and by a sedulous attention to the administration of 
justice. Having thus secured the tranquillity and prosperity of Persia, 
he directed his attention to the favorite project of the Sassanides, the 
re-establishment of the empire of Cyrus, and perceiving that the forces 
of Justinian were engaged in the west, invaded Syria, at the head of a 
powerful army (a. t>. 540). His victorious career was checked for a 
brief space by Belisarius, but after the recall and disgrace of that general, 
he urged forward his conquests with alarming rapidity. Justinian, in 
his distress, repented of his ingratitude ; Belisarius was restored to 
command, and by his judicious exertions, Nushirvan was forced to re- 
turn across the Euphrates, loaded, however, with the spoils of western 
Asia. His next enterprise was the conquest of the Caucasian districts, 
inhabited by the Lazi, the Colchians, and other semi-barbarous tribes, 
which the Byzantines struggled to prevent, and this led to the tedious 
Lazic war, in which the strength of both empires was uselessly wasted. 
In consequence of the Persian war, Justinian entered into a treaty with 
the Abyssinians, whose monarch had subdued the greater part of Arabia, 
in the expectation of opening, by his means, a naval communication 
with China and Jndia ; but the design was frustrated by the reluctance 
of the Ethiopian monarch to engage in a doubtful contest with the power 
of Persia. 



FALL OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE. 333 

The provinces of Africa and Italy, acquired by the valor of Belisarius, 
were nearly lost by the incapacity and tyranny of his successors. 
Their weakness provoked the Moors to take arms ; and, though these 
barbarians were finally reduced, the African province was changed 
from a fertile and populous country into a savage and silent desert. 
Still more dangerous was the revolt of the Goths under the gallant 
Totila (a. d. 541), who in a very brief space recovered the greater part 
of Italy. Finding his generals successively defeated, Justinian sent 
Belisarius to the theatre of his former glory ; but he neglected to supply 
the hero with sufficient forces ; and Rome was captured by Totila, al- 
most in sight of the imperial army. The city was recovered soon after, 
and the old general gained some advantages over Totila ; but finding 
himself unsupported, he solicited permission to return, and departed from 
Italy disgraced, not so much by his failure, as by the plunder he had 
permitted Antonina to extort from those he was sent to defend (a. d. 
548). Totila, after the departure of Belisarius, again made himself 
master of Rome, but the maritime cities of Italy resisted his assaults, 
and supported the imperial interests until the eunuch Narses was sent 
into the peninsula (a. d. 552), 

Justinian granted to this favorite what he had denied to Belisarius, a 
competent supply of the munitions of war ; allies were entreated to 
send contingents, and mercenaries were hired from the principal bar- 
barous tribes. Thus supplied, the eunuch eagerly sought to bring the 
Goths to an engagement ; but Totila showed equal ardor for the combat, 
and the hostile forces soon met in the vicinity of Rome. In the very 
commencement of the battle the Gothic cavalry, hurried forward by 
their impetuosity, advanced so far beyond their infantry, that they were 
surrounded and cut to pieces before they could receive assistance. 
Totila, hasting with a chosen troop to remedy the disorder, was struck 
to the earth mortally wounded, and his followers instantly fled in con- 
fusion. Rome opened its gates to the conquerors ; but the imperial 
forces, especially the barbarian mercenaries, treated the city more 
cruelly than the Gothic conquerors had done, and inflicted on the citi- 
zens the mingled horror of lust, rapine, and murder. The bravest of 
the Goths retired, after their defeat, beyond the Po, and chose Teias 
for their king. War was of course renewed ; but in a fierce battle, 
■which lasted two entire days, Teias was slain, and the power of the 
Ostrogoths irretrievably ruined. Narses had scarcely time to recover 
from the fatigues of this campaign, when he was summoned to repel an 
invasion of the Franks and Allemans; he routed them with great 
slaughter ; and then returning to Rome, gratified its citizens by the 
semblance of a triumph. Italy was thus reduced to a Byzantine prov- 
ince, governed by the exarchs of Ravenna ; and Narses himself, the 
first and most powerful of the exarchs, governed the whole peninsula 
for fifteen years. 

In the meantime Belisarius had been summoned to defend the em- 
pire from the dangers with which it was menaced, by an invasion of 
the Bulgarians. He gained a decisive victory over the barbarians,, but 
was prevented from improving his advantages by the intrigues of the 
courtiers. The Bulgarians were induced to return beyond the Danube, 
by the payment of a large ransom for their captives ; and Justiniaa 



334 MODERN HISTORY. 

claimed the gratitude of his subjects for accelerating their departure by 
the threat of placing armed vessels in the Danube. This was the last 
campaign of Belisarius ; he was soon after disgraced and imprisoned, 
under a false charge of treason : his innocence was subsequently proved, 
and his freedom restored, but grief and resentment hurried him to the 
grave ; and his treasures were seized by the rapacious emperor. Eight 
months afterward Justinian sunk into the tomb, scarcely regretted by 
his subjects. He was a pious and diligent sovereign, but he wanted 
energy to contend against the vices of his court and the age. His 
talents as a legislator and statesman were great ; had he acted on his 
own principles, he would have surpassed Augustus, but he yielded his 
power to the infamous Theodora, and to unworthy ministers who abused 
his confidence, and oppressed the empire. 



Section III. — The Establishment of the Civil Law. 

Early in his reign, Justinian directed his attention to the state of the 
law in his empire, and formed the useful project of digesting into a uni- 
form code the vast mass of laws, rules, and judicial maxims, which the 
various interests of the Romans and Byzantines, their progress in civ- 
ilization, and the inconstancy of their rulers, had produced, during the 
course of thirteen hundred years. He saw that the multitude of ordi- 
nances occasioned confusion and disorder, and that the heap of incon- 
sistent decisions and regulations, formed a labyrinth in which justice 
went astray, and iniquity found avenues for escape. The execution of 
this great plan was not worthy of the design. At the head of the com- 
mission appointed to prepare the code was Tribonian, a lawyer of 
great eminence, but unfortunately an interested flatterer and corrupt 
judge ; accustomed to sell justice, he altered, perverted, or suppressed 
many excellent laws. He frequently persuaded the emperor to destroy, 
by supplementary edicts called Novels, the principles of right which 
had been previously established in the Code and the Digest. 

Justinian commenced with the Code. In an edict, dated the 3d of 
February, a. d. 528, addressed to the senate of Constantinople, he de- 
clared his resolution of collecting into a single volume, not merely the 
laws in the three previous codes of Gregory, Hermogenianus, and The- 
odosius, but also the laws that had been published by imperial authority 
since the formation of the Theodosian code. A commission often em- 
inent lawyers, with Tribonian at its head, was charged with the execu- 
tion of this task. They were permitted to suppress repetitions, to re- 
move contradictory or obsolete laws, to add what was necessary for 
exactness or explanation, and to unite, under one head, what was spread 
over a great variety of laws. The work went on so rapidly, that in 
little more than a year the new code, containing, in twelve books, all 
the imperial laws from the accession of the Emperor Adrian, was ready 
to appear. Justinian affixed the imperial seal to the new constitution 
(a. d. 529), and transmitted it, vidth a suitable edict, to Mennas, the 
prsetorian praefect. In this edict he congratulates himself and the em- 
pire on having found commissioners possessing so much zeal, knowl- 
edge, and probity ; he gives the ccdlection the force of law, ordaining 



FALL OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE. 335 

that the new code alone should be cited in courts of justice ; and he 
commands the praefect to have this made known through the empire. 

A more extensive and difficult work remained, to collect the scattered 
monuments of ancient jurisprudence. Justinian confided this task also 
to Tribonian, and gave him the power of nominating his fellow com- 
missioners. Tribonian chose one of the magistrates who had already- 
aided in the formation of the Code, four professors of jurisprudence, 
and eleven advocates of high legal reputation. These seventeen com- 
missioners were instructed to search out, collect, and put in order, all 
that was really useful in the books of the juriconsults who had been 
authorized to make or interpret laws by preceding sovereigns ; they 
were permitted, as in the case of the Code, to change, add, or retrench, 
and to fix doubtful cases by precise definitions. The emperor recom- 
mended them in settling any point, to regard neither the number nor the 
reputation of the juriconsults who had given opinions on the subject, 
but to be guided solely by reason and equity. Their collection was to 
be arranged in fifty books, having all the matter arranged under their 
respective titles, and was to be named the Digest, on account of its or- 
derly classification, or the Pandects, because it was to contain all the 
ancient jurisprudence.* But the commissioners seem to have executed 
their task with more zeal and speed than exactness. The emperor 
himself did not expect that the work could be completed in less than 
ten years. It was necessary to examine carefully more than two thou- 
sand volumes ; to discuss, compare, and reduce into order, an innume- 
rable number of decisions ; to reform some of them, to reverse others, 
and to classify the whole. But Tribonian, who knew that in enter- 
prises which engage the vanity of princes, the delay between the de- 
sign and execution is borne with great impatience, hurried on the work 
so rapidly that it was completed in three years. 

On the 16th of December, 533, Justinian invested this collection 
with the authority of law, by a constitution of state, addressed to the 
senate of Constantinople, and all his subjects. In this edict he states, 
that the enormous chaos of ancient decisions have been reduced to a 
twentieth part, without the omission of anything essential, so that the 
order and brevity of this body of jurisprudence, and the facility with 
which it could be learned, took away every excuse from negligence or 
ignorance. He declares, that though some errors may have crept 
into a work of such vast magnitude, their number is very limited ; and 
he asserts, rather too hastily, that it contains none of those inconsistent 
decisions which lawyers call antinomies.] Should any point be found 
deficient and obscure, he wills that recourse should be had to the impe- 
rial authority, which alone has the power to supply or interpret the 
laws. To prevent the recurrence of the ancient confusion, by diversity 
of sentiments, he forbids all commentary, permijtting only the transla- 
tion of the laws into Greek, with the addition of titles and paratitles — 
that is to say, summaries of their contents. He forbids the use of ab- 
breviations in transcribing them, declaring that the copy in which a 

* From irav, all, and kxc^'^Qni, to contain. The fifty books of the Pandects are 
divided into four hundred and twenty-three titles, which contain nine thousand one 
hundred and twenty -three laws, each marked with the name of its author. 

t From avTi^ contrary to, and vo^ioi, law. 



336 MODERN HISTORY, 

contraction was found should be held of no authority, and that the tran- 
scriber should be punished for forgery. All other laws are declared to 
be abrogated, and are even forbidden to be cited In the tribunals ; and 
the judges are ordered to conform in all things to the Digest from the 
day of the date of the edict. The emperor enjoins the three praetoriaji 
prsefects to publish the Digest in their several governments, and con- 
cludes by stating that he was anxious to have this meritorious revolu- 
tion effected during his third consulate, in order that a year, which 
heaven had blessed by a peace with Persia, and the conquest of Africa, 
should witness the completion of this great edifice of the laws, as a 
holy and august temple, in which justice should pronounce her oracles. 

While the commissioners labored at the Digest, the emperor charged 
Tribonian, and two eminent professors, to prepare an elementary work 
on jurisprudence, in four books, as an introduction to the study of law. 
This portion of Justinian's legislation is far the most valuable part ; it 
was finished and published a little before the Digest, and was named 
the Institutes. 

The whole system of ancient jurisprudence Avas thus simplified, re- 
duced to its essentials, and arranged in the Institutes, the Pandects, 
and the Code. But, after their publication, Justinian published more 
than two hundred supplementary edicts ; and when the great collections 
began to be used in the courts, several errors and imperfections were 
discovered as might reasonably be expected in a work of such magni- 
tude, executed with such unnecessary speed. A new commission was 
appointed to revise the Code ; the result of its labors was a second edi- 
tion, which received the imperial sanction, November 16, 534, by an 
edict abrogating the former imperfect Code. 

The emperor reserved to himself, in express terms, the right of adding, 
at a subsequent time, but separately, such constitutions as he should 
judge necessary. These were called Novels ; they limit, extend, and 
in some instances repeal the Code ; and it is this inconsistency that has 
led to the suspicion of Tribonian and the prince having occasionally 
been guided by interest and favor, rather than by reason and equity. 
These Novels are one hundred and sixty-eight in number, but only 
ninety-eight have the force of law, having been collected into a volume 
in- the last year of Justinian's reign. 

This code was supplanted in the east by the Basilica or Greek con- 
stitutions of later emperors. In the west, Illyria was the only province 
by which it was received, until the overthrow of the Gothic monarchy 
afforded an opportunity for its introduction into Italy. The Code, was, 
however, superseded by the laws of the Lombards, when their hordes 
became master of Ravenna. After Charlemagne had overthrown the 
Lombard monarchy, he searched Italy in vain for a copy of Justinian's 
legislation ; it remained concealed until the twelfth century, when a 
copy of the Digest wa's found on the capture of Amalfi by the troops 
of the emperor Lothaire II., and presented by him to the citizens of 
Pisa, who had aided the imperialists in this expedition. At a later pe- 
riod, a copy of the Code was discovered at Ravenna, and a collection 
was made of the Novels which were dispersed throughout Italy. Such 
were the origin and revolutions of this celebrated body of legislation, 
the source of the civil law throughout Europe, and the great guide to 



PALL OE THE WESTEEN EMPIEE. 337 

the most ciyilized nations in supplying the defects of their several legal 
systems. 

Section IY. — History of the Silk Trade. — Introduction of the Silkworm into 

Europe. 

Silk was known as an article of commerce, and extensively used in 
the western world long before the insect that produces this precious 
substance, and whose nature was unknown, was brought for the first 
time to Constantinople. No one before the age of Justinian had even 
contemplated such an enterprise. It was only by long and painful 
journeys through the dangerous and difficult wilds of central Asia, that 
a merchandise could be procured, which the progress of wealth and 
luxury rendered almost indispensable to the civilized nations of Europe, 
Asia, and Africa, that surrounded the Mediterranean. The Assyrians 
and Medes, in the early ages, had long a monopoly of this commerce ; 
and hence we find that garments of wrought silk are usually called 
Median robes by the ancient writers. In this traffic they were suc- 
ceeded by the Persians, who attached great importance to the trade, 
and neglecting nothing that could keep it exclusively in their hands. 
From them the Greek and Syrian merchants of Asia purchased the silk 
which they transported into the western countries. Passing through 
such a number of hands, it was of course scarce and dear. During 
Justinian's reign, the Byzantines, or, as they still called themselves, the 
Romans, were eager to free themselves from their dependance on the 
Persians for the supply of tliis article. They tried to lower the price 
by purchasing from other Asiatic nations, and by making exertions to 
open a direct communication with the country in which the silk is pro- 
duced. Their ignorance of geography was a great impediment to their 
success ; they had very vague notions respecting the position of the re- 
gions where this desirable commodity was procured. They contented 
themselves with loosely describing it as part of India, or some very re- 
mote country in eastern Asia. 

A few modern writers have been misled by the inaccuracy of the 
Byzantine historians into the belief that the country which supplied 
the ancient world with silk was the Punjab, and the districts of north- 
ern India adjacent to Persia, regions where silk has never yet been 
produced in sufficient abundance to form an article of commerce. On 
the contrary, the circumstances related respecting Serica, the silk- 
growing country, are manifestly applicable to no place but China, 
where silk is still produced more plentifully than in any other pa,rt of 
the world. Indeed the very name Seres appears to have been derived 
from this commodity ; for Se, or, as it is pronounced in the provincial 
dialects, Ser, is the Chinese name for the silkworm. We also find 
the Sinse identified with the Seres by the ancient geographers, and we 
know that Sin, or Chin, has been always the name given to China by 
the nations of western Asia. In the preceding pages mention has 
been made of the embassy sent from the Romans to the Chinese, in 
the age of the Antonines ; and it is only necessary to add, in proof of 
the commercial relations between this ancient empire and the western 

22 



338 MODERN HISTOEY. 

world, that a tolerably accurate account of the revolutions in the Persian 
and Parthian kingdoms may be found in Chinese histories.* 

The silk was imported from China in packages, which caravans of 
merchants brought across the extreme breadth of Asia, in a journey of 
two hundred and forty-three days, to the seacoast of Syria. The Per- 
sians who supplied the Romans, usually made their purchases from the 
Sogdians, on the banks of the Oxus, and their traffic was liable to be 
interrupted by the White Huns and the Turks, who successively con- 
quered that industrious people. But the difficulties of the road between 
the Sogdian capital, Maracanda {Samarcand), and the first Chinese 
city in the province of Shensi, led to frequent effiarts for opening a new 
and less perilous route, which, however, proved unsuccessful. From 
the time they passed the Jaxartes, the enterprising Sogdians had to 
contend, not only with the dangers and difficulties of the intervening 
deserts, but also against the wandering hordes, who have always con- 
sidered the citizen and traveller as objects of lawful rapine. 

It is recorded as a proof of the vast expense of the magnificent spec- 
tacles with which Julius Caesar sought at once to dazzle and conciliate 
the populace, that he decorated the actors in his varied pageants with. 
a profusion of silk dresses, which were viewed by the Italians with 
equal wonder and admiration. In consequence of the difficulties of 
transit, the vast length of desert which the caravans had to traverse, 
and, probably, the limited supply of silk in China itself, this article bore 
a very high price in Rome, and was often sold for its weight in gold. 
Silken dresses were esteemed too expensive and delicate for men, and 
were appropriated wholly to ladies of eminent rank and opulence. In 
the beginning of the reign of Tiberius, a law was passed enacting, 
that " no man should disgrace himself by wearing a silk dress." This 
might, however, have been a religious as weU as a sumptuary ordi- 
nance, for it is a singular circumstance in the history of silk, that, on 
account of its being the excretion of a worm, several religious bodies 
in the East, but more especially the Mohammedans, consider it an un- 
clean dress. Indeed, it has been decided by the unanimous consent 
of all the Sonnite doctors, that a person wearing a garment made en- 
tirely of silk, can not offer up the daily prayers enjoined by the Koran. 

The profligate and effeminate Heliogabalus was the first of the Ro- 
man emperors who wore a garment entirely of silk ; and, in conse- 
quence of his example, the custom of wearing silk soon became general 
among the wealthy citizens of Rome, and even extended to the provin- 
ces. It seems probable, also, that the price of the article had dimin- 
ished in consequence of its beginning to be imported by the maritime 
route through Alexandria, instead of by caravans through the arid des- 
erts of Tartary and Turkestan. Chinese histories inform us, that an 

* The Armenians call the Chinese Jenk, and China Jenistdn. Their relations 
■with this country ascend to the beginning of the third century of our era. About 
that time a Chinese colony was established in Armenia. .The chief of this colony 
was probably one of the imperial dynasty of the Huns : driven from his country 
by civil wars, he at first sought refuge at the court of Ardeshir, the founder of the 
Sassanid dynasty in Persia, thence he passed into Persia, where he was received 
about A. D. 260, by Tiridates, the Armenian sovereign, who gave him the prov- 
ince of Jaron. This personage, whose name was Mamkon, became the founder 
of the family of the Memigonians, who are justly celebrated in Armenian history. 



FALL OP THE WESTERN EMPIRE. 339 

ambassador from one of the Antonines came to their remote country for 
the purpose of conckiding a commercial treaty, and this is rendered 
highly probable by the fact that oriental commodities became both 
plentiful and cheap under and after their dynasty. Ammianus Marcel- 
linus informs us, that in his age (a. d. 370) silk was generally worn 
even by the lower classes. 

\ After the restoration of a native dynasty in Persia under the Sassan- 
ides, and the establishment of the eastern empire at Constantinople, a 
I long series of wars ensued between the Persian sovereigns, who deem- 
"'ed themselves legitimate inheritors of the power of Cyrus, and the 
; Byzantine emperors, who wished themselves to be considered succes- 
jsors of Alexander the Great. The command of the sea of Oman gave 
^the Persians a decided advantage over the Egyptian merchants, who 
■'^were forced to import oriental commodities by the tedious and danger- 
■^ous navigation of the Red sea. Until the introduction of steam naviga- 
; tion, the Red sea, or Yam Suph* as it is called by the Orientals, was 
^universally dreaded by voyagers. The strait at its entrance was sig- 
|nificantly named by the Arabs Bab-el-Mandeb, or, "the gate of tears ;" 
land it was a common proverb with eastern sailors, " Yam Suph is a 
f double-locked sea ; there are six months in the year that you can not 
get into it, and six more that you can not get out of it." But the Per- 
sians were not satisfied with this natural superiority ; having it in their 
power to molest or cut off the caravans, which, in order to procure a 
supply for the Greek empire, travelled by land to China through the 'HJF 

northern provinces of their kingdom, they laid such onerous transit du- 
ties on foreign merchants, that the Greeks were forced to abandon this 
branch of commerce, and purchase their silk from the Persians and 
Sogdians. These, with the usual rapacity of monopolists, raised the 
price of silk to such an exorbitant height, that the Greek manufacturers, 
whose looms depended on a supply of this raw material, were thrown 
out of employment and nearly ruined. 

The Emperor Justinian, eager, not only to obtain a full and certain 
supply of a commodity which was become of indispensable use, but 
solicitous to deliver the commerce of his subjects from the exactions of 
his enemies, endeavored, by means of his ally' the Christian monarch 
of Abyssinia, to wrest some portion of the silk trade from the Persians. 
In this attempt he failed ; but when he least expected it, he, by an un- 
foreseen event, attained his great object of procuring his subjects an 
abundant supply of silk, independent both of ships and caravans. 

Two Persian monks having been employed as Christian missionaries 
by some of the churches which had been established in India, pursued 
their evangelical labors until they had penetrated into the remote coun- 
try of the Seres, or Chinese (a. d. 551). There they observed the la- 
bors of the silkworm, the mode in which these animals were fed on the 
mulberry -leaf ; the care bestowed upon them in the several periods of 
insect transformation, and the attention necessary to obtaining perfect 
cocoons. Without such knowledge, the mere possession of the insects 
would have been useless ; for the time that elapses whilp the silk- 
caterpillar is undergoing its changes varies according to the tempera- 
ture and the quantity of nourishment with which it is supplied ; the 
• That is, « the Sea of Weeds." 



340 MODERN HISTORY. 

health also of the insect and the subsequent perfection of the silk de- 
pends upon the mode in which these changes are made, and the inter- 
vals between the successive moultings of the skin, which take place 
before the animal attains its fall growth. The Chinese calculate that 
the same number of insects which would, if they had attained the full 
size in twenty-three or twenty-four days, produce twenty-five ounces 
of silk, would produce only twenty ounces if their growth occupied 
twenty-eight days, and only ten ounces if forty days. In order, there- 
fore, to accelerate their growth, they supply the insects with fresh food 
every half hour during the first day of their existence, and then gradu- 
ally reduce the number of meals as the worms grow older. It deserves 
to be remarked as an unnoticed fact in natural theology, that the sub- 
stance on which this valuable caterpillar feeds, is the leaf of the mul- 
berry-tree ; and Providence, as if to ensure the continuance of this 
useful species, has so ordained it, that no other insect will partake of 
the same food ; thus ensuring a certain supply for the little spinster. 

Having made themselves acquainted with these particulars, the monks 
repaired to Constantinople, and revealed the information they had ac- 
quired to the Emperor Justinian. Encouraged by the liberal promises 
of that monarch, they undertook to bring to his capital a sufficient num- 
ber of those wonJerful insects to whose labors man is so much indebt- 
ed. They proceeded to China, and finally accomplished the object of. 
their mission by obtaining a competent supply of the eggs of the silk- 
worm, which they concealed in a hollow cane. Having returned safe 
to Constantinople, the eggs were, under their direction, hatched by the 
artificial heat of a dunghill, and the insects were fed on the leaves of 
the wild mulberry-tree. .Such care was bestowed upon them, that they 
soon multiplied, and worked in the same manner as in those climates 
where they first became the objects of human attention and care. 

Justinian at first attempted to monopolize this source of profiit, but the 
rapid increase of the worms opened the trade. A singular circumstance 
enables us to appreciate the speedy success of the Greeks in the manu- 
facture of silk. Before the sixth century closed, the Turks, descending 
from the Altaian mountains, conquered Sogdiana. The conquered peo- 
ple had found the demand for silk rapidly diminisliing, which they at- 
tributed to the commercial jealousy of the Persians. They complained 
of their losses to their new master, the Turkish khakan, who sent am- 
bassadors to form a commercial treaty with the Persian monarch, the 
celebrated Nushirvan. It was obviously unwise policy to strengthen 
the power of the new state which had been formed beyond the Oxus ; 
and Nushirvan was, besides, eager to open a direct communication with 
China, through the Persian gulf. To show his contempt for the offers 
of the Sogdians, he purchased up all their goods, and committed them 
to the flames. The khakan next sent ambassadors to Justinian II., 
who, after a toilsome journey, reached Constantinople (a. d. 571), just 
twenty years after the introduction of the silkworm ; when, to their 
great astonishment, they found the Byzantines in the possession of siDc 
of their own growth, and so skilled "in its use, that their manufactures 
already rivalled those of China. From this time the Sogdian carrying 
trade declined ; it was totally annihilated about the middle of the ninth 
century, when a fanatic insurgent, in China, murdered the foreign mer- 



FALL OF THE WESTERN EMPIEE. 341 

chants, and cut down the mulberry-trees, to destroy the silk that enticed 
strangers to the celestial empire. 

For nearly six hundred years, the Greeks were the only Europeans 
who possessed the silkworm: at length. Roger I., king of Sicily, en- 
gaged in war with the Byzantine empire, having captured some persons 
skilled in the production and manufacture of silk, established factories 
at Palermo, which rose rapidly into celebrity. Thence the trade spread 
into Italy, Spain, and France ; but in most of these countries the man- 
ufacture was long deemed of greater importance than the production of 
the raw material. France owes her present superiority in the trade to 
the patriotic exertions of Henry IV., who made extensive nurseries of 
mulberry plants, and distributed them gratuitously to all desirous of es- 
tablishing plantations. James I. endeavored to introduce the production 
of raw silk, as a trade, into England ; since his time the experiment has 
been frequently repeated, but it never has been attended with complete 
success. Similar trials have also been made in Ireland, but the result 
has not yet answered the expectations of- the patEiotic projectors. 

Section V. — The Monarchy of the Franks under the Merovingian Dynasty. 

The history of the Franks properly begins with the establishment 
of a large body of that nation in Belgic Gaul, under a chief named 
Mere wig,* from whom the dynasty received the name Merovingian. f 
He was succeeded by his son Hilderik,^: a brave warrior, but the slave ^^ 

of his passions. An insult that he offered to the wife of one of his offi- iBI 

cers occasioned a revolt ; Hilderik was dethroned, and a Count Egidius, 
or Giles, proclaimed king. After an exile of eight years, Hilderik was 
restored, and the remainder of his reign appears to have passed in tran- 
quillity. Hlodowigll was the next sovereign : his harsh German name 
was softened by the Latins into Clodovecus, or Clovis, the origin of the 
modern Ludovicus, or Louis. At his accession (a. d. 481), Clovis had 
scarcely reached his twentieth year ; the ardor of youth combined with 
the circumstances of his position to urge him to foreign conquests ; for 
the fertility of the Belgic soil, the purity of its waters, and its atmo- 
sphere, continually attracted fresh hordes to the lower Rhine, who 
sought admission into the Belgic colony. Clovis found it necessary to 
enlarge his frontiers, and invaded the Roman province. Near Soissons 
he encountered Syagrius, the son of his father's rival, Egidius, and 
gained a decisive victory. Syagrius sought refuge with the Visigoths, 
but that nation had lost much of its martial spirit ; Alaric II., unworthy 
of the name he bore, sent the unfortunate general bound to Clovis, by 
whom he was beheaded. 

The conqueror was now the most powerful monarch of his age, and 
the neighboring princes eagerly sought his alliance : he chose for his 
queen, Hlodohilde,'^* or Clotilda, whose uncle was king of the Burgun- 
dians. Clotilda was a Christian ; she labored earnestly to convert her 
husband, and especially urged him when his crown and life were en- 

* Mere-wig, eminent warrior. 

t The other Franks were named Ripe-Warians ; that is, inhabitants of the 
banks of the Rhine, 
t Hilde-rik, hold in combat. \\ Hlodo-wig, famous warrior. 

§ Hlodo-hildej brilliant and noble. 



342 MODERN HISTORY. 

dangered by an invasion of the Germanic confederation of tribes, called 
the Allemans. Clovis, persuaded that he owed the great victory of 
Tolbiac to the prayers of Clotilda, became a convert, and received the 
sacrament of baptism from the bishop of Rheims (a. d. 496). He gave 
the prelate, as a fee, all the land he could ride round while he himself 
slept after dinner, a gift very characteristic of a conqueror, who felt that 
he had only to wake and acquire new dominions. Soon afterward he 
undertook new conquests. Advancing in the direction of Genabum 
{Orleans), he crossed the Loire, spreading everywhere the terror of 
his name. The Bretons, long subject to the Romans, consented with- 
out reluctance to a change of masters. Clovis, having traversed their 
country, entered Aquitaine, pillaged the houses, laid waste the fields, 
plundered the temples, and returned to Parif, " leaving," as the cotem- 
porary historian says, " nothing to the wretched inhabitants but the soil, 
which the Franks could not take away." 

The kingdom established by Clovis extended from the Rhine to the 
Pyrenees, from the Alps to the ocean, but its security was very uncer- 
tain. Wherever the conqueror appeared, he met nothing but submis- 
sion from the various races settled in Gaul ; as soon, however, as he 
passed onward, his nominal subjects closed upon his rear, retaining no 
more trace of his march than the furrowed wave does of a vessel's keel. 
Neither was the Prankish monarch absolute over his own soldiers ; his 
army was composed of freemen, who disdained to submit to despotic 
rule. They gave to their monarch his share of the booty, and nothing 
more.* When they disapproved of the expedition for which they as- 
sembled, they abandoned it without scruple ; or if the monarch refused 
to undertake a war which they deemed advisable, they forced him to 
comply with their wishes, not merely by menaces, but by actual force. f 

On the death of Clovis (a. d. 511), his dominions were divided be- 
tween his four sons, Hildebert:j: (Childebert), Hlodomer|| (Chlodomer), 
Hlodher^ (Clotaire), and Theodoric,T[ who respectively occupied the 
capitals of Paris, Orleans, Soissons, and Metz. This distribution gave 
rise to a new geographical division ; all the districts between the Rhine, 
the Meuse, and the Moselle, received the name of Oster-rike,** since 
corrupted into Austrasia ; and the country between the Meuse, the 
Loire, and the ocean, was named Ni-oster-rike,tt or, as it was latinized^ 

• Gregory of Tours furnishes us with a curious anecdote on this subject. 
" About this time the army of Clovis pillaged a great number of churches and 
houses. His soldiers had taken away, from one of the cathedrals, a vase of sur- 
prising size and beauty. The bishop of the diocese sent a messenger to reclaim 
it. To this man, the king said, ' Follow me to Soissons, where the plunder will 
be shared, and should chance give me the vase, I will do what your prelate re- 
quires.' When they reached Soissons, they went to the place where the plunder 
was piled, and the king said, ' I entreat you, my brave warriors, to give me this 
vase in addition to my share.' Upon this, a presumptuous soldier exclaimed, 
' You shall have nothing but the portion assigned you by lot.' " 

t The historian quoted in the preceding note says, " After this, Clotaire and 
Childebert (sons of Clovis) formed the design of marching against the Burgundi- 
ans. Their brother, Theodoric, was unwilling to engage in the expedition, but 
the Franks who followed him, said unanimously, ' If you will not join your broth- 
ers, we will quit you, and choose another leader.' " 

t Hilde-berth, brilliant vmrrior. \\ Hlodo-mer, celebrated chief. 

§ Hlod-her, celebrated and excellent. IT Theod-e-rik, brave among the people, 

*• That is, Eastern kingdom. ff That is, Northeastern kingdom. 



FALL OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE. 343 

Neustria. All that was not comprised in this division, belonged not to 
the Merovingian Franks, but retained its ancient name of Gaul. 

Chlodomer and Theodoric engaged in war Gundumer,* king of the 
Burgundians. In a great battle fought near Vienne (a. d. 522), Chlod- 
omer was slain,t but Theodoric gained a decisive victory, and added 
the Burgundian kingdom to his own dominions. Clotilda took the 
guardianship of her infant grandchildren, but the favor she showed to 
the three sons of Chlodomer provoked the resentment of Childebert, 
king of Paris. He secretly proposed to his brother Clotaire, that they 
should secure the persons of the young princes, shave their heads,J 
and divide their dominions. Clotaire readily joined in the project, and 
put the two eldest of his nephews to death ; the third, saved by faithful 
servants, cut off his hair with his own hands, and entering into a mon- 
astery, spent a life of celibacy. || Ten years after this event, Theodoric 

* Gundu-mer, pacific and great. 

t " The brothers joined their forces at Veserancia, a place situated in the ter- 
ritory of the city of Vienna, and gave battle to Gundumer. The Burgundian 
having taken to flight with his army, Chlodomer pursued him, and when he was 
at a distance from his friends, the Burgundians, imitating the signals of the Franks, 
exclaimed, ' Come this way, we are thine.' He believed them, and spurred his 
horse into the midst of the enemy. They surrounded him, cut off his head, and 
fixing it on a pike, displayed it to their pursuers." — Gregory of Tours. 

t To shave the head was the form of dethroning a sovereign at this period. 
Among the early Franks, the crown of hair was as much a symbol of royalty as 
the crown of gold. 

II The account given of this transaction by Gregory of Tours is too interesting 
to be omitted. " Clotaire readily adopted his brother's project, and came to Paris. 
Childebert had already spread a report that he and his brother had agreed to in- 
vest their nephews with royalty, and they sent a messenger to Clotilda, then re- 
siding in the same city, who said, ' Send your grandchildren, that they may be 
raised to the throne.' She, joyous, and knowing nothing of the plot, after having 
made the children eat and drink, sent them to their uncles, saying, ' Go, children, 
I will believe that my son is not lost, when I see you on the throne.' When the 
children came to their uncles, they were taken and separated from their servants 
and governors. Then they shut them up apart, the children in one place, and the 
attendants in another. When this was done, Childebert and Clotaire sent Arca- 
dius (one of their officers), to the queen, with a scissors and drawn sword. When 
he came into her presence, showing her these, he said, ' Thy sons, our lords, de- 
sire to know thy pleasure, gracious queen, respecting the manner in which they 
should treat the children. Order either their hair or their throats to be cut.' As- 
tounded by these words, and enraged at beholding the scissors and naked sword, 
the queen gave vent to her wrath, and, scarcely knowing what she said, so trou- 
bled was her mind, imprudently replied, ' If they are not to reign like their father, 
I would rather see them dead than shaven.' Then Arcadius returned promptly to 
those who sent him, and said, ' You may persevere ; the queen approves what you 
have begun, and her will is, that you complete your project.' Immediately, Clo- 
taire, taking the eldest of the children by the arm, threw him on the ground, and 
stabbing him under the shoulder, put him cruelly to death. His brother, terrified 
at the scene, threw himself at the feet of Childebert, and kissing his knees, ex- 
claimed, ' Help me, my good father, let me not be murdered like my poor brother.' 
Then, Childebert, melting into tears, said to Clotaire, ' Oh ! I entreat you, my 
very dear brother, have the kindness to spare this child's life ; if you consent to 
spare him, I will give you whatever you may demand.' But Clotaire, overwhelm- 
ing him with reproaches, said, ' Thrust the child away, or you shall die in his stead, 
for you were the first to urge me to this deed, though you now shrink from its 
completion.' Then Childebert, alarmed, pushed the child over to Clotaire, who 
struck his dagger into the boy's side, and slew him on the body of his brother. 
Afterward they murdered the servants and tutors. When they were dead, Clotaire 
mounted his horse, without showing any compunction for the murder of his 



344 MODEEN HISTORY. 

died, and was succeeded by his son, Theodobert,* who took the title of 
king of Austrasia. His uncles attempted to deprive Theodobert of his 
dominions, but being daunted by the mere display of his power, they 
turned their arms against Spain, laid waste Arragon, Biscay, and Cata- 
lonia, stormed Pampeluna, besieged Saragossa, and were only induced 
to retire by a present of the tunic of St. Vincent, a relic which, in that 
superstitious age, was deemed an invaluable treasure. 

The fame of Theodobert extended to Constantinople ; Justinian en- 
deavored to win his friendship, by the cession of the nominal claims 
which the empire retained over Provence, but the Austrasian monarch 
entered into an alliance with Totila, the emperor's enemy, crossed the 
Alps, and quickly subdued the greater part of northern Italy. After his 
return, the army he left behind met with some reverses, and the inflated 
vanity of Justinian led him to issue a medal, on which he styled him- 
self Conqueror of the Franks. Theodobert was so enraged at this ar- 
rogance, that he prepared to lead an army through Hungary into Thrace, 
and assail Justinian in his capital, but this daring enterprise was frus- 
trated by his sudden death ; he was killed by the fall of a tree (a. d. 
548), while hunting the wild buffalo, a dangerous sport, to which he 
was passionately addicted. 

Theodobaldf succeeded to the Austrasian throne, but died after an in- 
glorious reign of seven years. Childebert soon followed him to the tomb, 
and thus Clotaire acquired the sole, but not the undisturbed possession 
of Neustria and Austrasia. His own son, Chramne,! headed a revolt 
of the turbulent Bretons, but he was defeated and barbarously put to 
death, with his entire family, || by command of his cruel father. The 
chroniclers add, that Clotaire died the next year (a. d. 561), at Com- 
peigne, on the anniversary of his son's death, and at the precise hour 
of the horrid butchery. 

Clotaire left foiu: sons — Charibert,^ Gontram,T[ Chilperic,** and Sige- 
bert,tt who shared his dominions.. The turbulent period that followed, 
is principally remarkable for the troubles occasioned by the crimes of 
two infamous women, Brunilda and Fredegonda, the wives of Sigebert 
and Chilperic. Fredegonda had won her way to the throne by mur- 
dering Galswintha, the sister of her rival ; and the jealousy between 

nephews, and retired with Childehert to the suburbs. The queen Clotilda, having 
placed the bodies on a bier, conducted them, with litanies, sacred songs, and pro- 
found grief, to the church of St. Peter's, where they were buried together. One 
■was ten years old, and the other six. The third son, named Clodoald, was saved 
by the interference of some brave men, cailed barons. Renouncing his earthly 
kingdom, he became a clerk, and, persisting in good works, finally received priest's 
orders. The two kings shared among them the inheritance of Clodomer." 

• Theode-bert, very brilliant among the people. 

t Theode-bald, vigorous above all. t Hram, warlike. 

II " The two armies having come to an engagement, the count of the Bretons 
ran away, and was slain in flight ; after which Hram (Chramne) began to fly tow- 
ard the ships he had prepared on the sea, but, while he was endeavoring to save 
his wife and children, he was overtaken by his father's army, made prisoner, and 
bound. When the news was brought to Clotaire, he ordered that the prince, to- 
gether with, his wife and daughters, should be burned. They shut them up in a 
poor hut, where Hram, extended on a bench, was strangled ; they then set fire to 
the house, and it was consumed with all its inmates." — Gregory of Tours. ■ 

§ Hari-bert, glorious in the army. IT Gont-ram, generous man. 

** Hilpe-rik, brave m combat. ft Sighe-bert, glorious conqueror. 



PALL OF THE WESTEEN EMPIRE. 345 

two ambitious and unprincipled women was aggravated, on one side, 
by the desire of revenge, and, on the other, by the difficulty of maintain- 
ing her dignity, when she was changed from a mistress into a wife. 
During the long period over which their resentments spread, it is diffi- 
cult to distinguish anything but murders and assassinations, in the 
gloomy annals of the time. Fredegonda procured the death of Sigebert, 
and afterward of Chilperic and his two sons, being chiefly enraged 
against Merovee,* who had married Brunilda. 

Childebert inherited the kingdom of his father, Sigebert, and that of 
his uncle, Gontram ; aided by his mother, Brunilda, he maintained a 
long and sanguinary struggle against Fredegonda, and her young son, 
Clotaire : but he died early, leaving two children to divide his distract- 
ed dominions. Both of these were destroyed by Brunilda, whose hatred 
they had provoked by remonstrating against her crimes, and after a 
dreary scene of confusion, France was again united into a single mon- 
archy, under Clotaire II., son of Chilperic and Fredegonda (a. d. 613). 
His first care was to punish Brunilda, the ancient enemy of his mother 
and his house : she was exhibited for three days, mounted on a camel, 
to the derision of the army, subjected to the most cruel tortures, and 
finally fastened to the tail of a wild horse, which tore her wretched car- 
cass to pieces, in the presence of the soldiers. 

Clotaire published a code of laws, which enjoys some reputation ; 
but his administration was deficient in vigor, and during his reign sev- 
eral encroachments were made on the royal power, by the ambitious 
nobles. His son, Dagobert I.,t succeeded (a. d. 628), and had the 
mortification to see his authority weakened by the growing greatness 
of the mayors of the palace : he died, after a feeble and dissolute reign 
(a. d. 638), but was strangely enough canonized as a saint. :]: 

The successors of Dagobert were mere phantoms of royalty ; the 
entire sovereignty was possessed by the mayors of the palace, who 
finally acquired absolute possession of half the monarchy, as dukes of 
Austrasia. Pepin D'Heristal, the greatest of these nominal ministers, 
and real monarchs, governed France in the name of several successive 
kings. After his death (a. d. 714), his power descended to his grand- 
son, Theodobald, a child only eight years of age, who was thus singu- 
larly appointed guardian to a king that was not yet sixteen. Karl,|| the 

* Mere-wig, eminent warrior. f Dago-bert, brilliant as the day. 

t The cause of his canonization is singularly illustrative of the superstitions 
of the age. Audoald, bishop of Poictiers, while on an embassy in Sicily, was mi- 
raculously, as he declared, informed of the king's death by a holy hermit named 
John. This pious anchoret said, " While I was asleep last night, an old man 
with a long beard bade me get up, and pray for the soul of King Dagobert, who 
was on the point of death. I arose, and looking through the window of my her- 
mitage, I saw, in the middle of the sea, a host of devils carrying the king's soul 
to hell. The unfortunate soul, grievously tormented, invoked the aid of St. Mar- 
tin, St. Maurice, and St. Denis. At his cries, the spirits of these holy martyrs 
descended from heaven, in the midst of thunders and lightnings, delivered the 
king's soul, and bore it up with them through the air, singing the canticle of Da- 
vid, O Lord, how happy is the man that thou hast chosen." Audoald recited this 
relation to the king's chancellor, on his return, by whom it was entered in the 
archives of the kingdom, and Dagobert enrolled among the number of saints. — 
Gaguin. 

II Karl, robust. 



346 MODERN HISTORY. 

natural son of Pepin, better known in history by the name of Charles 
Martel, set aside this absurd arrangement, and succeeded to more than 
his father's power. His numerous victories over the Saxons, Burgun- 
dians, Frisians, &c., have rendered his name illustrious ; but he is 
more justly celebrated for his triumph over the Saracenic invaders of 
France (a. d. 732), between Tonrs and Poictiers, by which he delivered 
Christendom from the imminent danger of being subjected to the Mo- 
hammedan yoke. His son, Pepin, finally compelled Chilperic HI. to 
abdicate (a. d. 752), and the crown of France was thus transferred to 
the Carlovingian dynasty, from the descendants of Clovis. 

Section VI. — The Lombard Monarchy. 

The Lombards were encouraged to settle on the frontiers of the 
empire by Justinian, who deemed that they would prove a check on the 
insolence of the Gepidse. While these barbarous tribes were engaged 
in war, Thrace enjoyed comparative tranquillity ; but when Alboin 
became head of the Lombard tribes, he entered into alliance with the 
Avars for the extirpation of the Gepidae, purchasing their aid by a tithe 
of his cattle, and a promise of all the conquered lands. The emperor, 
Justin n., unwisely abandoned the Gepidae to their fate ; Cunimund, 
their monarch, hasted to encounter Alboin before he could join the 
Avars, but he fell in the field which proved fatal to the existence of his 
nation, and his scull was formed into a drinking vessel by his barbarous 
enemy. Rosamond, the daughter of the slaughtered king, became the 
prize and spouse of the victor ; the bravest of the surviving Gepidae 
were incorporated in the army of the Lombards. Though the Avars 
had contributed but slightly to the success of the war, they received a 
large share of the spoils ; the greater part of ancient Dacia was resigned 
to them, and in this country their chagans ruled for more than two hun- 
dred years. Alboin's ambition was fixed on a higher object ; fifteen 
years before, a body of Lombards had served under Narses in the con- 
quest of Italy, and they still preserved a vivid remembrance of the 
wealth and fertihty of the peninsula. Alboin encouraged them to hope 
that this fair land might yet own their sway, and to stimulate their 
ardor, produced some of its finest fruits at a royal feast. When his 
designs became known, adventurers flocked to his standard from the 
neighboring Slavonic and German tribes. Having made every prepa- 
ration for the expedition, the Lombards resigned their lands to the Avars, 
on the simple promise of receiving them back, if they failed in the con- 
quest of Italy. ^ 

As if the court of Constantinople had resolved to aid the projects of 
the invaders, the brave Narses was contumeliously removed from his 
post by the Empress Sophia ; and Longinus, a person vi^holly unac- 
quainted with Italy, appointed exarch in his stead. Alboin met no 
army to oppose him the field ; few even of the cities ventured to resist 
his progress ; Ticinum, or, as it began now to be called, Pavia, almost 
alone closed its gates against the conqueror, and detained him three 
years before its walls. It was at length forced to yield by the pressure 
of hunger ; Alboin threatened a general massacre, but his horse hap- 
pening to stumble as he entered the gates, he believed that Heaven had 
sent this omen to warn him against cruelty, and he assured the trem- 



FALL OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE. 347 

bling multitude of pardon and safety. Before he could regulate the 
affairs of the kingdom he had so easily won, Alboin fell a victim to the 
revenge of his wife. One evening, heated with wine, he sent her the 
skull of her father Cunimund, fashioned, as has been stated, into a gob- 
let, filled to the brim, with an insulting message, that she should rejoice 
} with her sire. Rosamond, stifling her resentment, simply replied, " Let 
the will of the king be obeyed ;" but she secretly resolved on vengeance, 
and, by infamous means, procured two officers of the household to mur- 
der her husband (a. d. 573). She was compelled by the indignation 
of the people to fly with her paramour to the court of Ravenna, where 
she was poisoned by a potion which she had prepared for the partner 
of her guilt. 

Clepho, one of the noblest of the Lombard chiefs, was chosen king 
after the murder of Alboin, by the great council of the nation ; but at 
the end of eighteen months, he was stabbed by a domestic. His cruelty 
gave the Lombards such a distate for royalty, that after his death, they 
changed their form of government, and for ten years were ruled by a 
federation of thirty-six dukes, each of whom was chief of some impor- 
tant city. During this period, they made several efforts to acquire pos- 
session of some part of Gaul, but were invariably beaten by the Franks ; 
in Italy, on the contrary, they were generally successful, adding con- 
siderably to their territories at the expense of the exarchate of Ravenna, 
and the other provinces dependant on the Greek empire. 

A confederacy between the imperial exarch and Childebert, king of 
the Franks, so alarmed the Lombards that they chose Autharis, son of 
Clepho, for their sovereign. He established a perfectly feudal mon- 
archy, assigning their dutchies to the dukes in perpetuity, on the condi- 
tion of their giving one moiety of their revenue to support the royal 
dignity ; they could not be deprived of their possessions except for high- 
treason, but they held power only at the sovereign's will. A similar 
form of government seems to have prevailed among the Franks almost 
from the foundation of their monarchy ; but feudal law first received a 
complete form among the Lombards, and the rules respecting the suc- 
cession, acquisition, and investiture of fiefs among other nations, were 
generally derived from their code. The new monarch gained several 
victories over the Franks, who had been bribed to invade Italy by the 
Emperor Maurice, and punished the hostility of the Byzantine by sub- 
duing 'a great part of ancient Samnium, which he formed into the dutchy 
of Benevento. Autharis died without issue (a. d. 590), after a brief 
but glorious reign, and the crown was transferred to Agilulf, duke of 
Turin. 

Hitherto the Lombards had been either Arians or pagans ; but Agi- 
lulf, instigated by his queen, estabhshed the Catholic faith throughout 
his dominions, and chastised several dukes who made this change a 
pretext for rebellion. His son and successor, Adaluald, completed the 
triumph of the orthodox faith, a circumstance which tended greatly to 
reconcile the ItaUans to the supremacy of the Lombards. The Arian 
party was, however, sufficiently powerful to raise another to the throne ; 
both the rivals, however, died without issue, and the general assembly 
chose Rotharis for their sovereign (a. d. 636). This monarch, though 
tainted with the Arian heresy, won the affection of all his subjects by 



348 MODERN HISTORY. 

the wise laws he enacted ; he also wrested some important places from 
the exarch of Ravenna, and reduced the imperial interests in Italy so 
low, that it might be said to exist only by the sufferance of the Lom- 
bards. On his death (a. d. 652), a scene of weakness and revolution 
followed, which was only terminated by the accession of Grimvald, 
duke of Benevento (a. d. 662). 

Grimvald was soon involved in war with the Franks, who invaded 
Italy, but were completely defeated. Scarcely had he repelled this 
invasion when the Byzantine emperor, Constans, appeared in Italy at 
the head of a powerful army, and laid siege to Benevento. But the 
imperialists, meeting a fierce resistance from the garrison, were soon 
forced to retreat, and being overtaken on their march, were routed with 
great slaughter. Constans fled to Sicily with the shattered remnant 
of his forces, and was murdered in a bath by some of his own ser- 
vants. Grimvald did not long survive his triumph ; he died universally 
lamented (a. d. 672), and his death was followed by a series of obscure 
and uninteresting revolutions, which, however, deluged Italy with 
blood. 

The accession of Luitprand (a. d. 711), once more restored the 
prosperity of the Lombards ; he enacted several wise laws, rectified 
the evils which during the recent disturbances had crept into the admin- 
istration of justice, and won the favor of the nobles who had opposed 
his elevation by a judicious display of courage and prudence. Unfor- 
tunately, he was prompted by ambition to attempt the complete conquest 
of Italy ; taking advantage of the troubles occasioned by the edicts of 
the emperor Leo for the destruction of images. The exarchate was 
inv-aded, and Ravenna taken ; but Luitprand's success provoked the 
jealousy of the pope, who, though pleased with the punishment of the 
Iconoclasts,* was by no means gratified with the accession of power 
of the Lombards. At the pontiff's instigation, the Venetians aided the 
exarch to recover Ravenna ; but the emperor Leo, instead of showing 
any gratitude to pope Gregory II. for his interference, sent emissaries 
to arrest him, and he was only saved from prison by the prompt inter- 
ference of Luitprand. The Italians, provoked at Leo's fierce zeal 
against .images, began to revolt, and several cities voluntarily submitted 
to the Lombard monarch, who pretended to an extravagant zeal for the 
Catholic faith. The pope, however, dreaded Luitf)rand, and sought 
a protection in Charles Martel against the emperor of Byzantium, who 
was equally hostile to the Lombards and the pontiff. Italy was now 
distracted by religious disputes and political jealousies, while the death 
of Luitprand, at this critical period (a. d. 743), afflicted the Lombards 
with a new series of revolutionary wars. 

After some minor changes, Astulphus was chosen king (a. d. 751) ; 
during his reign, the kingdom of the Lombards touched the summit of 
its greatness ; he subdued the exarchate of Ravenna, and changed it 
into a new dukedom, and then led his forces against Rome, which, 
nominally subject to the emperor, was really governed by the pope. 
Alarmed at the danger that threatened him. Pope Stephen first applied 
for aid to the emperor, but finding that the Byzantine court cared little 

• Image-breakers. 



FALL OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE. 349 

for Italy, he appealed to Pepin, the first monarch of the Carlovingian 
dynasty in France. Pepin immediately crossed the Alps with a pow- 
erful army, besieged Astulphus in Pavia, and forced him to purchase 
peace by the cession not only of the places he had seized in the Ro- 
man dukedom, but also of the exarchate and the marches of Ancona, 
to the Holy See. The Franks had to return a second time to compel 
the fulfilment of these engagements ; Astulphus once more submitted, 
but secretly resolved to renew the war on a favorable opportunity ; be- 
fore his preparations were completed, however, he was killed by a fall 
from his horse, and the Lombard kingdom distracted by a disputed suc- 
cession. 

By the aid of the pope, Desiderius prevailed in the contest ; but sub- 
sequently being exposed to the jealousy of the pontifical power, he 
tried to secure himself by giving his daughters in marriage to Charles 
and Carloman, the two sons of Pepin. This alliance was of no long 
duration ; Charles divorced his wife under pretence of her barrenness ; 
and Desiderius, in revenge, endeavored to persuade the pope to anoint 
Carloman's children monarchs of the Franks. Adrian I., who then 
filled the pontifical chair, steadily refused ; Desiderius invaded his 
dominions, and the pope unable to make effective resistance, placed 
himself under the protection of Charles, or, as he is more generally 
called, Charlemagne. The king of the Franks crossed the Alps, and, 
after a brief war, put an end to the kingdom of the Lombards by the 
capture of Pavia (a. d. 774). Desiderius and his family were sent into 
France, where they died in obscurity ; Charlemagne, as conqueror, 
received the iron crown of Lombardy. 

■ "* ■'''' Section VlI.-^Tlie Anglo-Saxons. 

When Britain was deserted by the Romans, the country remained 
exposed to the savage incursions of the Picts and Scots ; the inhabi- 
tants, .unable to protect themselves, and refused aid by the emperors, 
who were oppressed by other barbarians, deserted their habitations, 
abandoned their fields, and sought shelter in the hills and woods, 
where they suffered equally from famine and the enemy. When the 
retreat of the barbarians afforded them a temporary respite, they 
wasted their energies in theological controversies arising out of the 
Pelagian heresy ; and when the invasions were renewed, domestic 
rancor prevented their combining for their common defence. Vorti- 
gern, prince of Dumnonium, advised his countrymen to seek foreign 
aid ; and they, forgetting prudence in the extremity of their fears, invi- 
ted the Saxons to their aid from Germany. 

The Saxons and Angles, from small beginnings, had gradually 
extended their sway from the mouth of the Rhine to the coast of Jut- 
land ; their piratical vessels scoured the seas of western Europe ; and 
the maritime cities of Gaul, Spain, and Britain, were frequently plun- 
dered by their corsairs, or forced to purchase safety by the payment of 
a large tribute. Among the chiefs of their warlike tribes, none enjoyed 
greater authority than the two brothers Hengist and Horsa, who claimed 
to be descended from Woden, the tutelary god of the nation. To these 
leaders the application of Vortigem was made ; they readily accepted 
Lis invitation, and, accompanied by about sixteen hundred of their 



350 MODERN HISToaY. 

countrymen, landed in the isle of Thanet. The Picts and Scots were 
subdued with so much facility, that the adventurers began to reflect 
how easily they might conquer a nation unable to resist such feeble in 
vaders ; instead of returning home, they invited over fresh hordes of 
their countrymen, and received from Germany a reinforcement of fiv 
thousand men. A long and cruel series of wars ensued, in which tht 
Saxons and another barbarous tribe, the Angles, continually supportec 
by crowds of volunteers from Germany, triumphed over the Britons ir 
almost every encounter, and finally drove the miserable remnant of the 
nation to seek refuge in the mountains of Wales and Cornwall. Th( 
struggle lasted nearly one hundred and fifty years, and ended in the di- 
vision of southern Britain into seven Saxon kingdoms, commonly called 
the Heptarchy. 

The Christian religion was first established in the kingdom of Kent, 
the earliest and long the most powerful of the Saxon monarchies. 
Ethelbert, its sovereign, though a pagan, had married a Christian prin- 
cess. Bertha, the daughter of Caribert, one of the successors of Clovis, 
and had promised to allow her the free exercise of her religion. Ber- 
tha, by the exercise of her conduct, acquired considerable influence 
over the mind both of her husband and his courtiers ; her popularity 
was probably one of the principal motives that induced Pope Gregory 
the Great to send missionaries into England.* Augustine, the chief of 
the mission, was honorably received at the court of Ethelbert (a. d. 597), 
and began to preach the gospel to the people of Kent. The rigid aus- 
terity of his manners, and the severe penances to which he subjected 
himself, wrought powerfully upon the minds of a barbarous people, and 
induced them readily to believe the pVetended miracles he wrought for 
their conversion. Ethelbert and the great majority of his subjects 
were soon received into the church, and Augustine was consecrated 
the first archbishop of Canterbury. 

The petty wars between the princes of the Heptarchy are totally 
devoid of interest, and the history of the separate kingdoms is little 
more than a list of obscure names. An exception may be made in fa- 
vor of Offa, king of Mercia, who zealously labored to extend the power 
of the- Romish see in England, and founded the magnificent monastery 
of St. Albans. So considerable were his power and fame, that the 
emperor Charlemagne sought his friendship and alliance ; Oflfa, at his 
desire, sent the celebrated Alcuin to the court of Charlemagne, and 
this learned Saxon became the emperor's preceptor in the sciences. 
To Alcuin, France was indebted for all the polite learning it boasted 

* It is said that this prelate, while yet in a private station, beheld some Saxon 
youths exposed for sale in the slave-market at Rome. Struck with their beauty, 
he inquired to what country they belonged, and being told that they were Angli, 
exclaimed " They would not be Jngli, but Angeli (angels), if they were Chris- 
tians." Continuing his questions, he asked the name of their province ; he was 
told Ddri (a district of Northumberland). " Beiri!" he exclaimed, "Be ira 
(from the wrath of God), they are summoned to his mercy." He further asked 
the name of their king, and hearing that it was JElla, or Mia, he joyously cried 
out, " Mlelujah ! we must endeavor that the praises of God be sung in that coun- 
try." Moved by these punning allusions, he designed to visit Britain himself as 
a missionary, but being detained by the Roman people, he, embraced the earliest 
opportunitj' of intrusting the task to qualified legates. ' • "" (i- .-tuiti <.ji! 



j'ALL OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE. 351 

of in that and the following ages ; the universities of Paris, Tours, 
Fulden, Soissons, and many others, owe to him their origin and in- 
crease ; those of which he was not the superior and founder, being at 
least enlightened by his doctrine and example, and enriched by the 
benefits he procured them from Charlemagne. 

^1 The kingdom of Mercia had nearly obtained the sovereignty of the 
heptarchy when Egbert ascended the throne of Wessex (a. d. 799), as 

' the kingdom of the West Saxons was called. He broke down the 
Mercian power, aided not a little by the hatred with which the tyran- 
nical conduct of the Mercians had inspired the subject nations. His 
policy was as conspicuous as his valor, and both enabled him to unite 
the realm of England into an orderly monarchy, possessing tranquillity 
within itself, and secure from foreign invasion. This great event oc- 
curred (a. d. 827) nearly four hundred years after the first arrival of 
the Anglo-Saxons in Britain. 



3^2 MODERN HISTORY. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE RISE AND ESTABLISHMENT OF THE 
SARACENIC POWER. 

Section I. — Political and Social Condition of the East at the coming of 
Mohammed. 

The reign of Justin II., the nephew and successor of Justinian, at 
Constantinople, was remarkable only for disgrace abroad and misery at 
home. At his death (a. d. 578), he bequeathed the empire to Tiberius, 
Avhose virtues amply justified his choice ; but the reign of Tiberius 
lasted only four years ; he was succeeded by Maurice, who inherited 
many of his predecessor's virtues as well as his crown. Soon after his 
accession, the attention of the emperor was directed to the unsettled 
state of Persia, which had been distracted by sanguinary civil wars 
since the death of the great Nushirvan. Hormuz, the son and succes- 
sor of that monarch, was deposed and slain ; Bahram, a brave general 
but a feeble statesman, usurped the throne, and Khosru or Chosroes, the 
legitimate heir, sought shelter in the Byzantine empire. Maurice lev- 
ied a powerful army to restore the royal exile, and intrusted its com- 
mand to Narses, a valiant general, who was himself of Persian de- 
scent. The expedition was crowned with success ; Bahram, driven 
beyond the Oxus, died by poison, and Khosru, grateful for his recovered 
throne, entered into close alliance with the emperor. 

Freed from all danger on the side of Persia, Maurice resolved to turn 
his arm's against the Avars ; but the incapacity of his generals, and his 
own avarice, provoked the resentment of the soldiers ; they mutinied, 
and marched to Constantinople under the command of one of their centu- 
rions, named Phocas. Had the metropolis continued faithful, this sedi- 
tion might have been easily quelled ; but the licentious populace, dis- 
gusted by the parsimony of their sovereign, assaulted him as he walked 
in a religious procession, and compelled him to seek safety in his palace. 
The unfortunate emperor was compelled to abdicate ; Phocas was tu- 
multuously invested with the purple, and welcomed into Constantinople 
by the acclamations of a thoughtless people. The tyrant commenced 
his reign by dragging Maurice from the sanctuary where he had sought 
refuge, murdering his five sons successively before his eyes, and then 
putting the deposed monarch to death by torture (a. d. 602). One of 
the royal nurses attempted to save the prince intrusted to her charge, by 
presenting her own child to the executioners in his stead ; but Mam-ice 
refused to sanction the deceit, and as each blow of the axe feU on the 



ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SARACENIC POWER. 



353 



necks of his children, he exclaimed, with pious resignation, " Righteous 
art thou, O Lord, and just are thy judgments !" 

The usurpation of Phocas was basely sanctioned by Pope Gregory 
who received in return for his adulation the title of Universal Bishop. 
But the pontiff's flatteries could not save the tyrant from the resentment 
of his subjects, who soon discovered their error in preferring such a 
miscreant to the virtuous Maurice. Heraclius, exarch of Africa, invited 
by the unanimous voice of the empire, sailed to Constantinople : scarcely 
had his fleet appeared in the Hellespont, when the citizens and imperial 
guards entered the palace, bound Phocas in chains, and sent him a 
helpless captive to his rival (a. d. 610). Heraclius reproached him 
with his manifold vices, to which the deposed tyrant simply replied, 
" Wilt thou govern better ?" These were the last words of Phocas : 
after suffering much variety of insult and torture, he was beheaded, and 
his mangled body thrown into the sea. 

But the death of Phocas did not deliver the empire from the calami- 
ties his crimes had produced ; Khosru Parviz had no sooner learned the 
sad fate of his benefactor Maurice, than he assembled the entire strength 
of Persia to avenge his murder. The unwise system of persecution 
which had been gradually established both by the Byzantine prelates 
and emperors, supplied the invader with allies in every province : the 
Jews, the Nestorians, and the Jacobites, believed, with reason, that 
they would find the worshippers of fire more tolerant than the orthodox 
Christians ; and scarcely had the Persians crossed the Euphrates, 
when insurrections were raised in their favor throughout Syria. Khosru, 
victorious in two decisive battles, was encouraged to undertake the 
hereditary enterprise of the Sassanid dynasty — the restoration of the 
Persian empire, as it existed in the age of Cyrus the Great. Herac- 
lius had scarcely ascended the throne, when he received intelligence 
of the fall of Antioch ; and this was soon followed by the account of 
the storming of Jerusalem, where the Jews, encouraged by the Per- 
sians, wreaked dreadful vengeance on the heads of their Christian per- 
secutors (a. d. 614). The fugitives from Palestine sought refuge in 
Egj'pt, where they were hospitably entertained by the archbishop of 
Alexandria. But Egypt itself, where the din of arms had not been 
heard since the reimi^of Dioclesian, was invaded, conquered, and for a 
time annexed to th^Persian empire (a. d. 616). Asia Minor was sub- 
dued with equal facility ; in a single campaign, the armies of the Per- 
sians advanced from the banks of the Euphrates to the shores of the 
Thracian Bosphorus, and during ten years their hostile camp was in 
sight of the towers of Constantinople. 

While Khosru was indulging in the pride that such brilliant conquests 
inspired, and dazzling nis subjects by the display of his magnificent 
plunder, he received an epistle from the almost unknown city of Mecca, 
written by an obscure individual, who yet claimed the king's obedience, 
and demanded to be recognised as the prophet of God. The grandson 
of Nushirvan was indignant at such a claim ; he tore the letter to 
pieces, and flung the fragments to the winds. When this was reported 
to the writer, Mohammed, then beginning for the first time to taste the 
sweets of gratified ambition, and to find his prospects enlarging as he 
ascended the height of power, he exclaimed, " It is thus that God will 

23 



354 MODERN HISTORY. 

rend the kingdom of Khosru !" a prophecy which, like many others, not 
a Viule accelerated its own accomplishment. 

While the Asiatic provinces were thus a prey to the Persians, Con- 
stantinople itself was so hardly pressed by the Avars, that Heraclius 
was on the point of abandoning the capital, and seeking refuge with his 
treasures in Carthage. He was with difficulty dissuaded from this dis- 
honorable measure by the entreaties of the patriarch ; but his prospects 
appeared to become darker every hour ; the Avars, by a treacherous 
attack, had nearly seized the capital, and the ambassadors sent to sup- 
plicate pardon and peace from Khosru, were dismissed with contumely 
and scorn ; the Persian despot declaring that he would not grant peace 
imtil either Heraclius was brought bound in chains to his footstool, or 
had abjured Christianity and embraced the Magian religion. 

For about twelve years Heraclius had patiently witnessed the calam- 
ities of the empire without making any effort to protect his subjects ; 
but this last insult roused his slumbering energies, and he entered on a 
career as glorious as his former inactivity had been disgraceful. He 
did not venture Avith his raw levies to attack the Persian camp at Chal- 
cedon ; but he passed over to the coast of Cilicia, and fortified himself 
on the ground where Alexander had fought the battle of Issus, not far 
from the modern town of Scanderoon, whose excellent harbor offered a 
good station for the imperial fleet. A splendid victory over the Persian 
cavalry enabled him to establish his Avinter-quarters in Cappadocia, on 
the banks of the Halys [Kizil Irmak), and to mature his plans for one 
of the boldest enterprises recorded in history — the invasion of Persia 
through its northern provinces (a. d. 623). Early in the ensuing spring, 
Heraclius, with a chosen band of five thousand men, sailed from Con- 
stantinople to Trebizond, assembled his forces from the southern regions, 
and, joined by the Christians of Armenia, entered the province of Atro- 
patene [Azerbijdn). Tauris {Tabriz), the ancient and modem capital 
of the country, was taken by storm, almost in sight of Khosru's army, 
Avhile the Persian monarch had neither the courage to hazard a battle, 
nor the justice to conclude an equitable peace. Several equally glorious 
campaigns followed ; the greater part of Persia was overrun by the 
victorious Byzantines ; they defeated the Asiatics whereA^er they en- 
countered them, and marched in one direction as fae as the Caspian, in 
the other to Ispahan, destroying in their progress ail Khosru's splendid 
palaces, plundering his hoarded treasures, and dispersing in every di- 
rection the countless slaves of his pleasure. Khosru made no effort to 
stop the mighty work of ruin, and yet he rejected the terms of peace 
offered him by the humanity of the conqueror. His subjects soon lost 
all regard for a monarch whom they deemed tl^ sole cause of the des- 
olation of his country : a conspiracy Avas formed against him ; he was 
deposed by his eldest son Shiroueh, cast into a dungeon, and put to 
death by an unnatural prince, Avho pretended that he was compelled to 
the parricide by the clamors and importunities of the people and nobles 
of the empire. 

After six glorious campaigns, Heraclius returned to Constantinople, 
bringing Avith him the Avood of the " True Cross," which Khosru had 
taken at Jerusalem — a precious relic, which Avas deemed a more splen- 
did trophy of his victories than all his spoils and conquests. The 



ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SARACENIC POWER. 355 

kingdom of Persia, exhausted by the late sanguinary contest, was left 
to perish under the accumulated evils of a dreadful famine, the disputes 
of proud and luxurious nobles, a succession of weak sovereigns, or ra- 
ther pageants of power, and the attack of a new and terrible enemy. 
The flame which Mohamme'd had kindled in Arabia already began to 
spread, and to threaten an equal fate to the degraded and decaying mon- 
archies of Byzantium and Persia. 

Victory itself was fatal to Heraclius ; the best and bravest of his sol- 
diers had perished in the sanguinary war, his treasury was empty, 
taxes were levied with difficulty in the desolated provinces, and the 
emperor himself, as if exhausted by his great efforts, sunk into hopeless 
letharg}^ While Heraclius was enjoying the empty honors of a tri- 
irniph, the Saracens appeared on the confines of Syria : thenceforth the 
empire sunk rapidly before their fanatic valor ; and in the last eight 
years of his reign, the emperor lost to them all that he had rescued 
from the the Persians. 

Section II. — State of Arabia at the coming of Mohammed. 

The peninsula of Arabia is in shape a large and irregular triangle, 
between Persia, Syria, Egypt, and Ethiopia ; its extreme length is 
about fifteen hundred miles, and its mean breadth about seven hundred. 
Though it contains several lofty ranges of mountains, the greater part 
of the country consists of level, sandy, and arid plains, which can sup- 
port hut few inhabitants. Water is difficult to be obtained ; there is 
scarcely any wood to shelter from the direct and intense rays of a 
tropical sun ; the winds, instead of being refreshing breezes, frequently 
come loaded with pestilential vapors, or raise eddying billows of sand 
that have overwhelmed, not only caravans, but entire armies. The high 
lands that border on the Indian ocean are distinguished by a superior 
abundance of wood and water, and hence this part of the peninsula has 
been called Happy Arabia : but the groves, even of this favored district, 
are thinly scattered ; the streams, though pure, are small, and the coun- 
try could only be deemed delightful by persons whose eyes were unac- 
customed to vegetation, and who had often felt the want of a cooling 
shade or a refreshing drink. The northern part of Arabia is occupied 
by ranges of naked, rocky mountains, from which it received the name 
of Arabia Petrsea, or the Stony ; but notwithstanding its rugged and 
desert aspect, it was in ancient times the centre of a flourishing trade, 
being the great high road of trade between Egypt and southeastern 
Asia. 

The Arabs are an original and unmixed race ; they boast that their 
country has never been subdued, but the greater part of it has little that 
could tempt the cupidity of a conqueror. In the reign of Trajan, the 
Romans made Arabia Petraea a province ; Yemen, or Arabia Felix, has 
been frequently subject to Persia, and about the time of Mohammed's 
appearance, the southern part of the peninsula was ruled by the Najashi 
of Ethiopia. The Arab is not very robust, but he is active and well 
made, able to endure great fatigue, and, both from habit and education, 
reckless of danger. In his mental constitution, he displays quickness 
rather than intelligence ; his imagination is warm, but his judgment is 



356 MODERN HISTORY 

not vigorous. In all his pleasures, dangers, and fatigues, lie makes 
the horse and camel of his deserts associates rather than servants, and 
these animals appear to have obtained an actual superiority in Arabia, 
from being elevated into the companions of their masters. The horse 
of Arabia is equally remarkable for speed* temper, and power of en- 
durance ; and it is remarkable that the best breeds of this animal in 
Europe, Asia, and Africa, have been derived from an Arabian stock. 
The camel and dromedary of the desert are regarded by the Arab as 
scarcely inferior to his horse. This patient and povperful animal sup- 
plies him with milk for his sustenance, transports his property and 
family from one quarter of the desert to another, and when occasion re- 
quires, enables him to pursue or fly from his enemy with almost in- 
credible speed. 

The ancient religion of the Arabs was the Sabean form of idolatry, 
which consisted in the worship of the sun, moon, and planets ; but long 
before the coming of Mohammed, they were distracted by a great va- 
riety of creeds ; some adhered to the faith of their ancestors, others 
embraced Judaism, and several tribes became Christians. Unfortunately 
Christianity, when introduced into the peninsula, had been deeply sul- 
lied by man's devices ; the different Christian tribes were imbued 
with a fierce sectarian spirit, and hated each other more bitterly than 
Jews or pagans. The vivid imaginations of the Arabs led them to in- 
vestigate questions beyond the powers of man's understanding ; and the 
consequence was so abundant a supply of new doctrines, that one of 
the early fathers described Arabia as the land most fruitful in heresies. 
The principal Arabian cities of ancient times were in Yemen ; but 
their fame was destined to be eclipsed by the glories of Mecca and 
Medina, both in the Hejaz, the two great sanctuaries of the national 
religion. Mecca was a place of considerable trade from the earliest 
stages, being situated at the intersection of two important routes, that 
between Syria and Arabia Felix, and that between Abyssinia or upper 
Egypt and southeastern Asia. Commerce flourished under the sanctu- 
ary of religion. The temple of Mecca was regarded as the national 
metropolis of the Arabic faith, before Judaism and Christianity appeared 
in the peninsula ; its custody raised the Koreishites to a rank, above 
the other tribes, and the failure of the attempt made to storm it by the 
Ethiopians in the very year that Mohammed was born, may be con- 
sidered the great check that impeded, or rather prevented, the further 
extension of Christianity in the country. Mecca is built in a winding 
valley at the foot of three barren mountains ; the soil is a rock, and the 
waters brackish. The pastures are remote from the city, and good 
fruits can not be procured at a nearer place than the gardens of Tayef, 
which are about seventy miles distant. 

The Arabs believe that Mecca was founded by Adam, and the tem- 
ple erected by Abraham. Its early prosperity they ascribe to Ishmael, 
who fixed his residence there, because, as their traditions assert, the 
brackish well Zemzem was that to which Hagar was directed by the 
angel. It must have been a very ancient city, if, as commentators sup- 
pose, it was the Mesha which Moses mentions as inhabited by the pos- 
terity of Joktan.* 

• Genesis x. and xxxi. 



ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SAEACENIC POWEa. ^57 

Medina, called Yatreb before the appearance of Mohammed, enjoys 
more natural advantages than Mecca ; but it is not so conveniently 
situated for traffic. Its citizens appear io have been alw^ays jealous of 
the supremacy claimed by the Meccans, and this probably induced 
them to espouse the cause of Mohammed w^hen he v^^as banished by 
their rivals. 

Literature w^as zealously cultivated by the ancient Arabs ; they were 
enthusiastically attached to eloquence and poetry, for both of which, 
their rich harmonious language affords peculiar facilities. A meeting of 
the tribes was held annually, at which the poets recited their c*- mpo- 
sitions, and those which were judged the best, were preserved in the 
public treasury. The most celebrated of these were seven poems 
called Moallakat, which were written on Egyptian silk in letters of 
gold, and suspended in the Kaaba, or temple of Mecca. Science was 
not similarly valued ; their history was merely genealogical tables ; 
their astronomy such a rude knowledge of the stars as served to mark 
the variation of the seasons ; and the mechanical arts were almost 
wholly neglected. They used to say that God had given them four 
peculiarities : turbans instead of diadems ; tents instead of houses ; 
swords instead of fortresses ; and poems instead of written laws. 

Section III. — The Preaching of Mohammed. 

Mohammed, the great legislator of the Arabians, and the founder of 
a religion which has long prevailed over the fairest portions of the 
globe, was born at Mecca. His father, Abdallah, was an idolater ; but 
his mother, Emina, was a Jewess, who had been converted to Christi- 
anity, and from her early instructions he probably derived the religious 
impressions for which he was distinguished even in boyhood. Both 
his parents died while he was yet a child, but their place was supplied 
by his uncles, Abd-ai-Motalleb, and Abu-Taleb, the latter of whom be- 
came a tender parent to the orphan. At the age of thirteen he accom- 
panied Abu-Taleb on a mercantile journey into Syria, and soon after 
made his first campaign against some neighboring tribes of predatory 
Arabs. 

From this time Mohammed appears to have engaged actively in trade. 
He displayed so much talent, that a rich widow, named Kadijah, ap- 
pointed him her chief pastor ; and after some years, was so pleased 
with his zeal and industry, that she gave him her hand in marriage, 
and made him master of her splendid fortune. After his marriage, 
Mohammed ranked among the first citizens of Mecca, and it must be 
added that he was not corrupted by good fortune. The earliest use he 
made of prosperity was to relieve his kind guardian and uncle Abu- 
Taleb, who had fallen into distress ; he placed Abu-Taleb above want, 
and undertook the education of a portion of his family. 

Little is known of Mohammed's history during the next fifteen years, 
but there is every reason to believe that this interval was spent in ma- 
turing his plans for the great revolution he contemplated. Every year 
he retired for a month to a cave in Mount Hira, near Mecca, where he 
spent his time in meditation and prayer. His travels as a merchant 
had made him acquainted with the principal forms of religion that then 



358 MODERN HISTORY. 

prevailed in the cast. In Syria he met Christians of various sects, 
Jews, Magians, and Sabacans ; Arabia presented to him countless va- 
rieties of idolatry ; exiles from the Persian and Byzantine empires in- 
formed him of the dangerous doctrines preached by the Mani and Maz- 
dak. A singular dream led him to believe that he Avas chosen by the 
Deity to reconcile all these jarring creeds, and to unite mankind in the 
■worship of the one true God. In the solitude of his cave he dreamed 
that the angel Gabriel appeared to him, and hailed him as a prophet. 
On his return he announced his mission to Kadijah, who at once rec- 
ognised his claims. Her example was followed by Ali, the son of 
Abu-Taleb, by Abu-Beker, Othman, and a few friends accustomed to 
regard the recluse of Hira with reverence. 

These converts were called Mussulmans, that is, persons resigned to 
the divine will ; their faith Avas confirmed by revelations which Moham- 
med pretended to receive from Gabriel, and which, as he did not then 
know how to read and write, or at least but imperfectly, he communica- 
ted orally to his disciples. These revelations were preserved by them in 
a volume, which they called the Koran, or book that ought to be read. 
The progress of the new religion was slow ; many of Mohammed's 
friends rejected his prophetic claims Avith something like horror, and 
three years elapsed before he ventured to announce his mission pub- 
licly. HaAdng invited his friends and relatives to a splendid banquet, 
he declared to them that God had chosen him to preach the doctrine 
of the divine unity ; Ali, with the generous enthusiasm of youth, Avarmly 
offered to support the prophet's claims, but many of the other guests 
doubted or laughed them to scorn. 

Undismayed by the imperfect result of his first essay, Mohammed 
began to preach to the people of Mecca in the market-place. Converts 
Avere made slowly ; and the guardians of the city opposed doctrines 
that threatened to subvert the influence they derived from the worship 
of the Kaaba. Several of the Mussulmans, most remarkable for their 
zeal, Avere forced by persecution to abandon their homes, and seek 
refuge in Abyssinia ; but the spirit of Mohammed quailed not ; he re- 
fused to quit Mecca, and when asked to suspend his preaching for a 
season,, he replied, " Were my enemies to place the sun on my right 
hand, and the moon on my left, they AA^ould not reduce me to silence." 

At one of the great annual fairs held in Mecca, Mohammed preached 
his mission to the merchants assembled from all parts of Arabia. 
Among his auditors were some citizens of Yatreb, or, as it was after- 
ward called, Medina, Avhom peculiar circumstances rendered attentive 
to his claims. The Yatrebites had just conquered a Jewish tribe ; they 
heard their captives boast of their speedy liberation on the coming of 
the Messiah, and supposing that the neAv prophet might be the expected 
deliverer, they resolved to conciliate his favor. Mohammed profited 
by their delusion ; and this appears to have been his first direct step m 
impostiu-e, though in the tangled web of human motives, it is hard to 
say Avhcre enthusiasm ends and fraud begins. 

Inspired by his success Avilh the Yatrebites, and some other tribes in 
the interior of Arabia, Mohammed, Avho had hitherto preached patience 
and submission under persecution, directed his disciples to defend 
themselves when attacked, declaring that all Avho died in defence of 



ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SARACENIC POWER. 359 

his person or his creed, would assuredly inherit Paradise. At the same 
time he averred that he had been taken up into heaven by Gabriel, and 
admitted to a personal interview with the Omnipotent. The Meccan 
chiefs, enraged at his hardihood, took measures for his destruction, and 
he could only save his life by a speedy retreat to Yatreb. This event, 
called Hejira (the flight), occurred about the fifty-tliird year of the 
prophet's age (a. d. 622), and is the era used by all Mahommedan 
nations. 

Mohammed was received in triumph at Yatreb ; he changed its name 
to Medinet al nabi {the city of the prophet), or Medina {the city), which 
it still retains. Converts flocked to Medina, and were formed into war- 
like bands, which infested all the roads to Mecca, and took severe ven- 
geance for the insult ofl"ered to their master. The plunder was shared 
equally among the soldiers ; enthusiasm generally insured success ; and 
warriors from all parts of the peninsula were attracted by the hopes of 
wealth and glory. In one of the frequent encounters between the 
Meccans and Mussulmans, near the well Bedr, Mohammed was on the 
point of being defeated, when he stooped down, took up a handful of 
dust and flung it toward the enemy, exclaiming: " May their faces be 
confounded !" this simple action revived the courage of his followers ; 
they gained a decisive victory, which he failed not to ascribe to a 
miraculous interposition. 

After this success Mohammed made a great change in the character 
of his religion ; hitherto he had preached patience and toleration ; he 
now began to inculcate the doctrine of propagating the true faith by the 
sword, and of executing divine vengeance on idolaters and unbelievers. 
" In the shade of the crossing cimeters," he declared, " Paradise is 
prefigured," and this sublime orientalism was long the favorite Avar-cry 
of his followers. The Jews became special objects of his hatred ; he 
seems to have hoped that they would acknowledge him as their Mes- 
siah, but they were too well acquainted with their sacred Scriptures to 
believe that the liberator of Israel should be descended from the bond- 
woman. A severe defeat at Ohod increased rather than abated the 
pride and fanaticism of Mohammed ; he ascribed it to the fault of his 
companions in having granted quarter to their enemies on a former 
occasion, and thenceforward the war assumed a most murderous and 
sanguinary character. The Meccans suff'ered much more severely 
than their adversaries ; depending for their prosperity, and almost for 
their existence, on commerce, they saw their trade almost annihilated, 
their caravans plundered, and their flocks swept away. They made 
one great efibrt to remove their enemy, and besieged Mohammed in 
Medina, but were soon forced to retire with great loss. " Hitherto 
they have sought us," exclaimed the prophet, " it is now our turn to go 
in search of them." 

After this defeat, the Meccans seem to have lost all courage ; Mo- 
hammed rapidly became the most powerful prince in Arabia, his follow- 
ers received his words as the inspired oracles of God, nor were they 
undeceived by the gross licentiousness in which the pretended prophet 
indulged. At length, he marched against Mecca, but found the defiles 
which lead to the city too strongly garrisoned to allow of an attack with 
any prospect of success. Under these circumstances, he concluded a 



T 
360 MODEEN HISTORY. 

truce, much against the will of his followers, by which a peaceful ad- 
mission into the city was secured to him in the ensuing year. Feeling 
that his power was now established, Mohammed sent ambassadors, in- 
viting the most powerful kings of the earth, especially the emperors of 
Persia and Constantinople, to become his disciples. Khosrii Parviz, 
who then ruled in Iran, was indignant at receiving a letter, in which 
" a poor lizard-eater," as the Arab was then called by his haughty 
neighbors, dared to place his name before that of " the king of kings." 
He tore the paper to pieces, and dismissed the ambassador with insult ; 
when this was told to Mohammed, he exclaimed, "Thus God hath torn 
his kingdom." The Byzantine emperor, Heraclius, treated the message 
with respect, though he declined acceding to the invitation. During 
the year that preceded the pilgrimage to Mecca, Mohammed subdued 
several of the surrounding tribes that had hitherto spumed his power ; 
but the seeds of mortal disease were sown in his constitution by a dose 
of poison, which a Jewess administered as a test of his prophetic pre- 
tensions. 

At length the day arrived which was to consummate the triumph of 
Islamism ; Mohammed made his public entry into Mecca with unparal- 
leled magnificence ; he did homage to the national faith by worshipping 
in the Kaaba ; and such was the effect produced by his presence, that 
many of his former enemies, and among others, the chief guardian of 
the idolatrous sanctuary, proclaimed themselves his disciples. Soon 
after this success he began his first foreign war. The ambassador he 
sent to the Byzantine governor of Bosrah, having been murdered at 
Muta, a little town south of the Dead sea, an army was sent under the 
command of Zeid, the freedman of the prophet, to avenge the insult. 
The Mussulman general, and the two officers that succeeded, were 
slain ; but the command devolving upon Khaled, the son of Walid, he 
obtained a decisive victory, and returned to Medina laden with booty. 
This success induced Mohammed to break his truce with the Meccans ; 
disregarding their remonstrances and offers of submission, he marched 
against the city ; an entrance was forced by the fiery Khaled, and the 
prophet with difficulty prevented his followers from involving his fellow - 
citizens in one promiscuous massacre. The Kaaba became the prop- 
erty of the conqueror ; all traces of idolatry were removed from this 
national sanctuary ; the only emblem of former superstition permitted 
to remain, was the celebrated Black Stone, an aerolite which the Arabs 
had venerated from an unknown age, the reverence for which was too 
deeply graven in their hearts to be easily eradicated. This success 
led to the subjugation of most of the northern Arabian tribes ; ambassa- 
dors flocked to congratulate the prophet from every side ; the lieuten- 
ant Khosni, at the western side of the Euphrates, became a Mussul- 
man ; the governor of the provinces that the Najashi of Abyssinia held 
in Arabia, followed the example ; and Mohammed might be regarded 
as the undisputed sovereign of the peninsula. His two great objects 
seemed thus to be effected ; Arabia was liberated from the yoke of 
foreign powers, and the Arabs began to regard themselves as one na- 
tion. A second expedition against the southern provinces of the By- 
zantine, or, as it was still called, the Roman empire, was crowned with 
success ; and so rapid had been the progress of Islamism, that when 



ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SARACENIC POWER. 361 

the prophet performed his last pilgrimage to Mecca, his followers 
amounted to nearly one hundred thousand warriors, independent of 
women, slaves, and other attendants. 

On his return to Medina, the poison which Mohammed had taken 
from a Jewess, who is said to have taken this means of testing his 
claim to the title of Messiah, began to show its effects. He was seized 
with mortal disease ; and, at his own request, was removed to the house 
of his favorite wife Ayesha, on whose prudence he depended for con- 
cealing any incautious avowal he might make under the pressure of 
sickness. On the 8th of June, 632, he died, declaring with his last 
breath that he was about " to take his place with his fellow-citizen on 
high,'' meaning the angel Gabriel. He made no will, he appointed no 
successor, owing to the contrivance of Ayesha, who feared that Ali, 
the cousin and son-in-law of the prophet, would be nominated the heir 
of his power ; and that she would thus be inferior to her beautiful step- 
daughter, Fatima, the wife of Ali. 

Section IV. — Early Progress of the Saracens. 

The fabric of Islamism was shaken to its very foundation after Mo- 
hammed's death, by the disputes that arose respecting the choice of a 
successor. Ali had the best hereditary claims, but his literary tastes, 
and ascetic manners, rendered him unpopular with the fierce soldiery ; 
and he had a powerful enemy in Ayesha, whom he had once charged 
with infidelity. After three days of fierce dispute, the controversy was 
decided by Omar's proffering the oath of fidelity to Abii Bekr, the father 
of Ayesha, and one of Mohammed's most faithful followers. 

Abu Bekr assumed the title of Khaliph, or vicar, which thenceforth 
became the designation of the Saracenic emperors. Having superin- 
tended the sepulture of his illustrious predecessor at Medina, the kha- 
liph sent an army against Mosseilama, an impostor, who, following the 
example of Mohammed, attempted to found a new religion. Mosseilama 
and his followers were exterminated by the gallant Khaled, surnamed 
from his fiery valor " the sword of God," and Islamism was thencefor- 
ward established in Arabia. 

Perceiving that it was necessary to find employment for the ener- 
getic spirits by which he was surrounded, Abu Bekr prepared to invade 
the Byzantine and Persian empires, both of which had fallen into a 
state of deplorable weakness. Os^ma, the son of Zeid, ravaged Syria, 
while the province of Irak, the ancient Babylonia, was subdued by 
Khaled. The conquest of Syria was a more important enterprise ; cir- 
culars announcing the undertaking, were sent to the principal Arabian 
tribes ; and the army which assembled on the occasion was the most 
numerous that had yet been raised by the Saracens. The emperor 
Heraclius, alarmed at the approach of such formidable forces, sent a 
large detachment to meet the enemy on the frontiers, which was defeat- 
ed with great slaughter. But the imperialists were more successful at 
Gaza, where they gained a victory over a Moslem division, commanded 
by Abu Obeidah. The Khaliph invested Amru with the supreme com- 
mand of the expedition, but intrusted Obeidah's division to Khaled. 



362 MODERN HISTOEY, 

The latter made himself master of the city of Bosra, and after gaining 
severul other advantages over the Romans, laid siege to Damascus. 

Jerusalem was regarded with as much veneration by the Mussulmans 
as by the Jews or Christians, and Abu Bekr felt that the capture of so 
holy a city would give immense strength to the cause of Islam. In 
his celebrated directions to his generals he displays great knowledge 
of the country as well as much political wisdom. But these directions 
are still more remarkable for their almost verbal coincidence with a 
passage in the Book of Revelations (chap. ix. verse 4), which most 
commentators have regarded as a prophetic description of the Saracens. 
A reference to the passage will enable the reader to see the striking 
similarity between the language of the apostle and of the khaliph. 
When the army was assembled, Abu Bekr addressed the chief com- 
mander in the following terms : " Take care, Yezid-Abn-Abu Sofian, 
to treat ycnir men with tenderness and lenity. Consult with your offi- 
cers on all pressing occasions, and encourage them to face the enemy 
with bravery and resolution. If you conquer, spare the aged, the in- 
firm, the women, and the children. Cut down no palm-trees, destroy 
not the fields of corn. Spare all fruit-trees, slay no cattle but such as 
are absolutely necessary lor food. Always preserve your engagements 
inviolate ; spare the religious persons who dwell in monasteries, and 
injure not the places in which they worship God. As for those mem- 
bers of the synagogue of Satan, who shave their crowns, cleave their 
sculls, unless they embrace Islamism, or pay tribute." 

But Jerusalem was not the only city to which sanctity was ascribed 
in the Mussulman traditions ; it was reported that Mohammed, after 
viewing the lovely and fertile plains in which Damascus stands, from 
one of the neighboring heights, proclaimed it to be the earthly paradise 
designed to be the inheritance of true believers. The fiery Khaled re- 
cited this tradition to his enthusiastic followers as he led them before 
the walls, and thus excited their ardor for the siege to a fury that bor- 
dered on insanity. 

Heraclius sent an army of 100,000 men to relieve the capital of Syria, 
but the imperialists were thrice routed ; and in the last of these battles 
more than half their number fell in the field. This calamity led to the 
fall of Damascus, one side of which was stormed by Khaled, just as the 
other capitulated to Abu Obeidah. A warm dispute arose between the 
generals as to the claims of the citizens to the benefit of the capitula- 
tion ; but mercy finally prevailed, and the lives of the Damascenes were 
spared. Abu Bekr died on the very day that Damascus was taken 
(a. d. 634) ; his memory was justly venerated, not only because he 
pointed the Saracens the way to conquest beyond Arabia, but because 
he gave their religion its permanent form, by collecting the scattered 
passages of the Koran, and arranging them in the order which they hold 
to the present day. 

His character was remarkable for generosity and moderation ; he did 
not reserve for himself any portion of the vast wealth acquired by his 
victorious armies, but distributed his share to his soldiers and to the 
poor. He was always easy of access ; no petitioner for mercy or claim- 
ant of justice went unheard from his presence ; both by precept and 
example he labored to maintain the republican simplicity so remarkable 



ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SAaACENIC POWER. 363 

in the early history of the Saracens ; and though the partisans of Ali 
regard him as a usurper, they still reverence his memory on account of 
his moderation and his virtue. 

Omar was chosen second khaliph by the unanimous consent of the 
army. Soon after his accession he received the intelligence of the cap- 
ture of Damascus ; but instead of evincing his gratitude, he yielded to 
the suggestions of petty jealousy, and transferred the command of the 
army from Khaled to Abu Obeidah. The conquest of Syria was fol- 
lowed by the subjugation of Persia. Yezdijird, the last monarch of the 
Sassanid dynasty, sent a large army to recover Irak, under the command 
of Ferokshad, a general of high reputation. Saad-ebn-VVakass, the 
leader of the Saracens, relying upon the impetuous courage of his sol- 
diers, eagerly sought a general action ; and Ferokshad, after many vain 
efforts to protract the war, was forced to a decisive engagement in the 
plains of Kadseah, or Kadesia. The battle lasted several days, and 
ended in the almost total annihilation of the Persian army, while the 
loss of the Arabs did not exceed three thousand men. The celebrated 
standard of Persia, originally the apron of the patriotic blacksmith 
Gavah, but which had been enlarged, by successive monarchs, to the 
length of twenty-two feet and the breadth of fifteen, enriched with jew- 
els of the highest value, fell into the hands of the conquerors and was 
broken up for distribution. Nor Avas this the only rich booty obtained 
by the " sons of the desert," who were yet ignorant of its value. " I will 
give any quantity of this yellow metal for a little white," was an ex- 
clamation made, after the battle was over, by an Arabian soldier, vs^ho 
desired to exchange gold, which he had never before seen, for silver, 
which he had learned to appreciate (a. d. 638). 

Yezdijird assembled a new army in the northern and eastern provin- 
ces, while the khaliph reinforced the invaders with fresh bodies of en- 
thusiasts. The battle which decided the fate of Persia was fought at 
Navahend (a. d. 641). Noman, the leader of the Saracens, attacked 
the Persians in their intrenchments ; nothing could resist the fury of the 
onslaught ; the Persian lines were completely broken ; it was a carnage 
rather than a battle. For ten years Yezdijird, " a hunted wanderer on 
the wild," protracted a faint but unyielding resistance ; he was at length 
slain by a miller with whom he had sought refuge (a. d. 651). Thus 
ended the dynasty of Sassan, which ruled Persia for four hundred and 
fifty years, and the memory of which is still cherished by a nation, 
whose ancient glory is associated with the fame of Ardeshir, Shah-pur, 
and Nushirvan. 

Nor were the Saracens less successful in Syria ; Abu Obeidah's 
caution tempered the fiery zeal of Khaled, and rendered victory more 
secure, though less rapid. City after city yielded to the Moslems, and 
the army which Heraclius sent to the defence of his unfortunate sub- 
jects was irretrievably ruined in the battle of Yermuk. Inspired by 
this victory, Abu Obeidah laid seige to Jerusalem, and in four months 
reduced the garrison to such distress, that a surrender was unavoidable. 
The Khaliph Omar came in person to receive the submission of the 
holy city. His equipage was a singular characteristic of the simplicity 
that still prevailed among the Saracens. He rode upon a red camel, 
with a sack of corn and water-bag slung from the saddle, to supply his 



364 MODEEN HISTORY. 

wants during the journey. A wooden platter was the only utensil he 
brought with him ; his dress was of camel's hair, coarse and torn ; a 
single slave constituted his attendance and escort. In this guise he 
reached the Moslem camp, where he recited the public prayers, and 
preached a sermon to his troops. He then signed the capitulation, se- 
curing to the Christians of Jerusalem protection in person, property, 
and religious worship, on the payment of a moderate tribute, and entered 
the city in triumph (a. d. 637). In his triumphal entry the khaliph 
marched at the head of his troops, in familiar conversation with So- 
phronius, the Christian patriarch of Jerusalem, whom he hoped to protect 
from the fanaticism of his followers by this exhibition of confidence. 
Nor was this the only proof of good faith displayed by Omar ; he re- 
fused to pray in any of the Christian churches, lest the Mussulmans 
should take advantage of his example and convert it into a mosque. 
He chose the ground on which the temple of Solomon anciently stood 
for the foundation of the mosque which bears his name ; and as it was 
covered with filth of every kind, he set the example of clearing the 
spot, to his soldiers, by removing some of the rubbish in his robe. 

Aleppo, the ancient Beroea, was the next city besieged by the Sara- 
cens ; it was valiantly defended for four months, but was finally taken 
by assault, and its governor, Gukinna, with several of his principal offi- 
cers, embraced the Mohammedan faith. Antioch and Caesarea were 
taken with less difficulty ; the emperor Heraclius fled from the province, 
and his son, after a few unsuccessful effijrts, followed him to Constanti- 
nople. In six years from their first appearance in Syria, the Saracens 
completed the conquest of that province, and of Palestine, and secured 
their acquisitions by occupying the mountain-fortresses on the borders 
of Cilicia. Egypt was next attacked by Amrii, and subdued without 
much difficulty. Alexandria alone made a vigorous defence ; but it 
was finally taken by storm, and its valuable library consigned to the 
flames, through the fanaticism of Omar, who was ignorant of literature 
and science. In the midst of these triumphs the Khaliph Omar was 
assassinated by a slave (a. d. 643). During his reign of ten years and 
a half, the Saracens could boast that they had subdued Syria, Chaldaea, 
Persia,, and Egypt ; taken thirty-six thousand cities, towns, and castles ; 
destroyed four thousand Christian churches, fire and idol temples, and 
built fourteen hundred mosques. 

Omar's memory is held in the highest veneration by the Soonnees, 
and is eqally execrated by the Sheeahs. His severity and simplicity, 
which bordered on barbarism, are strikingly contrasted with the luxury 
and magtiificence of his successors. He had no state or pomp, he 
lived in a mean house ; his mornings were spent in preaching or pray- 
ing at the mosque, and during the rest of the day he was to be found in 
the public market-place, where, clothed in a tattered robe, he adminis- 
tered justice to all comers, directed the affairs of his increasing empire, 
and received ambassadors from the most powerful princes of the east. 
To him the Arabs are indebted for the era of the Hejira ; before his reign 
they counted their years from such epochs as wars, famines, plagues, 
remarkable tempests, or harvests of unusual plenty. He was the first 
to establish a police in Medina and the other great cities of the empire. 
Before his reign, the Arabs, accustomed to lawless independence, would 



ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SARACENIC POWES,. 



365 



admit of no restraint, and the immense conquests of the Saracens had 
caused such a concourse of strangers in the seats of government, that 
cities became nearly as insecure places of residence as the open coun- 
try. Omar also established a regular system of pay for soldiers in the 
field, and he also instituted pensions for the wounded and disabled sol- 
diers ; indeed the old companions of Mohammed, those who had borne 
the dangers and difficulties that beset the prophet in the earlier part of 
his career, having been rendered incapable of acquiring fresh plunder 
by wounds and age, would have perished miserably but for the provis- 
ion which Omar made for their support in their declining years. 

Omar, by his will, appointed six commissioners to elect a new kha- 
liph, and their choice fell on Othman-ebn-Affan, whose pliancy of dis- 
position appears to have been his chief recommendation. The change 
of their sovereign did not abate the rage for conquest among the Sara- 
cens. They ceased to limit their exertions to land ; a fleet fitted out by 
Moawiyah, the governor of Syria, subdued the island of Cyprus (a. d. 
647), while the Syrian and Egyptian armies penetrated into Armenia 
and Nubia. The island of Rhodes was a still more important acquisi- 
tion : it yielded to Moawiyah almost without a struggle ; its celebrated 
Colossus was broken to pieces and sold to a Jew, who loaded nine 
hundred camels with the metal that it contained. Othman's weakness 
soon rendered him odious to his warlike subjects. The Egyptian army 
revolted, and marched to besiege him in Medina ; their discontents 
were appeased for a time by the exertions of Ali, but the insurgents 
having reason to suspect that the khaliph meditated vengeance, retraced 
their steps, and murdered him in his palace (a. d. 656). The Koran, 
stained with the blood of Othman, is said to be still preserved at Da- 
mascus. 

Immediately after the murder of Othman, Ali, the cousin and son-in- 
law of the prophet, was proclaimed khaliph. His accession was the 
signal for disorders, which threatened the speedy ruin of the Saracenic 
empire. His old enemy Ayesha, the widow of Mohammed, excited a 
revolt in Arabia, affecting to avenge the murder of Othman, though she 
had more than consented to his death ; Moawiyah head.ed a revolt in 
Syria ; and the turbulent army of Egypt set their sovereign's authority 
at defiance. The first combat was against the partisans of Ayesha, 
who were routed with great slaughter, and she herself made prisoner. 
Ali not only spared the life of this turbulent woman, but assigned her a 
large pension. 

Moawiyah was a far more dangerous enemy. By his afliected zeal 
for religion, he had won the friendship of many of the companions of 
the prophet, while his descent from the ancient chiefs of Mecca pro- 
cured the support of many who had yielded reluctantly to the sway of 
Mohammed. The rival armies met in the plains of Saflfein, on the west- 
ern bank of the Euphrates, and more than ninety days were spent in 
undecisive skirmishes. At length Moawiyah, finding his forces ra|)idly 
diminishing, adopted the following singular expedient, on the recommen- 
dation of Amrd ; he ordered a copy of the Koran to be fixed on the top 
of a pike, and directed a herald to proclaim, in the presence of both 
armies, that he was willing to decide all differences by this sacred code. 
All's soldiers forced him to consent to a truce ; two conmussiouers were 



366 MODERN HISTORY 

chosen to regulate the articles of peace ; and Amru, who appeared on 
the part of Moawiyah, contrived to have his friend proclaimed khaliph. 
The war was renewed, but no decisive battle was fought. At length 
sonic enthusiasts met accidentally at Mecca and began to discuss the 
calamities that threatened the ruin of Islamism. One of them remarked 
that no one of the claimants of the throne deserved to reign, since they 
had jointly and severally inflicted great sufferings on the faithful, and 
brought religion into jeopardy. Three of them then agreed to devote 
themselves for the public good, and on the same day to assassinate Am- 
ru, Moawiyah, and Ali. The two former escaped ; Ali became a vic- 
tim (a. d. 661), and Moawiyah, without much resistance, became chief 
of the Saracenic empire, and founded the Ommiade dynasty of khaliphs. 

There is a tradition that Mohammed, a little before his last illness, 
declared, " The khaliphate will not last more than thirty years after my 
death ;" if this prediction was not devised after the event, it was singu- 
larly fulfilled by the murder of his nephew and son-in-law. All's mem- 
ory is justly venerated by the Mussulmans ; he was inferior in states- 
manship to his predecessors, but he was certainly the most amiable of 
the khaliphs. His mildness, placidity, and yielding disposition, which 
rendered him so beloved in private life, were however fatal to him in an 
age of distraction and civil warfare. His family continued to be revered 
long after his death ; but their popularity excited the jealousy of suc- 
ceeding khaliphs, and most of them perished by open violence or secret 
assassination. The martjTdom of Hassan and Hossein, the sons of 
Ali, is yearly celebrated by the Sheeahs of India and Persia with great 
solemnity ; and on these occasions the affecting incidents of these 
events are so vividly represented, that travellers would suppose the 
bursts of grief they witness, to be caused by some recent and over- 
whelming calamity. 

During these commotions the career of Saracenic conquest had been 
suspended ; but under the Ommiade dynasty the military spirit of the 
Arabs was restored to its former strength. Egypt furnished an excel- 
lent key to southern Europe and Avestern Africa. Thrice the Saracens 
were compelled to abandon their enterprise against the countries west 
of Egj'pt ; but at length their perseverance was crowned with success, 
and the creed of Mohammed was extended through northern Africa to 
the shores of the Atlantic. 

Count Julian, a Gothic noble, irritated by the treatment he had re- 
ceived from his sovereign, Roderic, invited the Saracens into Spain (a. 
D. 710). A numerous army of adventurers crossed the straits, and, 
aided by the resentment of the persecuted Jews, subdued the entire 
peninsula, with the exception of a small district in the Asturian mount- 
ains. Not content with this success, the Saracens crossed the Pyre- 
nees, and advanced through France to the Loire : they even meditated 
a plan of conquest, which would have subjected all Christendom to their 
yoke ; they proposed to conquer France, Italy, and Germany, and then 
descending the Danube to exterminate the Greek empire, whose capital 
they had already twice assailed. The valor of Charles Martel, who 
completely defeated the Saracens in a memorable battle, that lasted 
seven days (a. d. 732), rescued Europe from the Mohammedan yoke. 
His grandson, Charlemagne, drove the Saracens back to the Ebro ; and 



ESTABLISHMENT OP THE SARCENIC POWER. 367 

tliough they subsequently recovered their Spanish provinces, they were 
forced to respect ihe Pyrenees as the bulwark of Christendom. 

The revolution which transferred the khaliphate from the descendants 
of Moawiyah to the posterity of Abbas, the uncle of Mohammed, led to 
the dismemberment of the empire. Mohammed, the grandson of Abbas, 
had long been engaged in forming a party to support the rights of his 
house, and from his obscure residence in Syria, sent emissaries into the 
remotest parts of the empire, to secure partisans for an approachin" 
struggle. On the death of Mohammed, his son, Ibrahim, succeeded to 
his influence and his claims ; he sent Abu Moslem as the representative 
of his party into Khorassan, and there that intrepid warrior for the first 
time raised the black standard of the house of Abbas. From this time 
the parties that rent the Saracenic empire were distinguished by the 
colors chosen as their cognizance ; black was the ominous badge of the 
Abbassides, white of the Ommiades, and green of the Fatimites, who 
claimed to be descended from Mohammed, through Fatima, the daughter 
of the prophet and the wife of Ali. Abul Abbas, surnamed Al Saffah, 
or the Sanguinary, overthrew the last of the Ommiade line near the 
river Jab, and not only put him to death, but massacred all the princes 
of his family whom he could seize, broke open the sepulchres of all the 
khaliphs from Moawiyah downward, burned their mouldering contents, 
and scattered the ashes to the winds. 

Ninety members of the Ommiade family were living at Damascus 
after their submission, under what they believed the safe protection of 
Abdallah-Ebn-Ali, the uncle of the khaliph. One day, when they were 
all assembled at a feast to which they had been invited by the governor, 
a poet, according to a preconcerted arrangement, presented himself be- 
fore Abdallah and recited some verses enumerating the crimes of the 
house of Moawiyah, calling for vengeance on their devoted heads, and 
pointing out the dangers to which their existence exposed the house of 
Abbas. "God has cast them down," he exclaimed; " why dost not 
thou trample upon them ?" 

This abominable exhortation fell upon willing ears ; Abdallah gave 
the signal to the executioners whom he had already prepared, and 
ordered the ninety guests to be beaten to death with clubs in his pres- 
ence. When the last had fainted under the hands of the executioner, 
he ordered the bodies of the dead and dying to be piled together, and 
carpets to be thrown over the ghastly heap. He then, with the rest of 
his guests, ascended this horrible platform, and there they revelled in a 
gorgeous banquet, careless of the groans and agony below ! 

Abd-er-rahman, the youngest son of the late khaliph, alone escaped 
from this indiscriminate massacre. After a series of almost incredible 
adventures, he reached Spain, where the Saracens, fondly attached to 
the memory of Moawiyah, chose him for their sovereign, and he thus 
became the founder of the second dynasty of the Ommiade khaliphs. 

This example of separation was followed by the Edrissites of Mauri- 
tania, and the Fatimites and Aglabites of eastern Africa. Bagdad, 
founded by Almansur, became the capital of the Abbasside dynasty. 
The khaliphs of this line were generous patrons of science, literature, 
and the arts, especially Harun-al-Rashid, the hero of the Arabian 
Nights, and his son Al Mamun. The love of learning spread from Bag- 



368 MODERN HISTORY. 

dad into tlie other Saracenic countries ; the Ommiade khaliphs founded 
several universities in Spain, the Fatimites established schools in Egypt, 
and the Mahominedan nations were distinguished for their attainments 
in physical science, while Europe remained sunk in barbarism. The 
Saracenic empire gradually passed from splendor into weakness ; the 
Turkish mercenaries employed by the later khaliphs became the mas- 
ters of their sovereign ; and the dignity, after being long an empty title, 
#as finally abolished (a. d. 1258). 



RESTORATION OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE. 369 



CHAPTER III. 
RESTORATION OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE. 

Section I. — The Life of Charlemagne. 

When the last of the feeble descendants of Clovis was dethroned by 
Pepin, France, by being brought into close connexion with the See of 
Rome, became the most prominent state in Europe, and the foundation 
was laid for the system of policy which has since prevailed in Europe, 
by the union of the highest ecclesiastical authority with the most exten- 
sive civil power. Many circumstances had previously conspired to 
give the popes, as the bishops of Rome were called from an unknown 
period, great and commanding authority over the Christian nations of 
the West. Among the most influential, was the extravagant claim to 
the ancient sway of the Caesars, gravely urged by the Byzantine empe- 
rors, when they had neither means nor ability to support their preten- 
sions. Wearied by the pride and cruelty of the Greeks, the Italians 
supported the papal power as a counterpoise to the imperial, and were 
eager to have the bishop of Rome recognised as head of the Christian 
church, to prevent the title from being usurped by the patriarch of Con- 
stantinople. The recognition of Pepin's elevation to the throne of 
France was something more than a mere form : it was a ratification of 
his claims by the only authority that was respected by the nations of 
western Europe. In return, Pepin gave military aid to the popes, in 
their wars with the Lombards, and openly proclaimed himself the 
champion of the church. The French king intrusted the command of 
the armies he employed in Italy to his youthful son, Karl, better known 
by his French name, Charlemagne. The prince, thus early brought 
into public life, displayed more than ordinary abilities, both as a general 
and a statesman ; he acted a distinguished part in the subjugation of 
Aquitaine, and deservedly obtained the fame of adding that fine province 
to the dominions of the Franks. 

Pepin did not long survive this acquisition ; pursuing the pernicious 
policy which had already proved so destructive to the preceding dynas- 
ty, he divided his dominions between his sons Charles and Carloman. 
Their mutual jealousies would have exploded in civil war, but for the 
judicious interference of their mother Bertha. At length Carloman 
died suddenly ; his wife and children fled to the Lombards, his subjects, 
with one accord, resolved to have Charlemagne for their sovereign, and 
thus the French monarchy was again reunited under a single head. 
The protection granted to the family of Carloman was not the only 
ground of hostility between Charlemagne and the Lombard king Desid- 
erius ; Charlemagne had married, and afterward repudiated, that mon- 

24 



lie 



9T9 MODERN HISTORY. 

arch's daughter ; Desiderius menaced war, but had not the means of 
executing his threats ; Charlemagne was prevented from crossing the 
Alps, by the appearance of a more formidable enemy on his eastern 
frontiers. 

The Saxons, and other Germanic tribes, were still sunk in idolatry : 
they frequently devastated the frontier provinces of the Christian Franks, 
and showed particular animosity to the churches and ministers of re- 
ligion. A missionary, St. Libuinus, had vainly endeavored to convert 
the Saxons by denouncing the vengeance of Heaven against their idol- 
atry ; irritated by his reproaches, they expelled him from their country, 
burned the church erected at Daventer, and slew the Christians. The 
general convocation of the Franks, called from the time of meeting the 
Champ de Mai', was at the time assembled at Worms under the presi- 
dency of Charles ; its members regarded the massacre at Daventer as 
a just provocation, and war was declared against the Saxons. As the 
assembly of the Champ de Mai' was at once a convention of the estates 
and a review of the military power of the Franks, an army was in im- 
mediate readiness : Charlemagne crossed the Rhine, captured their 
principal fortresses, destroyed their national idol, and compelled them 
to give hostages for their future good conduct. He had scarcely re- 
turned home, when he was summoned into Italy, to rescue the pope 
from the wrath of Desiderius, who, enraged at the pontiff's refusal to 
recognise the claims of the sons of Carloman, had actually laid siege 
to Rome. Like Hannibal in ancient, and Napoleon in modern times, 
Charlemagne forced a passage over the Alps, and was actually de- 
scending from the mountains before the Lombards knew of his having 
commenced his march. Desiderius, after vainly attempting to check 
the Franks in the defiles, abandoned the field, and shut himself up in 
Pavia. The city was taken after a year's siege : during the interval, 
Charlemagne visited Rome, and was received with great enthusiasm by 
the pope and the citizens. Soon after his return to his camp Pavia 
surrendered, Desiderius and his queen were confined in separate mon- 
asteries, and the iron crown, usually worn by the kings of Lombardy, 
was placed upon the head of the French monarch. 

The Saxons and Lombards made several vigorous efforts to shake off 
the yoke, but their insurrections were easily suppressed ; while, how- 
ever, alarming discontents prevailed in both nations, Charlemagne 
was involved in a new and perilous war. A Saracenic prince sought 
refuge in the French court, and persuaded the monarch to lead an army 
■over the Pyrenees. The frontier provinces were easily subdued, owing 
to the disputes that divided the Mohammedans in Spain. Charlemagne 
gained a decisive victory over the Saracens at Saragossa, but before he 
could complete his conquest, he was recalled home by a new and more 
dangerous revolt of the Saxons. The rear-guard of the French, com- 
manded by the gallant Roland, was treacherously assailed on its return, 
by the Gascons, in the defiles of Roncesvalles, and almost wholly de- 
stroyed. The celebrated valley of Roncesvalles is the line of commu- 
nication between France and Navarre ; the road through it is rugged 
and tortuous, Avith narrow gorges between steep mountains. While the 
Franks were toiling through these defiles, the Gascons and Navarrese 
formed ambuscades on the summits of the mountains, concealed by the 



RESTORATION OP THE WESTERN EMPIRE. 371 

thick forests with which they abound. After the greater part of the 
army had passed, the mountaineers suddenly rushed down the steeps, 
fell upon the rear-guarS, and the divisions intrusted with the charge of 
the baggage. The Franks were surprised but not disheartened ; they 
made a desperate resistance, and vainly tried to cut their way to the 
main body ; but the assailants had the advantage of a light equipment 
and a favorable position ; the whole of the rear-guard was cut off, and 
the baggage plundered before Charlemagne knew that they were en- 
dangered ; and the mountaineers disappeared so rapidly with their 
booty that all pursuit was unavailing. Such iwas the battle of Ronces- 
valles, which has been strangely exaggerated and misrepresented by 
writers of romance. 

But though the legendary account of Roncesvalles contains a very 
small portion of truth, it is not devoid of historical importance, because 
there never was a history which possessed wider influence than this ro- 
mantic tale. It was by singing the song of Roland that the Normans 
were encouraged at the battle of Hastings, and the French inspired to 
their most glorious deeds. We must therefore give an abstract of the 
ancient tradition. 

According to the legend, Charlemagne, in a war which lasted more 
than seven years, had nearly completed the conquest of Spain. The 
Moorish monarch, whom the romancers are pleased to designate Mar- 
siles, in dread of total ruin held a council of his principal emirs and 
nobles, who unanimously recommended him to conciliate Charles by 
immediate submission. A Saracen ambassador, with the usual incon- 
sistency of romance, is said to have been pitched close to the Spanish 
marches, and he addressed the monarch in the following words : " God 
protect you ! Behold here are presents which my master sends ; and he 
engages if yoni withdraw from Spain to come and do you homage at 
Aix-la-Chapelle." 

Charlemagne summoned his twelve paladins to council, to deliberate 
on this offer. Roland strenuously opposed entering into any terms with 
an infidel, and declared that it was their duty to rescue Spain from the 
dominion of the crescent, and place it under the banner of the cross. 
Two of the paladins, however, Ganelon and the duke Naimes, main- 
tained that it was contrary to the rules of chivalry to refuse grace to a 
conquered enemy. Charlemagne, who in the romances is represented 
as a perfect model of knightly courtesy, yielded to the arguments of the 
friends of peace, and inquired which of his peers would undertake to 
return with the ambassador, and bear back a suitable reply to the king 
Marsiles. Ganelon proffered his services, but Roland contemptuously 
declared him unfit for such a duty, and offered himself in his stead. 

A warm debate arose in the council ; Ganelon, irritated by the scorn 
with which Roland treated his pretensions, and indignant at some im- 
putations on his fidelity and courage, said angrily to his rival, " Take 
care that some mischief does not overtake you." Roland, among whose 
virtuous qualities moderation can not be enumerated, replied, " Go to, 
you speak like a fool ! We want men of sense to carry our messages ; 
if the emperor pleases, I will go in your place." In great irritation 
Ganelon repUed, " Charles is commander here ; I submit myself to his 
will." At these words Roland burst into an immoderate fit of laughter ; 



372 MODERN HISTORY. 

but this act of discourtesy so offended the rest of the paladins, thai 
■with one voice they recommended Ganelon as the most suit ble ambas- 
sador to be sent to Marsiles. 

The Saracenic ambassador had received private information of the 
angry discussion which had taken place in the imperial council. As 
he returned to his court, he took every opportunity of reminding Gane- 
lon of the insult he had received, and though he did not immediately suc- 
ceed, he certainly weakened the paladin's loyalty, and led him secretly 
to deliberate on the possibility of obtaining revenge by means of trea- 
son. At his first intervie\y with Marsiles, he maintained the pride and 
dignity of a French chevalier, " Charles is now old," said the Moorish 
monarch, " he must be close upon a hundred years of age ; does he not 
think of taking some repose ?" Ganelon firmly replied, " No ! no ! 
Charles is ever powerful ; so long as he has round him the twelve peers 
of France, but particularly Oliver and Roland, Charles need not fear a 
living man." Subsequent conversations, however, enabled the Moorish 
monarch to work upon Ganelon's cupidity, and his jealousy of Roland, 
so effectually, that he agreed to supply him with such information as 
would enable him to cut off the rear of the Christian army, when it re- 
turned to Roncesvalles, according to the terms of the treaty. 

Ganelon returned to the Christian camp, and infornied the emperor 
that Marsiles had consented to become his vassal, and pay him tribute. 
Charles immediately gave orders that the army should return to France v 
he took the command of the van in person ; the rear-guard intrusted 
with the care of the baggage and plunder, followed at a little distance 
through the passes of Roncesvalles. 

In the meantime Marsiles had collected an immense army, consisting 
not merely of his own subjects, but of numerous auxiliaries from Bar- 
bary, Morocco, and the wild tribes in the interior of Africa* According 
to the instructions of Ganelon, he sent large detachments of his men to 
occupy the woods and mountains which bverhung " the gloomy Ronces- 
valles' strait." 

When the Christians were involved in the pass, they were suddenly 
attacked, at the same moment, in front, flank, and rear. Oliver clam- 
bered up a tree in order to discover the number of the enemy. Per- 
ceiving that their hosts were vastly superior to the French, he called 
out to Roland, " Brother in arms ! the pagans are very numerous, and 
we Christians are few ; if you sounded your horn the emperor Charles 
would bring us succor." Roland replied, " God forbid that my lineage 
should be dishonored by such a deed ! I will strike with my good 
sword Durandel ; and the pagans falling beneath my blows, will discover 
that they have been led hither by their evil fate." " Sound your horn, 
companion in arms !" reiterated Oliver ; " the enemies hem us in on 
every side." " No !" repeated Roland, our Franks are gallant warriors , 
they will strike heavy blows, and cut through the host of the foul pay- 
nim." He then prepared his troops for action. Archbishop Turpin, 
perceiving that the fight would be desperate and bloody, commanded all 
the soldiers to kneel, and join in a general confession of faith, after 
which he bestowed upon them absolution, and his episcopal benedic- 
tion. 

The Christians made a gallant defence ; but numbers finally tri- 



RESTORATION OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE. 373 

umplied oveic valor. " Down went many a noble crest ; cloven was 
many a plumed helmet. The lances were shivered in the grasp of 
Christendom's knights, and the swords dropped from their wearied 
arms." Turpin, Oliver, and Roland, still survived, and faintly main- 
tained the fight. At length, Roland turning to Oliver, exclaimed, " I 
will sound my horn, Charles will hear us, and we may yet hope again 
to see our beloved France." "Oh! shame and disgrace," answered 
Oliver, " why did you not sound when first I asked you ? The best war- 
riors of France have been sacrificed to your temerity : we must die 
with them !" Turpin, however, insisted that the horn should be blown 
as a signal to the emperor ; and Roland blew such a blast, that the 
blood spurted from his mouth, and his wounds, opened afresh, poured 
forth torrents. Charles, though thirty leagues distant, heard the sound, 
and said, " Our men are engaged at disadvantage ; we must haste to 
their assistance." " I do not believe it," replied the traitor Ganelon, 
and dissuaded the emperor. Roland once more, with his dying breath, 
rung a wailing blast from the horn. Charles knew the character of the 
sound. " Evil has come upon us," he exclaimed ; " those are the dy- 
ing notes of my nephew Roland !" He hastily returned to Roncesval- 
les i but Roland, and all his companions, lay dead upon the plain, and 
the emperor could only honor their corpses with Christian burial. 

Such are the salient points in the old romance, on which the song 
of Roland is founded. So late as the close of the fifteenth century 
the narrative was received as an historical fact ; and when John, king 
of France, a little before the fatal battle of Poictiers, reproached his 
nobles that there were no Rolands to be found in his army, an aged 
knight replied, " Sire, Rolands would not be wanting, if we could find 
a Charlemagne." 

The devastations of the Saxons, which recalled Charlemagne from 
Spain, exceeded anything which Europe had witnessed since the days 
of Attila. Witikind, prince of Westphalia, was the leader of this dan- 
gerous revolt ; he had united his countrymen into one great national 
confederacy, and long maintained a desperate struggle against the 
whole strength of the French monarchy. He was at length irretrieva- 
bly routed, and submitting to the conqueror, became a Christian. Sev- 
eral minor revolts in his extensive dominions troubled the reign of 
Charlemagne, but he quelled them all, and secured the tranquillity of 
Germany, both by subduing the Saxons, and destroying the last rem- 
nant of the barbarous Avars who had settled in Hungary. The brief 
intervals of tranquillity were spent by this wise monarch in extending 
the blessings of civilization to his subjects, by establishing schools, 
and patronising science and literature. In these labors he was assisted 
by Alcuin, an English monk, the most accomplished scholar of his 
age. Such v/as the fame of the French monarchy at this time, that 
embassies came to the court from the most distant contemporary sover- 
eigns. The most remarkable was that sent from the renowned Hanin- 
er-Rashid, khaliph of Bagdad ; among the presents they brought were 
some beautiful pieces of clock-work, which were regarded as something 
almost miraculous in western Europe, where the mechanical arts were 
still in their infancy. 

But in the midst of these glories, Charlemagne was alarmed by the 



374 MODERN HISTORY. 

appearance of a new enemy on the coasts of France, whose incur- 
sions, though repelled, filled the monarch's prescient mind with sad 
bodings of future danger. These were the Northmen, or Normans, 
pirates, from the distant shores of Scandinavia, whose thirst of plun- 
der was stimulated by the desire of revenging the wrongs that their 
idolatrous brethren, the Saxons, bad endured. At their first landing in 
France, they had scarcely time to commit any ravages, for they fled on 
the news of the dreaded king's approach. Charlemagne saw their de- 
parting ships without exultation ; he burst into tears.* and predicted 
that these " sea-kings" would soon prove a dreadful scourge to southern 
Europe. 

Probably about the same time that Charles was excited by the ap- 
pearance of these pirates, whose ferocity and courage he had learned 
to dread during his expeditions into the north of Germany, three ships 
of a similar character to those described, entered one of the harbors 
on the southeastern coast of Britain, about a century and a half after 
the Anglo-Saxons had established their dominion over the southern part 
of the island, and given it the name of Angle-Land, or England. 

Here the sight of the strange ships produced the same doubts as in 
France. The Saxon graf, or magistrate of the district, proceeded to 
the shore to inquire who these strangers were, and what they wanted. 
The foreigners, who had just disembarked, attacked him and his escort 
without provocation, slew them on the spot, pillaged the neighboring 
houses, and then returned to their vessels. Some time elapsed before 
it was discovered that these pirates were the Danes, or Normans, 
names with which the ears of Anglo-Saxons were destined soon to 
form a terrible familiarity. 

Soon after the retreat of the Normans, Charlemagne was induced to 
visit Italy, both to qiiell the rebellion of the duke of Beneventum, and 
to rescue Pope Leo from his insurgent subjects. He succeeded in both 
enterprises, and the grateful pontiff solemnly crowned his benefactor 
Emperor of the West. A project was soon after formed for re-es- 
tablishing the ancient Roman empire, by uniting Charlemag-ne to the 
Byzantine empress, Irene, but this was prevented by the factions of 
Cons,tantinople ; the degraded Greeks dreaded nothing so much as the 
vigorous administration of such a sovereign as the restorer of the 
Western Empire. 

Charlemagne intended to divide his dominions equally between his 
three sons ; but two of them died while the arrangements were in 
progress, and Louis, the weakest in mind and body, became sole heir 
to the empire. His claims were solemnly recognised in a national 
assembly of the Frank nobility, at Aix-la-Chapelle ; soon after which, 
the emperor died, in the seventy-second year of his age, imiversally 
lamented throughout his extensive dominions. 

* The monk of St. Gall tells us, that when Charlemagne was asked the cause 
cf these tears, he replied, " My faithful friends, do you inquire why I weep thus 
bitterly ? Assuredly it is not that I dread any annoyance to myself from the pi- 
racy of those wretches ; but I am deeply afiected to find that they have dared to 
visit these coasts even in my lifetime ; and violent grief overwhelms me, when I 
look forward to the evils they will inflict on my subjects." 



RESTORATION OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE. 375 

^ Section II. — Decline and Fall of the Cqrlovingian Dynasty, 

The "Western Empire, established by Charlemagne, extended from 
the Ebro in the west to the Elbe and Raab in the east, and from the 
dutchy of Beneventum and the Adriatic sea to the river Eyder, which 
separated the Germanic tribes from the Scandinavian hordes, or, as 
they began about this time to be called, the Danes and Normans. It 
consequently included all ancient Gaul, a great portion of Spain and 
Italy, several islands in the Mediterranean, especially Corsica, Sar- 
dinia, and the Baleares, western and northern Germany, with a consid- 
erable part of Pannonia, or Hungary. No other European power 
could compete with that of the Franks ; the monarchies of Norway, 
Denmark, Sweden, Poland, and Russia, were not yet founded ; Eng- 
land was still divided by the Heptarchy ; the Saracenic empire in 
Spain was distracted by civil commotions, and the Christian kingdom 
of the Asturias was barely struggling into existence ; finally, the By- 
zantine empire was sunk into hopeless lethargy, and owed its continued 
existence only to the decay of the spirit of enterprise among the Arabs, 
after the seat of the Khaliphate was removed to Bagdad. But the con- 
tinuation of an empire including so many nations essentially different 
in interests, habits, and feelings, required a superior genius in the sov- 
ereign. Louis the Debonnaire, the son and successor of Charlemagne, 
was deficient in every quality that a ruler should possess ; foolish, 
weak, and superstitious, he could not make himself beloved, and he 
failed to inspire fear. Yielding to the suggestions of his queen, Her- 
mengarde, Louis sanctioned the murder of his nephew Bernard, and 
forced the three natural sons of Charlemagne to assume the clerical 
tonsure, by which they were for ever prevented from taking a share in 
temporal affairs. These crimes had scarcely been committed when 
Louis became the victim of remorse. Unable to stifle the reproaches 
of conscience, he appeared before the general assembly of his sub- 
jects, and publicly confessed that he had been deeply criminal in con- 
senting to the murder of Bernard, and in forcing his brothers to enter 
religious orders ; he humbly besought pardon from all present, solicited 
the aid of their prayers, and undertook a solemn penance. This 
strange scene rendered Louis contemptible in the eyes of his subjects j 
some doubted his sincerity, others questioned his motives, but all 
believed this public confession a needless sacrifice of the royal 
dignity, 

Louis chose for his second wife, Judith, the daughter of a Bavarian 
count. His three sons were indignant at a marriage which threatened 
to produce new sharers in their inheritance, but nearly four years 
elapsed without any appearance of such an event. At length tlie era- 
press gave birth to a child, afterward known as Charles the Bald, who 
was popularly said to be the son of her unworthy favorite, Bernard, 
count of Barcelona. The three former sons of Louis not only refused 
to acknowledge their new brother, but took up arms to force their father 
to dismiss his ministers and divorce his wife. After a desultory war 
Louis prevailed over his rebellious children, but the fOTgues of cam- 
paigning broke down his feeble constitution, and put an end to his in- 
glorious life. The seeds of discord were thickly sown during his life. 



376 MODEEN HISTORY. 

they were forced into maturity after his death by his unwise distributioii 
of his dominions between his three sons. 

Scarcely had Louis been laid in the grave, when his sons Louis the 
Germanic and Charles the Bald took up arms against their elder 
brother Lothaire, and engaged him in a general battle at Fontenay, 
which proved fatal to the flower of the ancient Frank nobility (a. d. 
841). After a desultory war, the brothers finally agreed on a partition 
of the empire, by which Lothaire obtained Italy, and the eastern prov- 
inces of France ; Louis received his father's Germanic dominions ; 
and to Charles were assigned the provinces of France west of the 
Saone and the Rhone, together with the Spanish marches (a. d. 843). 
Thus Charles the Bald may be considered as the founder of the French 
monarchy properly so called, for hitherto the sovereigns of the Franks 
were Germans in language, customs, country, and blood. It is unne- 
cessary to detail the petty revolutions in the family of Charlemagne ; 
it is sufficient to say, that the empire was momentarily reunited under 
Charles the Fat, younger son of Louis the Germanic (a. d. 884), but 
he being deposed by his subjects, its dissolution became inevitable ; 
from its fragments were formed the kingdoms of Italy, France, and 
Germany, with the states of Lorraine, Burgundy, and Navarre. 

These new states owed their origin less to the disputes that con- 
vulsed the Carlovingian family than to the exorbitant power of the 
nobles, which had been increasing rapidly from the death of Charle- 
magne. The titles of duke and count were not in that age merely 
honorary ; they conferred nearly despotic sway over the provinces. 
The great feudatories of the crown were invested, not merely with the 
administration of justice and regulation of police in their respective 
districts, but had also the command of the army and the direction of 
the revenue. It is easy to see that the union of such different and im- 
portant departments of government in a single person must necessarily 
have been dangerous to royal authority, and constantly tempted ambi- 
tious nobles to proclaim their independence. Charlemagne saw this 
evil, and endeavored to abate the danger by dividing the great dutchies 
into several counties ; but in the civil wars among his posterity, rival 
competitors, to secure the support of powerful feudatories, offered the 
restored dutchies as tempting bribes, and further weakened themselves 
by alienating the royal domains to secure the favor of the church. 
Taking advantage of this impolicy, the dukes and counts contrived to 
make their dignities hereditary ; and this dangerous innovation was not 
only sanctioned by Charles the Bald, but extended to all fiefs (a. d. 
877), in a parliament held at Chiersi, toward the close of his reign. 
The principle of inheritance, thus introduced, may be regarded as the 
foundation of the feudal system, and the source of the calamitous wars 
between rival nobles which convulsed all central and southwestern 
Europe. 

The Normans, like the Saxons and Franks, were a branch of the 
great Teutonic race ; but the conversion of the latter to Christianity 
was viewed Iw their brethren of the north as an act of treason against 
the national religion of Germany, and their indignation was still farther 
exasperated, by the tales of wrong and suffering related by the crowds 
of idolatrous Saxons, who fled to the isles of the Baltic from the merci- 



RESTORATION OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE. 377 

less persecutions of Charlemagne. The maritime Teutones from the 
earliest ages were distinguished by their hardihood, their ardent passion 
for adventure, and their contempt of death. They navigated the dangerous 
seas of the north with more courage and freedom, than the Greeks and 
Romans exhibited in the Mediterranean ; they did not despair when they 
lost sight of land ; they did not come to anchor when clouds obscured the 
stars. On board every vessel there was a cast of hawks or ravens, and 
when the adventurers were uncertain in what direction the land lay, they 
let loose one of the birds, knowing that he would make with instinctive sa- 
gacity for the nearest coast, and by his flight they steered their course. 
Toward the close of the eighth century the Normans became formidable 
as pirates to western Europe : they particularly infested the coast of Brit- 
ain, Ireland, and France. Their leaders assumed the proud title of sea- 
kings, though the limits of each royalty did not extend beyond the deck of 
a siagle vessel, and all superiority was at an end when the expedition was 
over. A sea-king had only to announce his intention of undertaking some 
buccaneering enterprise, and he was sure to find crowds of adventurous 
youth ready to volunteer their services as his associates. Whither the 
adventurous sea-king would steer, provided that there appeared a 
reasonable chance of plunder, was a matter of perfect indifference to 
him and his associates. They effected a landing when least expected ; 
no mercy was shown to age or sex, the fate of those who submitted or 
resisted was alike, but the special objects of their vengeance were the 
clergy and the churches, because they regarded themselves as the 
avengers of the insults offered to Odin, and of the persecutions with 
which Christian sovereigns afflicted their worshippers in their domin- 
ions. Sir Walter Scott has drawn the character of an ancient sea-king 
with so much poetic force and historic truth, that the extract will su- 
persede the necessity of further description. 

" Count Witikind came of a regal strain, 
And roved with his Norsemen the land and the main ; 
Wo to the realms which he coasted ! for there 
Was shedding of blood and rending of hair, 
Rape of maiden and slaughter of priest, 
Gathering of ravens and wolves to the feast ! 
When he hoisted his standard black, 
Before him was battle, behind him wrack : 
And he burned the churches, that heathen Dane, 
To light his band to their barks again. 

On Erin's shores was his outrage known, 

The winds of France had his banners blown ; 

Little was there to plunder, yet still 

His pirates had forayed on Scottish hill ; 

But upon merry England's coast, 

More frequent he sailed, for he won the most. 

So far and wide his ravage they knew, 

If a sail but gleamed white 'gainst the welkin blue 

Trumpet and bugles to arms did call, 

Burghers hastened to man the wall ; 

Peasants fled inland his fury to scape, 

Beacons were lighted on headland and cape ; 

Belb were tolled out, and aye as they rung 

Fearful and faintly the gray brothers sung, 

' Save us, St. Mary, from flood and from fire. 

From famine and pest, and Count Witikind's ire.' " 



378 MODEEN HISTORY. 

Thierry has collected the principal characteristics of a sea-king from 
the Icelandic sagas. " He could govern a vessel as the good rider 
manages his horse, running over the oars while they were in motion. 
He would throw three javelins to the mast-head and catch them alter- 
nately in his hand without once missing. Equal under such a chief, 
supporting lightly their voluntary submission, and the weight of their 
coat-of-mail, which they promised themselves would soon be exchanged 
for an equal weight of gold, the pirates held their course gayly, as their 
old songs express it, along the track of the swans. Often were their 
fragile barks wrecked and dispersed by the north sea-storm, often did 
the rallying sign remain unanswered, but this neither increased the 
cares nor diminished the confidence of the survivors, who laughed at 
the wind and waves from which they had escaped unhurt. Their song 
in the midst of the tempest was : — 

" The force of the storm helps the arms of our rowers, 
The hurricane is carrying us the way which we should go." 

Nearly all the information which we possess respecting these for- 
midable pirates is derived from the sagas, or songs of the Skalds ; these 
singular compositions are unlike any other form of literature, they are 
records of adventure in verse or measured prose, in which no notice is 
taken of historical events, and no regard paid to chronology. 

The Skalds, or bards, were more honored by the Scandinavians than 
their priests ; indeed it is doubtful whether they had any regular sacer- 
dotal caste, or order. Some of their heroes prided themselves on de- 
fying the gods themselves ; thus Gauthakor, when asked his religion, 
by Olaf the saint, who was anxious to introduce Christianity among his 
countr)'men, replied : " My brothers in arms and I are neither Chris- 
tians nor pagans. We have no faith but in our arms, and our strength 
to vanquish our enemies, and those we have ever found sufficient." So 
far was the character of a pirate or Vikingar from being disgracefid, 
that it was eagerly sought by men of the highest rank, and was only 
accorded to those who had given distinguished proofs both of their 
bravery in battle and their skill in navigation. An ancient law enacted, 
that a man in order to acquire glory for bravery, should attack a single 
enemy, defend himself against two, and not yield to three, but that he 
might without disgrace fly from four. 

Every king, whether of sea or land, had a chosen band of champions, 
called Kempe ; warriors pledged to the personal service of their chief, 
and whose only hope of advancement arose from the performance of 
some exploit, which common fame, and the songs of the Skalds, might 
spread over the north. 

Each sea-king laid down the rules for the government of his own 
champions, and fame was assigned to him whose regulations were the 
most strict and rigorous. Thus we are told, that Half, and Hiorolf, the 
sons of a Norwegian king, both devoted themselves to maritime adven- 
ture, or, in plain terms, to piracy. 

Hiorolf collected a great number for ships, which he manned with 
volunteers of every kind both of serfs and freemen ; he was defeated in 
all his expeditions. On the other hand his brother Half had only one 
ship, but his crew were all picked men. They were at first but twenty- 



RESTORATION OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE. 379 

three in number, all descended from kings ; the troop was subsequently- 
increased to sixty. 

To obtain admission into the company, it was necessary that the 
champion should lift up a large stone which lay in the front of Half's 
residence, and which could not be moved by the force of twelve or- 
dinary men. These champions were forbidden to take women and 
children, to seek a refuge during a tempest, or to dress their wounds 
before the battle was ended. Eighteen years Half's band carried ter- 
ror to all the shores of western Europe. Finally, when the sea-king 
was returning to enjoy the wealth he had acquired, his vessel, over- 
laden with plunder, appeared on the point of sinking within sight of the 
Norwegian shore. The brave crew immediately drew lots to deter- 
mine who should throw themselves into the sea, for the purpose of 
saving their chief and the cargo ; those on whom the lot fell, instantly 
jumped overboard and swam to shore, while the vessel relieved of the 
weight reached the harbor in safety. 

Sometimes these warriors, like the Malays in Java, were seized with 
a kind of phrensy, either arising from an excited imagination, or from the 
use of stimulating liquors. In this state they were called " herserker^^ 
a word of frequent occurrence in the sagas. While under the influence 
of this madness, the champions committed the wildest extravagances ; 
they danced about, foamed at the mouth, struck indiscriminately at 
friends and foes, destroyed their own property, and like the mad Orlando 
waged war against inanimate nature, tearing up rocks and trees. 
Sivald, king of Sweden, had five sons, all of whom became berserker ; 
when the fit was on them they used to swallow burning coals and throw 
themselves into the fire. They and their father were slain by Halfdan, 
whom Sivald had previously dethroned, the nation having become im- 
patient of the extravagances of the frantic princes. Halfdan had a 
contest with another berserker, named Hartben, who came to attack 
him accompanied by twelve champions. Hartben was a formidable 
pirate, but when the fit was on him it was as much as his twelve com- 
panions could do to prevent him devastating everything around him. 
Halfdan challenged the pirate and his entire crew. Such an insult so 
inflamed Hartben, that he was immediately seized with a fit of phrensy, 
during which he killed six of his companions ; he rushed against the 
king with the remaining six, but the pirates were slain, by the irresist- 
ible blows of the mace of Halfdan. 

The sons of Amgrim, king of Helegoland, the most celebrated pirates 
of their age, are described as sufiering severely from the berserk mad- 
ness ; when under its influence they slaughtered their crews and de- 
stroyed their shipping: sometimes they landed on desert places and 
vented their fmy on the stocks and stones. After the fit was over they 
lay quite senseless from sheer exhaustion. 

A sea-king rarely condescended to the blandishments of courtship. 
If he heard of any noble or royal damsel celebrated for beauty, he at 
once demanded her from her father, and if refused, equipped a vessel 
to take her away by force. He generally brought away, if success- 
ful, her dowry at the same time, and thus could boast of a double 
victory. 

A Swedish pirate named Gunnar, having heard the Skalds celebrate 



380 MODERN HISTORY, 

the charms of Moalda, a Norwegian princess, sent to her father Reg- 
nald a peremptory demand for the fair lady's hand. Regnald rejected 
such a suitor with scorn, but aware of the consequences of a refusal, 
he made instant preparations for defence. Before marching against 
the pirates, he had a cavern hollowed out in the mountains, within 
which he concealed the princess and his choicest treasures, leaving her 
a proper supply of provisions. Scarcely were his arrangements com- 
pleted than the fierce Gunnar appeared off the coast ; Regnald met the 
pirates on the shore, a desperate battle ensiled, and the king was slain. 
After his victory Gunnar sought out the place where Moalda was con- 
cealed, and carried away the princess with her treasures to Sweden. 
A second and a third conquest of this kind often followed the first, for 
polygamy was sufficiently common among these adventurers. The 
ladies themselves could not view with indifference heroes who risked 
their lives to obtain their hands, and whose exploits, immortalized by 
the Skalds, were sung in all the islands and in all families. 

France sufi'ered most severely from their hostilities ; their light barks 
ascended the Seine, the Loire, the Garonne, and the Rhone, carrying 
fire and sword into the very centre of the kingdom. Most of the prin- 
cipal cities were laid waste ; Paris itself was thrice taken and pillaged ; 
and the French, at length losing all courage, refused to meet the north- 
ern warriors in the field, but purchased their retreat with large bribes. 
This remedy was necessarily as inefficacious as it was disgraceful, for 
it stimulated the barbarians to fresh incursions in the assured hope of 
gain. Nor were the Normans regardless of permanent conquests ; 
Ruric, a leader of their adventurous bands, founded the Russian mon- 
archy toward the close of the ninth century ; Iceland was colonized, 
and the greater part of Ireland subdued, at a still earlier period ; and 
the northern and western islands of Scotland were successively occu- 
pied as convenient stations for their piratical navies. Finally, they ob- 
tained fixed establishments in France ; the province of Neustria, now 
called Normandy, was ceded to Rolf or Rollo, the chief of a large horde 
of these northern pirates, hy Charles the Simple (a. d. 912) ; the prov- 
ince gained great advantages by the exchange, for Rollo becoming a 
Christian, was baptized by the name of Robert, and applied himself 
with equeal diligence and success to improve the condition of his new 
subjects. 

Charles also ceded to Rollo all the pretensions of the crown to that 
part of Brittany which no longer recognised the sovereignty of the kings 
of France, and Rollo came to the borders of his new province to per- 
form liege homage and confirm the articles of peace. The Norman 
swore allegiance to Charles, who in return presented his daughter to 
the adventurer, and gave him the investiture of Neustria. The French 
prelates, who assumed the, regulation of the ceremonials employed on 
all solemn occasions, had introduced the degrading prostrations of the 
Orientals into the forms of European homage ; they now informed 
Rollo that after receiving a gift of so much value, he should on his 
bended knees kiss the feet of the king. " Never," replied the haughty 
barbarian, " will I bend my knees before another mortal — never will I 
kiss the foot of man." As the prelates, however, were urgent, he or- 
dered one of his soldiers to perform the ceremony in his stead. The 



EESTOEATION OP THE WESTERN EMPIRE. 381 

soldier advancing, rudely seized the foot of Charles, and by a sudden 
jerk threw the monarch on the ground. The Normans who witnessed 
the transaction, applauded their comrade's insolence, while the French 
nobles deemed it prudent to conceal their indignation. The ceremony 
was continued as if nothing had happened ; the several Norman lords 
took the usual oaths of allegiance, after which the king returned to Laon. 
He had chosen this city for his capital, because Paris was included in 
the hef of one of the great vassals of the crown. 

The establishment of the Normans in Neustria put an end to the sys-* 
tem of piracy and plunder which for more than a century had devasta- 
ted western Europe ; the repetition of pillage had so wasted Germany, 
Gaul, and Britain, that the plunder to be acquired no longer repaid the 
hazards of an expedition, and as war was no longer profitable, Rollo 
resolved to cultivate the arts of peace. To prevent the future incur- 
sions of his countrymen, he fortitied the mouths of the rivers, restored 
the walls of the cities, and kept his subjects in constant military train- 
ing. Under Rollo the feudal system, which had been slowly forming, 
received its full development ; immediately after his baptism, he divi- 
ded the lands of Neustria among his principal followers, to each of 
whom he gave the title of count, and these counts subdivided the land 
among their soldiers. The Normans displayed the same ardor in cul- 
tivating their new estates which they had formerly shown in devasta- 
ting them ; the peasants resumed the cultivation of their fields ; the 
priests restored their ruined churches ; the citizens resumed their 
trading occupations ; strangers were invited from every country to cul- 
tivate the waste lands : and the most rigorous laws were enacted for 
the protection of person and property. Robberies were so efliciently 
checked, that Rollo, as a bravado, hung up a golden bracelet in a ibrest 
near the Seine, which remained untouched for three years. 

While the Normans devastated the coasts, central Europe was devas- 
tated by the Hungarians, or, as they called themselves, the Magyars, 
who extended their ravages into Greece and Italy. Germany suffered 
most from their hostilities, and was the longest exposed to their fury. 
These incursions, to which must be added occasional enterprises of the 
Sclavonians and Saracens, destroyed the political institutions that 
Charlemagne had formed, and threw Christendom back into the barbar- 
ism from which it had just begun to emerge. England, under the gov- 
ernmeni of All'red, for a brief space preserved the elements of civiliza- 
tion ; he expelled the Normans from the island (a. d. 887), restored 
the ancient seminaries of learning, and founded new schools. But his 
glorious reign was followed by fresh calamities ; the Danish-Normans 
reappeared in England, and spread trouble and desolation throughout 
the country. 

From the reign of Charles the Bald, the royal authority rapidly de- 
clined in France, while the power of the feudal lords constantly in- 
creased. The dukes and counts, usurping regal rights, raised, on the 
slightest, or without any provocation, the standard of revolt : the kirig.s, 
to gain some, and secure the allegiance of others, abandoned to tbein 
successively the most valuable royal domains and privileges, until the 
Carlovingian monarchs, so far from being able to counterbalance tlie 
power of the nobility, were unable to support the expenses of their own 



383 MODERN HISTORY. 

courts. A change of dynasty was thus rendered inevitable, and the 
throne was certain to fall to the lot of the most powerful or most daring 
of the nominal vassals. This event, which had been long foreseen, 
took place on the death of Louis the Sluggard, the last of the Carlovin- 
gian dynasty, who died without issue at the early age of twenty 
(a. d. 987). Hugh Capet possessed already the centre of the king- 
dom ; he was count of Paris, duke of France and Neustria, while his 
brother Henry held the dutchy of Burgundy. It was not difficult for so 
powerful a noble to form a party, by whose favor he was invested with 
the title, after having long enjoyed the power of royalty (a. d. 987). 
Charles of Lorraine, the late king's uncle, took up arms in defence of 
his hereditary rights ; but he was betrayed to his rival by the bishop 
of Laon, and ended his days in prison. Hugh became the founder of 
the Capetian dynasty in France, a branch of which still retains posses- 
sion of that crown. But for many years after the accession of Hugh 
Capet, France was an aristocratic republic rather than a monarchy, for 
the royal authority was merely nominal. The domains of the count of 
Paris were indeed annexed to the crown, and thus the Capetians had 
greater territorial possessions, and consequently greater influence, than 
the Carlovingians. But the peers of France, as the great feudatories 
were called, still preserved their independence : and their tacit assent 
to Hugh's usurpation was anything rather than a recognition of his au- 
thority. In the south of France, Languedoc, no notice was taken of 
Hugh's elevation ; and the inhabitants for many years dated their public 
acts by the nominal reigns of the children of Charles of Lorraine. 

SECTiorr III. — The Foundation of the Germanic Empire. 

From the first foundation of the Germanic empire by the treaty of 
Verdim, the royal authority was extremely limited, and Louis, its mon- 
arch, was obliged to swear in a national assembly, held at Marone 
(a. d. 851), that " he would maintain the states in all their rights and 
privileges." His youngest son, Charles the Fat, was dejMJsed by his 
subjects ; and Arnold, the natural son of Prince Carloman, was elected 
to the vacant throne. The custom of electing emperors was thus es- 
tablished in Germany, and it continued almost to our own times. Ar- 
nold was succeeded by his son Louis ; the states chose Conrad, duke 
of Franconia, as his successor, to the exclusion of Charles the Simple, 
king of France, the legitimate heir male of the Carlovingians. On the 
death of Conrad, the states elected Henry, sumamed the Fowler, as 
his successor (a. d. 919), the first of the Saxon dynasty of kings and 
emperors. 

Henry I., by his civil and military institutions, raised Germany to 
the highest rank among the states of Europe. Profiting by the intes- 
tine commotions of France, he conquered the province of Lorraine, 
which he divided into two dutchies, that of Upper Lorraine, or the 
Moselle, and that of Lower Lorraine, or Brabant. The former retained 
the name of Lorraine ; it was long governed by the family of Gerard, 
duke of Alsace, whose descendants obtained the Germanic empire in 
the eighteenth century. Brabant was assigned to Godfrey, count of 
Louvain, whose descendants retained it, with the title of duke, until, on 



RESTORATION OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE. 383 

the failure of male heirs, it passed by marriage into the hands of the 
dukes of Burgundy, who thus found means to render themselves masters 
of a great portion of the Netherlands. Henry successfully repelled the 
invasions of the Sclavonians and Hungarians ; by the defeat of the 
latter he freed the Germans from the disgraceful tribute with which 
they had been compelled to purchase the forbearance of these barbari- 
ans, and the memory of his victory was annually commemorated by a 
grateful people for several succeeding centuries. 

The great merits of Henry secured the election of his son Otho to 
the Germanic throne. His reign was disturbed by frequent revolts of 
the powerful feudatories ; their faction and insubordination effectually 
prevented him from giving his subjects a code of laws, the great object 
of his ambition ; he was forced to yield to the turbulent spirit of the 
times, and leave some more fortunate sovereign to gather the laurels of 
a legislator. One incident will serve to mark the character of the age 
better than any labored dissertation. During one of the national as- 
semblies or diets, it was debated " whether children could inherit the 
property of their fathers during the lifetime of their grandfathers." 
After a long discussion, in which the point became more obscure than 
ever, it was gravely resolved to leave the matter to the decision of a 
duel. An equal number of combatants, chosen on both sides, entered 
the lists ; the champions of the children prevailed, and thenceforward 
the law of inheritance was considered to be fixed. 

Italy had been raised into a kingdom after the partition of the Carlo- 
vingian dynasty, and several of its princes had taken the imperial title ; 
but the government of these feeble rulers exposed the peninsula to 
dreadful calamities ; it was harassed by the private wars of the nobles, 
and devastated by invasions of the Hungarians and Saracens. Ade- 
laide, the widow of Lothaire, king of Italy, menaced with the loss of 
her dominions by Berenger, or Berengarius the Younger, supplicated 
the aid of Otho, and her request was strenuously supported by Pope 
John XII. (a. d. 951). Otho passed into Italy, conquered several of 
the strongest cities, and gave his hand in marriage to the queen whom 
he had come to protect. Berenger was permitted to retain the crown 
of Italy on condition of doing homage to Otho ; but the tyranny and 
faithlessness of this prince excited such commotions, that the German 
sovereign was once more summoned to cross the Alps by the united 
entreaties of the Italian princes and prelates, Otho entered Italy at the 
head of an army which his rival could not resist ; he marched directly 
to Rome, where he was received with the greatest enthusiasm (a, d. 
962). The pope revived in his favor the imperial title, which had been 
thirty-eight years in abeyance, proclaimed him Augustus, crowned him 
emperor of the Romans, and acknowledged him Supreme Head of the 
Church. But the pontiff's gratitude was not of long duration ; enraged 
by the emperor's remonstrances against his vicious courses, he took 
advantage of Otho's absence in pursuit of Berenger to enter into alliance 
with Adelbert, the son of his ancient enemy, to form a secret league for 
the expulsion of the Germans from Italy. 

Otho heard the intelligence of John's treachery with great indigna- 
tion ; he returned to Rome, held a council, in which the pope was 
accused of the most scandalous immoralities, and on his refusal to 



384 MODERN HISTORY. 

appear, he was condemned as contumacious, deposed, and a new pon- 
tiff, Leo VIII., elected in his stead. All Italy, as far as the ancient 
kingdom of the Lombards extended, thus fell under the sway of the 
Germans ; there were only some maritime places in Lower Italy which, 
with Apulia and Calabria, still remained subject to the Greeks. Otho 
transmitted this kingdom, with the imperial dignity, to his successors 
on the German throne ; but from his reign to that of Maximilian I., no 
prince took the title of emperor until he had been consecrated by 
the pope. Maximilian designated himself " Emperor Elect" (a. d. 
1508), and his example was followed by his successors down to our 
times. 

Otho I. died after a pro.sperous reign (a. d. 975), and was succeeded 
by his son Otho II. His reign was occupied in sanguinary wars, 
which harassed Germany and Italy. Otho having married the Greek 
princess Theophano, claimed the provinces of Apulia and Calabria as 
her dowry. After a tedious struggle, the emperor was mortally wound- 
ed by a poisoned javelin in a battle with the Greeks (a. d. 983). His 
death is said to have been accelerated by indignation at the joy which 
Theophano showed for the victory of her countrymen, though it was 
obtained over her own husband. 

Otho III., when elected successor to his father, was only twelve 
years of age ; ambitious rivals prepared to dispute his title, but the 
affection of the Gennans for his family enabled him to triumph over all 
opposition. His authority was more fiercely questioned in Italy, where 
Crescentius, an ambitious noble, became such a favorite with the Roman 
populace, that he deposed Pope Gregory, and gave the pontifical digni- 
ty to John XVI. Otho hastened to Italy, captured Rome, and put both 
Crescentius and John to death. These severities did not quell the tur- 
bulence of the Italians ; fresh insurrections soon compelled the empe- 
ror to return to the peninsula, where he was poisoned by the widow of 
Crescentius, whom he had seduced under a promise of marriage (a. d. 
1002). He died without issue. 

Alter some competition, the electors chose Henry, duke of Bavaria, 
descended from the Othos in the female line, emperor of the West. 
His reign was disturbed by repeated insurrections, both in Germany 
and Italy ; he succeeded in quelling them, but was so wearied by these 
repeated troubles, that he seriously designed to abdicate and retire into 
a monastery. The clergy took advantage of his piety and liberality to 
extort from him several rich donations, which proved, in an after age, 
the cause of much evil. His death (a. d. 1024) put an end to the Sax- 
on dynasty. 

Conrad II., duke of Franconia, being chosen by the electors, united 
the kingdom of Burgundy, or, as it was called, Aries, to the empire. 
But this was an acquisition of little real value ; the great vassals of the 
kingdom, the counts and bishops, preserved the authority they had 
usurped in their respective districts, leaving the emperors a merely 
nomnial sovereignty. It is even probable that the high authority pos- 
sessed by the Burgundian lords, induced the German nobles to arrogate 
to themselves the same prerogatives. The power of the clergy was in- 
creasing even more rapidly than that of the nobles, for they extorted 
fresh privileges and grants from every successive sovereign ; Conrad, 



RESTORATION OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE. 385 

who was naturally of a generous disposition,* impoverished the state by 
imitating the unwise liberality of his predecessors. Italy, during this 
reign and that of Conrad's son and successor, Henry III., continued to 
be distracted by rival factions ; but Henry was an energetic supporter 
of the imperial authority ; he deposed three rival popes, who claimed 
succession to St. Peter at the same time, and gave the pontifical chair 
to a German prelate, Clement II. He even exacted an oath from the 
Romans, that they would never elect a pope without having previously 
received the imperial sanction. The imperial power, wielded by an 
energetic monarch like Henry, was still formidable, but its resources 
were exhausted ; and when a feebler sovereign attempted to exercise 
the sway over the church which his father had held, he found the papacy 
stronger than the empire. 

The great struggle between the papal and imperial power began in 
the reign of Henry IV., whose long minority, for he succeeded his 
father when only five years old, necessarily weakened the influence of 
the sovereign. On the other hand, the circumstances of Europe, at this 
crisis, were peculiarly favorable to the policy of the popes. The Saxon 
line, restored in England by Edward the Confessor, had lost its nation- 
ality : Edward conferred the chief ecclesiastical dignities of his king- 
dom on foreigners, or persons remarkable for their foreign attachments ; 
and thus those who wielded the power of the church in the island, were 
more like missionaries, laboring for the benefit of a distant see, than 
clergymen, attentive only to their flocks. In Spain, the new provinces 
wrested from the Moors, when the unity of their empire was destroyed 
by the subversion of the Ommiade khaliphs, became closely attached 
to the Roman see. The spread of Christianity in Norway, Poland, 
Russia, and the other northern states, gave additional vigor to the papal 
power ; for the Northerns, with all the zeal of new converts, became 
eager to prove their sincerity by some enterprise in support of the pon- 
tiff, whom they regarded as the great director of their faith. 

But the most potent allies obtained by the church were the Normans 
of England and Italy. William, the natural son of Robert, duke of 
Normandy, had been nominated heir of the English throne by Edward 
the Confessor, who had no right to make any such appointment. Har- 
old, the son of Godwin, earl of Kent, was the favorite of the English 
people, and it was generally known that he would be elected to the 
throne on the death of the confessor. Unfortunately Harold's brother 
was detained as a hostage in' Normandy, and in spite of the warnings 
of King Edward, he crossed the sea in order to obtain his deliverance. 
The vessel in which the Saxon chief crossed the channel was wrecked 
near the mouth of the Somme, and, according to the barbarous custom 
of the age, the court of Ponthieu seized upon the shipwrecked strangers, 
and threw them into prison, for the purpose of obtaining large ransom. 
Harold and his companions appealed to Duke William, who procured 
their liberation, and invited them to his court. A grand council of the 
Norman prelates and nobles was then convoked, in whose presence 

• Many remarkable anecdotes are related of Conrad's generosity ; one deserves 
to be recorded. A gentleman having lost his leg in the imperial service, Conrad 
ordered that his boot should be filled with gold coins, to defray the expenses of his 
cure. 

25 



¥l§ MODERN HISTORY. 

William required Harold to swear that he would support with all his 
might William's succession to the crown of England, so soon as a va- 
cancy should be created by the death of Edward. Harold's life was in 
the duke's power, and he consented to take the oath, secretly resolving 
to violate its obligations. But an artifice was employed, which, in that 
superstitious age, was supposed to give the oath such sanctity as to ren- 
der its violation an inexpiable crime. By the duke's orders, a chest 
was secretly conveyed into the place of meeting, filled Avith the bones 
and relics of the saints most honored in the surrounding country, and 
covered with a cloth of gold. A missal Avas laid upon the cloth, and 
at William's summons Harold came forward and took the required oath, 
the whole assembly joining in the imprecation, " So help you God, at 
his holy doom." When the ceremony was concluded, the cloth of gold 
was removed, and Harold shuddered with superstitious horror when he 
foimd that his oath had been taken on the relics of saints and martyrs. 

On Edward's death, Harold, notwithstanding his oath, allowed him- 
self to be elected king by the English nobles and people ; but the papal 
clergy refused to recognise his title, the pope issued a bull excommuni- 
cating Harold and his adherents, which he sent to Duke William, 
accompanied by a consecrated banner, and a ring, said to have con- 
tained one of St. Peter's hairs, set under a valuable diamond. Thus 
supported by the superstitious feelings of the period, William found 
no difficulty in levying a numerous army, with which he passed over 
into England. The fate of the kingdom was decided by the battle of 
Hastings, in which Harold and his bravest soldiers fell. William found 
little difficulty in completing the conquest of England, into which he 
introduced the inheritance of fiefs, and the severities of the feudal law. 
He deprived the native English nobles of their estates, Avhich he shared 
among his own needy and rapacious followers, and he treated his neAV 
subjects with more than the cruelty that barbarous conquerors usually 
display toward the vanquished. 

About the same time, some Norman adventurers laid the foundation 
of the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, in southern Europe. The prov- 
inces that compose it were shared among the Lombard feudatories 
of the empire, the Greeks, and the Saracens, who harassed each other 
with mutual wars. About a himdred Normans landing on the coast 
(a. d. 1016), offered their services to the Lombard princes, and dis- 
played so much valor, that they obtained from the duke of Naples a 
grant of territory, where they built the city of Aversa. Encouraged by 
their success, Tancred, with another body of Norman adventurers, un- 
dertook the conquest of Apulia, which was completed by his son, Robert 
Guiscard. This warrior subdued Calabria also, and took the title of 
duke of both provinces. To secure his possessions, he entered into 
alliance with the pope, securing to the pontiff homage, and an annual 
tribute, on condition of receiving investiture. Nicholas H., who then 
filled the chair of St. Peter, willingly ratified a treaty by which the 
papacy gained important advantages, at the price of an empty title ; he 
stimulated Guiscard to undertake the conquest of Sicily also, an enter- 
prise in which that adventurer completely succeeded. Thus, at the 
moment that the papacy was about to struggle for power with the em- 
pire, the former had been strengthened by the accession of powerful 



RESTORATION OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE, 387 

allies and vassals, while the latter had given away the greater part of 
its strength by the alienation of its domains, to gratify the church, or to 
win the favor of feudatories whose influence was already formidable. 

SECTiON IV. — State of the East from the Establishment to the Overthrow of 

the Khaliphate. 

The history of the Byzantine empire, in the ninth, tenth, and elev- 
enth centuries, is little better than a tissue of usurpation, fanaticism, and 
perfidy. " Externally surrounded by foes, superior in numbers, in dis- 
cipline, and in valor, it seemed as if its safety was guarantied by cow- 
ardice, and its security confirmed by defeat. Internally were at work 
all the causes that usually effect the destruction of states : dishonor and 
profligacy triumphant in the palace ; ferocious bigotry, based at once on 
enthusiasm and hypocrisy, ruling the church ; civil dissensions, equally 
senseless and bloody, distracting the state ; complete demoralization 
pervading every rank, from the court to the cottage ; so that its exist- 
ence seemed owing to the antagonising effect of the causes that singly 
produce the ruin of empires." In the tenth century these causes seemed 
to have reached their consummation ; emperor after emperor perished 
by poison, or the dagger of the assassin ; parricide and fratricide were 
crimes of such ordinary occurrence, that they ceased to excite feelings 
of horror or disgust. Theological disputes, about questions that pass 
the limits of human knowledge, and a jealous rivalry between the patri- 
arch of Constantinople and the pope of Rome, produced a division be- 
tween the eastern and western churches, which the disputes respecting 
the Bulgarians aggravated into a formal schism. These barbarians 
were converted to Christianity by Greek and Latin missionaries ; the 
patriarch and the pope contended for the patronage of the new ecclesi- 
astical establishments ; the Greeks prevailed in the contest, and forth- 
with banished their Latin adversaries, while the court of Rome took re- 
venge by describing the Greeks as worse than the worst of the heathen. 
A brief display of vigor by Nicephorus, Phocus, and John Zimisces, 
arrested the progress of the Saracens, who were forming permanent 
establishments within sight of Constantinople. But Zimisces was poi- 
soned at the very moment when his piety, courage, and moderation, had 
averted impending ruin, and promised to restore some portion of the 
empire's former strength and former glory. His feeble successors 
swayed the sceptre with unsteady hands, at a time when the empire 
was attacked by the fiercest enemies it had yet encountered, the Nor- 
mans in Sicily, and the Seljukian Turks in Asia Minor. 

The names Turk and Tartar are loosely given to the inhabitants of 
those regions which ancient authors included under the designation of 
Scythia. Their uncivilized tribes possessed the countries north of the 
Caucasus and east of the Caspian, from the river Oxus to the wall of 
China : hordes issuing from these wide plains had frequently devastated 
the empire of Persia, and more than once placed a new race of sover- 
eigns on the throne. It was not, however, until the eighth century that 
they were themselves invaded in turn ; the Saracens, in the first burst 
of their enthusiasm, passed the Oxus, subdued Kharasm and Transox- 
iana, and imposed the religion and law \)f Mohammed on a race of 



388 MODERN HISTORY. 

warriors more fiery and zealous than themselves. Soon after the es- 
tablishment of the khaliphate at Bagdad, the Saracenic empire began to 
be dismembered, as we have already stated, and the khaliphs, alarmed 
by the revolt of their armies, and surrounded only by subjects devoted 
to the arts of peace, began to intrust the guard of their persons and 
their capital to foreign mercenaries. Al Moutassem was the first who 
levied a Turkish army to protect his states (a. d. 833) ; and even during 
his reign, much inconvenience was felt from the pride and insolence of 
soldiers unconnected with the soil they Avere employed to defend. The 
evil went on daily increasing, until the emirs, or Turkish commanders, 
usurped all the real authority of the state, leaving to the khaliphs the 
outward show and gewgaws of sovereignty, with empty titles, whose 
pomp was increased as the authority they pretended to represent was 
diminished. The revolution Avas completed in the reign of Al Khadi 
(a. d. 936) ; hoping to arrest the progress of the revolution, he created 
a new minister, called the Emir-al-Omra,* to whom far greater powers 
were given than had been intrusted to the ancient viziers. This, as 
might have been expected, aggravated the evil it was designed to pre- 
vent. The family of the Bowides, so called from their ancestor Buyah, 
■usurped this high office and the sovereignty of Bagdad ; the khaliph 
was deprived of all temporal authority, and was regarded simply as the 
chief Iman, or pontiff of the Mohammedan faith. 

Such was the state of the khaliphate, when a new horde from the in- 
terior of Turkestan appeared to change the entire face of Asia. This 
horde, deriving its name from Seljuk, one of its most renowned chiefs, 
was invited to cross the Oxus by the Ghaznevidf sultans,;}: who had 
already established a powerful kingdom in the east of Persia, and sub- 
dued the north of Hindostan. The Seljukians finding the pasturages 
of Khorassan far superior to those of their native country, invited new 
colonies to the fertile land ; they soon became so powerful that Togrul 
Beg proclaimed himself a sultan, and seized several of the best provin- 
ces belonging to the khaliphate. Finally, having taken Bagdad, he be- 
came master of the khaliph's person (a. d. 1055) and succeeded to the 
power which had formerly been possessed by the Bowides. Togrul 
transmitted his authority to his nephew and heir, the formidable Alp 
Arslan.§ This prince renewed the war against the Greek empire, ob- 
tained a signal victory over its forces in Armenia, and took the emperor, 

• " Lord of the lords," or " Commander of the commanders." 

t The Ghaznevid dynasty was founded by Sebektagen, who is said to have been 
originally a slave (a. d. 977). But his fame is eclipsed by that of his son Mah- 
mud, whose conquests in northern India rival those of a hero of romance. His 
desire of conquest was rendered more terrible to those he attacked by his cruel 
bigotry, for in every country that he subdued, the horrors of war were increased 
by those of religious persecution. At his death, the empire of Ghizni included 
a great part of Persia, Afghanistan, and northern India, to the provinces of Ben- 
gal and the Deccan. But the rise of this great dynasty was not more rapid than 
its downfall, which we may date from the death of that monarch, to whom it owes 
all its lustre in the page of history (a. d. 1028). Little more than a century after 
Mohammed's death, the last of the Ghaznevids was deposed by Mohammed Gouri, 
the founder of a new dynasty, equally transitory as that which it displaced. 

t The title of sultan, which in the Chaldaic and Arabic languages signifies a 
sovereign, was first assumed by the Ghaznevid princes. 

§ His name signifies the Conquering Lion. 



RESTORATION OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE. 389 

Romanus Diogenes, prisoner (a. d. 1070). The distractions produced 
by this event in the Byzantine dominions, enabled the Turks not only 
to expel the Greeks from Syria, but also to seize some of the finest 
provinces in Asia Minor. 

Under Malek Shah, the son and successor of Alp Arslan, the Sel- 
jukian monarchy touched the summit of its greatness. This wise 
prince extended his dominions from the Mediterranean to the wall of 
China. Guided by the wise counsels of the vizier, Nezam-al-Mulk, 
the sultan ruled this mighty' empire with great justice and moderation, 
Asia enjoyed tranquillity, to which it had been long unaccustomed, and 
learning and civilization began to revive. 

In the midst of this prosperity, a circumstance occurred, which, though 
little noticed at the time, became the source of unparalleled misfortunes 
to the east. This was the seizure of the mountain-castle of Alamut, 
and the foundation of the order of the Assassins, by Hassan Sabah, 
This formidable enthusiast had become a convert to the Ismaelian doc- 
trines, in which the creed of Islam was mingled with the darker and 
more gloomy superstitions of Asiatic paganism. His followers, per- 
suaded that obedience to the commands of their chief would ensure 
their eternal felicity, never hesitated to encounter any danger in order 
to remove his enemies. Emissaries from the formidable Sheikh al Je- 
bal* went in disguise to palaces and private houses, watching the favor- 
able opportunity of striking the blow, to those who had provoked the 
hostility of their grand master. So dreadful was this scourge that ori- 
ental historians, during a long period of their annals, terminate their 
account of each year with a list of the men of note who had fallen 
victims during its course to the daggers Of the assassins. After the 
death of Malek Shah (a. d. 1092), disputes arose between his sons, 
which led to sanguinary civil wars, and the dismemberment of the em- 
pire. Three powerful sultanies were formed from its fragments, namely, 
Iran, Kerman, and Riim, or Iconium. That of Iran was the most pow- 
erful, for it possessed the rich provinces of Upper Asia, but its great- 
ness soon declined. The emirs, or governors of cities and provinces, 
threw off their allegiance, and under the modest title of Atta-begs,t ex- 
ercised sovereign authority. The Seljukians of Riim, known to the 
crusaders as the Sultans of Nice, or Iconium,;]: were first raised into 
notice by Soleiman. Their history is important only from its connex- 
ion with that of the crusades. These divisions were the cause of the 
success which attended the early wars of the Christians in Palestine, 
and of the qualified independence of the late khaliphs, who shook off 
the Seljiikian yoke, and established themselves in the sovereignty of 
Irak Arabi, or the province of Bagdad. 

* "Lord of the Mountain;" from the equivocal sense of the Arabic word 
Sheikh, the name is commonly translated " Old Man of the Mountain," 

f Atta-beg is a Turkish word, and signifies " father or guardian of the prince." 
X Cogni, or Iconium, is a city of Lycaonia, which these sultans made their cap- 
ital, after Nice had been taken by the crusaders. 



390 MODERN HISTORY. 



CHAPTER IV. 
GROWTH OF THE PAPAL POWER. 

Section I. — The Origin of the Papacy. 

There is nothing more remarkable in the clerical organization of 
Christianity at its first institution, than its adaptation to all times and all 
circumstances. Without entering into any controverted question, we 
may generally state, that in the infant church provision was made for 
self-government on the one hand, and general superintendence on the 
other ; and that, before the gospel was preached beyond the bounds of 
Judaea, the two great principles of the independence of national church- 
es, and the authority of a council to ensure the unity of the faith, were 
fully recognised. Infidels have endeavored to trace the form of church 
government to Constantine, though the slightest glance at the history of 
the preceding age suffices to prove that the ecclesiastical constitution 
was, long before that emperor's accession, perfected in all its parts. 
The management belonged to the local priesthood, the government to 
the bishops, the superintendence of all to the council. This is the 
general outline of the apostolic model, and we may see in it one mark, 
at least, of a more than human origin, its capability of unlimited expan- 
sion. 

The best institutions are open to abuse, and the Christian clergy 
were exposed to two different lines of temptation, both, however, tend- 
ing to the same point, acquisition of power. The emperors of Con- 
stantinople endeavored to make the clergy their instruments in estab- 
lishing a perfect despotism, while the people looked upon their spiritual 
guides as their natural protectors against the oppressions of their tem- 
poral rulers. Under these circumstances, episcopacy formed a new 
power in the empire, a power continually extending, because it was 
soon obvious that a common faith was the only bond which would hold 
together nations differing in language, institutions, and blood. But this 
political use of Christianity naturally suggested a gross and dangerous 
perversion of its first principles ; when unity of faith appeared to be 
of such great value, it was natural that toleration should be refused to 
any great difference of opinion, and consequently, persecuting edicts 
were issued against paganism and heresy. This false step led to a 
still more dangerous confusion between spiritual and temporal power ; 
when ecclesiastical censures produced civil consequences, the priest 
was identified with the magistrate, and every hour it became more diffi- 
cult to separate their functions. In the decline of the empire also, the 



GROWTH OF THE PAPAL POWER. 391 

temporal power was deservedly hated and despised ; a profligate court, 
a venal magistracy, and a cowardly soldiery, constituted the ordinary 
materials of the imperial government ; and, compared with these, the 
sacerdotal body, in the worst stage of its degradation, had powerful 
claims to respect, if not to esteem. 

It is of importance to remember that the corruption of the episcopal 
power was produced by the general corruption of the empire, and con- 
sequently, instead of furnishing an argument against episcopacy as an, 
institution, it may rather be urged as a proof of its excellence. The 
church had fallen, indeed, from its original purity, but the state was a 
mass of unmixed evils ; ecclesiastical power was frequently abused, but 
the temporal authorities scarcely went right by accident ; whatever prin- 
ciples of justice and rectitude remained in the world, owed their conser- 
vation to the Christian clergy ; and to the examples of ecclesiastical 
traffic there might easily be opposed a longer and more honorable list 
of instances, in which bishops supported the dignity of their order, by 
protecting the interests of morality against the craft of courtiers and the 
vices of sovereigns. 

While the discipline of the church was injured by the clergy having 
temporal power forced upon them — in the first instance at least — with- 
out their solicitation, the doctrines of Christianity were corrupted by a 
practice arising from the best feelings of our nature. The saints and 
martyrs who had faced danger, torture, and death, to promulgate Chris- 
tianity, were remembered with just gratitude, when that religion became 
triumphant. Their bones were removed from unhonored graves to 
tombs more worthy of their virtues, and a generation enjoying the ad- 
vantages that their toils and their blood had purchased, testified its 
thankfulness by rich offerings at their shrines. Thus the avaricious 
and the designing were tempted to multiply the number of relics, and to 
exaggerate their importance, until the feeling of thankful reverence was 
gradually changed into one of religious adoration. These steps in the 
progress of error were easy, they were likewise profitable ; crafty men 
propagated stories of miracles wrought at the tombs of .the martyrs, pray- 
ers were soon addressed to persons supposed to be possessed of such 
supernatural powers, the invocation of saints and the worship of relics 
naturally led to the introduction of images and pictures, and to the revi- 
val of many pagan ceremonies, which had, perhaps, never fallen into 
complete oblivion. 

But an ecclesiastical establishment must not bear the entire blame of 
the introduction of image-worship into the Christian church. The de- 
sire of possessing representations of those whom we venerate is natural 
to the human mind ; and in an age of ignorance, the symbols of a creed 
were found useful aids in teaching the multitude the historical facts of 
Christianity. It must, however, be observed, that the ignorance and 
credulity of the laity had a far greater share in leading to a corrupt use 
of images, than the craft of the clergy : the perversion was in many, per- 
haps in most instances, forced upon the priesthood by the flock, and it 
was still further supported by the monastic bodies, which have in every 
age been the most prominent among the originators and supporters of 
every superstition. 

The monastics were the first who introduced what is called the 



392 MODEEN HISTORY. 

voluntary principle, into the Christian church ; they were also the 
first to allow self-ordained instructers to interfere with the duties of 
the proper pastors. Fanaticism and superstition were the necessary 
results of these disturbing forces, and by none was the progress of evil 
more seriously lamented than by the parochial clergy and the regular 
bishops. 

The charge of idolatry was justly urged against the Christian church 
in the beginning of the eighth century, both by the Jews and the Mo- 
hammedans. The latter were far the more formidable, for to the argu- 
ments of truth they added the weight of victory. There was scarcely 
an eastern city which was not fortified by the possession of some mirac- 
ulous image, supposed to be the palladium of its safety ; but in spite of 
this protection they had fallen, one after the other, into the hands of the 
Mussulmans. Ashamed of the reproaches they encountered, and con- 
vinced practically of the insufficiency of these objects of their devotion, 
many of the eastern bishops began to oppose the worship of images, 
but their exertions were rendered unavailing, by the influence and 
obstinacy of the monks, until Leo the Isaurian ascended the throne of 
Constantinople. 

A fierce struggle ensued : the Iconoclasts, as the opposers of images 
were called, made a vigorous effort to restore the purity of the Christian 
worship, and at the synod of Constantinople (a. d. 754) three hundred 
and thirty-eight bishops pronounced and subscribed a unanimous de- 
cree, that " all visible symbols of Christ, except in the eucharist, were 
either blasphemous or heretical ; that image-worship was a corruption 
of Christianity, and a revival of paganism ; that all such monuments 
of idolatry should be broken or erased ; and that those who should re- 
fuse to give up the objects of their private superstition, should be 
deemed guilty of disobedience to the authority of the church and of the 
emperor." 

The enemies of the Iconoclasts have spared no terms of reproach in 
denouncing the proceedings of this synod, but an impartial view of the 
authentic relics of its proceedings, which have been preserved, proves 
that its members displayed more of reason and piety than could have 
been expected in their age. They seem, indeed, to have felt that they 
were fighting the battle of episcopacy against monachism, and that the 
safety of their order was compromised by the assumptions of volunteer 
instructers ; but they made no direct attack upon monastic institutions, 
and only assailed the abuses which they encouraged. 

Six successive emperors supported the cause of reason and religion 
against idolatry in the eastern church, but the worshippers of images 
finally triumphed. Still, down to a very late period, there were prelates 
in the East who resisted the corruption, and the Armenians especially 
refused to admit images into their churches even in the twelfth century. 
But the contest was decided much sooner in western Europe, by the 
promptitude with which Pope Gregory II. appealed to arms against his 
sovereign and the Iconoclasts. The ambitious pontiff found sufficient 
support in the national enmity between the Greeks and Latins ; he had 
the art to persuade the Italians that there was some connexion between 
the new superstition and their hereditary glory ; and that, while they 
supported the worship of images, they were imposing a necessary re- 



GROWTH OP THE PAPAL POWER. 393 

straint on Byzantine tyranny. The Lombards embraced the religious 
pretext to expel the Greeks from Italy ; but the pope, finding that the 
conquerors were anxious to impose a yoke upon him more grievous than 
that which had just been shaken off, invoked the assistance of the 
Franks. Supported by the arms of Pepin and Charlemagne, the popes 
maintained the independence of the Roman territories, and were thus 
raised to the rank of temporal princes. Grateful for the aid they re- 
ceived, the pontiffs, as has been already mentioned, decided that it was 
lawful for the Franks to depose an imbecile sovereign, and substitute 
in his place one who had proved an able protector of the state, and a 
generous benefactor to the church ; and in consequence of this sentence, 
Pepin was solemnly crowned at Paris. 

The proper history of the papacy begins at this union of temporal and 
spiritual jurisdiction. Three transactions combined to give it form : the 
revolt against Leo, the establishment of the Roman principality, and the 
coronation of Pepin. In the first of these, the popes were hurried for- 
ward by circumstances to lengths which they had not anticipated ; nei- 
ther the second nor third Gregory wished to destroy completely the 
power of the Byzantine emperor, and they continued to acknowledge 
the successors of Constantino as their rulers, until the Lombards sub- 
verted the exarchate of Ravenna. But in spite of their moderation, real 
or affected, they had established to some extent the dangerous prece- 
dent, that the heresy of a sovereign justifies a withdrawal of allegiance 
in his subjects, though they themselves never asserted such a principle, 
and indeed seem never to have contemplated it. 

The independence of the Roman principality, and the establishment 
of the pope as a temporal sovereign, necessarily resulted from the dread 
which the Latins, but especially the Romans, had of the Lombards. It 
was impossible to revert to the sovereigns of Constantinople ; indepen- 
dent of the unpopularity produced by their Iconoclast propensities, they 
wanted the power of retaining the Italian provinces, even if the govern- 
ment had been offered them ; there was no choice between the asser- 
tion of independence and submission to the Lombards ; there were no 
materials for constructing a national government outside the precincts 
of the church, and the popes consequently became princes by the pres- 
sure of a necessity which was confessed by the unanimous consent of 
their subjects. 

In sanctioning the usurpation of Pepin, Pope Zachary pronounced his 
opinion more as a statesman than a prelate. There was an obvious ex- 
pediency for dethroning the weak Chilperic, and giving the title of king 
to him who really exercised the functions of royalty. There was noth- 
ing authoritative in the sentence — it did not command the Franks to 
dethrone one king and elect another — it merely declared that considera- 
tions of public safety justified a people in changing its rulers : it did 
nothing new, but it ratified what had been done already. But the new 
dynasty eagerly sought in the proceeding for a confirmation of their de- 
fective title ; it was Pepin and his friends, rather than the pontiff, who 
perverted the opinion of a casuist into the sentence of a judge and the 
oracle of a prophet. 

Thus popery, like most human institutions, was founded on opinions 
in which truth and falsehood were strangely mixed ; and it is fortunately 



394 MODEUN HISTORY. 

easy to separate the parts. In rejecting the Byzantine yoke, the popes 
asserted a right to resist, but not to depose, sovereigns ; in becoming 
temporal princes, they declared that there could be a union between 
civil and ecclesiastical jurisdictions, but not that they were necessarily 
connected, and still less that they were inherited of right by the succes- 
sors of St. Peter : finally, in the most equivocal case, the sanction of 
Pepin's election, the pope put forward the expediency of having an in- 
telligent umpire to decide in cases of a dispute, not that he was neces- 
sarily that umpire ; and still less that he had authority to act as su- 
preme judge in a court of appeal. It is sufficiently obvious, however, 
that the truths are easily capable of being perverted into the falsehoods, 
and that there were strong temptations to the change. Ere a genera- 
tion had passed away, the truths sank into oblivion, and the falsehoods 
were everywhere proclaimed as the true foundations of the papal 
system. 

Section II. — The early Development of the Political System of the Papacy. 

The Iconoclast controversy, and the mutual obligations of the popes 
and the Carlovingian family, form the important links between ancient 
and modern history, as well as between civil and ecclesiastical affairs. 
Pepin recognised the pope's arbitration as an authoritative act, though, 
as we have seen, it was merely an opinion founded on expediency, and 
furthermore might have been justified on constitutional grounds, for the 
monarchy of the Franks was originally elective, and the principle of 
hereditary right was an innovation gradually introduced by the succes- 
sors of Clovis. But Pepin naturally felt that he would weaken the title 
of his sons to the succession, if he rested his claims on popular election ; 
and he was therefore anxious to invest his dynasty with the mysterious 
sanction of religion. It is doubtful whether the Roman pontiffs foresaw 
the importance of the measures they adopted, but prudence and prophe- 
cy united could scarcely have suggested better means for extending the 
papal power. They revived the Jewish ceremonial of anointing kings ; 
and Pepin, as well as his successors, regarded this ceremony as an as- 
sertion of a divine right to the crown ; while the popes represented it, 
not as a simple recognition, but almost an appointment of the sovereign. 
Both the kings and the pontiffs shared in a profitable fraud, which gave 
security to the one, and power to the other ; the Frank nobles murmured, 
without being able to discover the exact nature of the principles which 
destroyed for the future their ancient rights of election, though these 
principles were very intelligibly expressed by a new effort of Pope Ste- 
phen to gratify the new dynasty. Pressed by his enemies in Italy, 
Stephen III. sought Pepin's court to obtain aid, and gratified the mon- 
arch by solemnly crowning both his sons. In Pepin's case, the coro- 
nation had followed the election ; and thus the popular rights were abol- 
ished almost at the moment that they were most strongly asserted. 
Royalty and popery gained, but not in equal proportions : for though 
the principles of divine right and inheritance by descent were estab- 
lished for kings, the higher power of pronouncing on these rights was 
reserved for the pontiffs. 

The Carlovingians, grateful for the security thus given to their title, 



GROWTH OF THE PAPAL POWER. 395 

enlarged the papal dominions by territories wrested from the Lombard 
kingdom — the Greek exarchate. To secure these acquisitions, the 
pontiffs had recourse to a more daring fraud than any they had yet per- 
petrated : a forged deed was produced, purporting to be a donation from 
the first Christian emperor, Constantine, to the successors of St. Peter, 
of the sovereignty over Rome, Italy, and the western provinces. Thus 
the gift of the French monarch was made to appear the restitution of 
ancient possessions, and the temporal power of the popes, while yet 
in its infancy, was invested with the sanction of remote antiquity. It 
is useless to expose the falsehood of this audacious forgery, which is 
now condemned by even the most bigoted writers of the Romish 
church ; but in its day it was universally received as valid, and was 
long regarded as the legal instrument by which the papal power was 
established. 

Adrian I. was the pontiff who first combined the elements of the pa- 
pacy into a system. He was startled at the very outset by a difficulty 
which seemed to threaten the foundation of his power. The Greek 
emperess, Irene, who administered the government during the reign of 
her son, Constantine the Porphyrogennete, re-established the worship 
of images, and persecuted the Iconoclasts. Adrian, however, was nat- 
urally reluctant to return under the Byzantine yoke, and were he even 
so inclined, he would probably have been prevented by the Romans ; 
the popes had tasted the pleasures of sovereignty, and the people of 
freedom ; neither, therefore, would sacrifice such advantages to the 
Greeks. A closer union was made with the Franks, though Charles 
and his bishops had stigmatized the worship of images, and declared 
they should be regarded only as objects of reverence. But the pope 
foresaw that the use of images would soon lead to their adoration, and 
he courted Charlemagne as a friend and protector. 

Leo III., who succeeded Adrian, sent to Charlemagne the standard 
of Rome, requesting him to send delegates to receive the allegiance of 
the Romans. From the latter circumstance, it has been rather hastily 
inferred that the popes acknowledged the sovereignty of Charles ; 
but, in truth, the relations between the pontiffs and the Frank mon- 
archs were purposely left indefinite ; any attempt to state them would 
have shown that the claims of both were irreconcilable, but their mu- 
tual interests required that they should combine, and each avoided ex- 
planations that might provoke a contest. 

Leo soon experienced the benefits of his moderation ; driven from 
Rome by the relatives of the late pope, he sought refuge among the 
Franks ; and Charlemagne not only sent him back with a powerful es- 
cort to his capital, but went thither in person to do him justice. Leo 
was permitted to purge himself by oath of the crimes laid to his charge, 
and, in gratitude for his acquittal, he solemnly crowned Charles, Em- 
peror of the West. The ceremony was performed on the festival of 
Christmas, in the last year of the eighth century ; and the pontiff who 
had so recently stood before his sovereign as a criminal making his de- 
fence, now appeared as his superior, conferring on him the highest 
earthly title by the authority of Heaven. 

There was obvious danger to papal ambition in the establishment of 
an empire ; the successors of the Caesars must of necessity have been 



396 MODERN HISTORY. 

formidable rivals to the successors of St. Peter ; but there were many 
important advantages to be gained, which did not escape the notice of 
the crafty pontiffs. The secure enjoyment of their temporal dominions, 
as the most honorable species of fief or benefice, was obviously an im- 
mediate result, but there was a remote one of much greater importance, 
the change of the precedence, universally conceded to the Romish see, 
into an acknowledgment of its supremacy. 

It is not easy to discover at what time the papacy directly fixed its 
attention upon destroying the independence of national churches, but 
assuredly the period was not very remote from that which we have 
been considering. The contests between the bishops of Rome and 
Constantinople, like those of more modern times between the archbish- 
ops of York and Canterbury, were struggles for dignity rather than 
power. The primacy which Boniface III. assumed, by taking the title 
of universal bishop, was nothing more than presidency : this was a 
good foundation for a future claim to supremacy, but there is no proof 
that any such claim was contemplated by Boniface, and every probabil- 
ity is against the supposition. 

But when the independence of nations was compromised by the 
establishment of an empire, it was very natural that the independence 
of national churches should also be endangered. In the age of Charle- 
magne, law, order, and intelligence, had no sure support but religion : 
the popular opinion identified with ecclesiastical influence all that so- 
ciety enjoyed or hoped for ; it was the bond that held the discordant 
parts of the empire together, and the emperor joined with the pope in 
giving it strength and unity. 

The death of Charlemagne relieved the pontiffs from the pressure of 
imperial power ; his successor, Louis the Debonnaire, had not strength 
of mind sufficient to support the weight of empire, while the popes 
stood ready to grasp the reins of power as they slipped from his hands ; 
they began to exercise their pontifical functions immediately after their 
election, without waiting for the confirmation of their power, and Louis, 
embarrassed by nearer dangers, was unable to punish the usurpation. 
Louis divided his empire among his sons ; a fatal error, for in their con- 
tests for supremacy the sovereign authority was sacrificed to the feudal 
lords, and to the spiritual power. 

It must, however, be confessed, that the usurpations of the church, 
during the sanguinary wars between the successors of Charlemagne, 
were almost rendered necessary by the circumstances of the time. The 
competitors for empire were weak and cruel, the profligacy of the feu- 
dal lords was only equalled by their ignorance, and the church alone 
preserved the semblance of justice. The clergy of all ranks profited 
by the popular opinion in their favor ; usurpation followed usurpation 
without provoking opposition : Charles the Bald acknowledged the 
right of the bishops to depose him, and the bishops of his council 
bound themselves by a canon to remain united, " for the correction of 
kings, the nobility, and the people." This gross assumption was ap- 
plauded by the laity, at once ignorant, wicked, and devout : it was felt 
by all parties that supreme power should exist somewhere : kings, no- 
bles, and commons, equally felt the want, and, in a greater or less de- 
gree, the consciousness that it could not safely be intrusted to them- 



GROWTH OP THE PAPAL POWER. 397 

selves. Nicholas I., more bold than any of his predecessors, constitu- 
ted himself the judge of bishops and kings : he deposed the archbishop 
of Ravenna for asserting his independence, and would not permit him 
to be restored until he acknowledged himself a vassal of the holy see : 
he even cited the king of Lorraine to appear before his tribunal (a. d. 
860). Lothaire, king of Lorraine, had divorced his first wife, Theut- 
berga, on a charge of adultery, and, by the advice of his council, cho- 
sen a beautiful young lady, called Valdrade, for his second queen. The 
pope annulled the second marriage, and compelled Lothaire to take 
back his first wife ; he persevered in enforcing his edict, even after 
Theutberga herself had submitted to the pretensions of her rival. 

Adrian II. was chosen successor to Nicholas ; the imperial ambassa- 
dors were excluded from the election, and their remonstrances treated 
with neglect. He interfered on the side of justice, to secure the inher- 
itance of Lorraine for the emperor Louis II., but the pontiff was foiled 
by the firmness of Charles the Bald, and his claims to decide between 
the competitors refuted by Hincmar, archbishop of Rheims. Adrian re- 
solved to conciliate the prince whom he could not subdue, and won 
Charles to submission by promising him the succession to the empire. 
This project was executed by Adrian's successor, John VIII.; finding 
that the king of France was determined to have the title of emperor on 
any terms, he made him stipulate to acknowledge the independence of 
Rome and its territory, and to confess that he only held the empire by 
the gift of the pope. 

In an assembly held at Pavia (a. d. 878), Charles was recognised by 
the Italian prelates and nobles in the following memorable words : 
" Since the Divine favor, through the merits of the holy apostles and of 
their vicar Pope John, has raised you to the empire, according to the' 
judgment of the Holy Ghost, we elect you unanimously for our protec- 
tor and lord." The pontiff by no means suffered Charles to forget that 
the empire was his gift : when the Saracens invaded Italy, he wrote to 
Charles, reproaching him for his delay in affording succor, and desiring 
him, " to remember the hand that had given him the empire, lest, if 
driven to despair, we should change our opinion." 

But while the popes were thus triumphant over the emperors, they 
were severely harassed by the turbulent feudal lords, who had taken ad- 
vantage of the weakness of their sovereign, to establish a virtual inde- 
pendence. They interfered in the pontifical elections, and generally 
controlled them ; they insulted, imprisoned, and murdered the pontiflTs ; 
while the claims of the apostolic see to complete supremacy were tacitly 
acknowledged throughout Europe, it was itself held in disgraceful ser- 
vitude by petty tyrants. Two infamous prostitutes, by their influence 
with the profligate nobles, procured the throne of St. Peter for their 
paramours, and their illegitimate children ; and the disorders of the 
church finally attained such a height that the imperial power was once 
more raised above the papal, and Pope John XII. deposed by the em- 
peror Otho. 

The vices of this dark period are not justly attributable to popery ; 
they were the result of feudalism, and so far as the papal system was 
able to exert any influence, it was employed in counteracting these 
evils. The great error of the pontiffs was, that they did not arrange a 



398 MODERN HISTORY. 

judicious plan for elections ; they left their power thus exposed to the 
disturbances of a disputed succession which had already proved fatal to 
the imperial power : had the arrangements been such as to prevent any 
lay interference, ecclesiastical influence would have gone on increasing 
without interruption. But the vice and violence of the Roman nobles 
rendered popery, as a system, for a time inoperative, and prevented a 
Nicholas from anticipating a Hildebrand. 

Section III. — The Struggle for Supremacy between the Popes and Emperors. 

Otho, deservedly called the Great, was the third emperor of Ger- 
many, elected by the suffrage of the German princes. His high char- 
acter pointed him out to Pope John XII. as a proper protector for the 
church and the republic, against the fierce nobles of Lombardy, but 
especially against Berengarius, who claimed the kingdom of Italy. 
Otho crossed the Alps, tranquillized Italy, and was rewarded with the 
iron crown of Lombardy, and the revived title of Emperor of the 
West. But both the pope and the Romans were jealous of their bene- 
factor, and even during the ceremony of his coronation, Otho had to 
take precautions against the daggers of assassins. John soon found 
that the German emperor was not content with an empty title ; enraged 
at the progress of the imperial authority, he entered into a secret com- 
pact with Adelbert, the son of his ancient enemy, to expel foreigners 
from Italy, and, at the same time, he invited the Hungarians to invade 
Germany. 

Otho promptly returned to Italy, and having entered Rome, he com- 
pelled the nobles and people to renew their oath of allegiance. He then 
summoned a council for the trial of Pope John, whose immoralities 
were flagrant and notorious. The charges against the pontiff contained 
a dreadful catalogue of crimes, but we can not vOuch for the integrity 
of the witnesses, or the impartiality of the court. There is, however, 
no doubt that John was a licentious profligate, whose vices not only dis- 
graced his station, but Avere shocking to humanity. The pope refusing 
to appear before the tribunal, was condemned as contumacious, after 
having been twice summoned in vain. Leo VIII. was elected to the 
papacy, in the room of John, and he not only took an oath of obedience 
and fidelity to the emperor, but issued a bull, ordaining that Otho and 
his successors should have a right of appointing the popes, and investing 
bishops and archbishops ; and that none should dare to consecrate a 
bishop without the permission of the emperor. 

This fatal blow to the papacy was unpopular with the bishops ; they 
complained that Leo had subverted, at one blow, the structure which 
his predecessors had toiled to raise during two centuries. When John, 
after the emperor's departure, returned to Rome, he easily procured the 
deposition of Leo, and the acknowledgment of his own claims. The 
restored pope began to exercise great cruelties against his opponents ; 
but in the midst of his career, he was assassinated by a young noble- 
man, whom he had rivalled in the affections of his mistress. Such 
horror had this pontiff's crimes inspired, that many of the Romans be- 
lieved that Satan in proper person had struck the fatal blow which sent 
him to his dread account, " with all his imperfections on his head." 



GROWTH OF THE PAPAL POWER. 399 

The adherents of John still refused to acknowledge Leo, and without 
consulting the emperor, they chose Benedict to succeed the murdered 
pontiff. But the return of Otho threw them into confusion : Benedict 
hastily tendered his submission to Leo, by whom he was banished ; 
and the Roman nobility and clergy promised the emperor that they 
would never confer the papal dignity on any but a native of Germany. 
On the death of Leo, the electors, obedient to their promise, chose 
John Xin. by the emperor's permission. The pope was too grateful 
to his sovereign, to resist the encroachments of the imperial power on 
the city and the church : the turbulent Romans revolted and threw 
John into prison, but Otho soon came to suppress these disturbances. 
He restored John, and severely punished the authors of the revolt. 
Thus the political system of popery seemed utterly ruined, the pontiff 
ruled the Roman states as a lieutenant instead of a prince, and, far from 
being regarded as the supreme umpire of monarchs, he was reduced to 
the condition of a subject. 

We have seen that the papacy owed its first success to the national 
hatred between the Latins and the Byzantines ; strength for a new 
struggle to retrieve its fortunes was derived from the animosity with 
which the Germans were regarded by the Italians. The death of Otho 
(a. d. 973), was the signal for new convulsions in Italy ; the feudal 
lords aimed at independence, the cities tried to establish freedom ; 
Pope John tried to uphold the imperial cause, but he was arrested by 
Cincius, the head of the popular party, and strangled in prison. 

Cincius and his faction chose Boniface VII. for their spiritual head ; 
the aristocratic party, headed by the counts of Tuscany, elected Ben- 
edict VII.*; the former was soon driven from the capital ; he sought 
shelter at Constantinople, where he strenuously urged the Greek em- 
perors to invade Italy. These princes took his advice, and, uniting 
themselves with the Saracens, subdued Apulia and Calabria. Otho II. 
vanquished these enemies ; but when he returned to Germany, Boni- 
face came back to Italy, made himself master of Rome, and threw his 
rival into prison, where he was starved to death. Four months after- 
ward the murderer died suddenly, and was succeeded by John XV. 

So low had the papacy now sunk, that the entire of John's reign 
was occupied by a struggle for the government of the city of Rome. 
Crescentius, an ambitious noble, eager to establish his own despotism 
under the name of freedom, persuaded the citizens to reject the au- 
thority both of the pope and the emperor. Otho II. crushed the revolt, 
and so firmly established the imperial authority, that he was enabled to 
nominate one of his creatures successor to John ; and the cardinals re- 
ceived as their head Bruno, a Saxon stranger, who took the title of 
Gregory V.* 

Crescentius had little trouble in exciting a new insurrection ; but the 
Italians were too feeble to contend with the entire strength of the em- 
pire ; they were defeated with ruinous loss ; their leader was captured 
and beheaded. On the death of Gregory, Otho nominated Gerbert to 
the papal dignity, and he was installed under the title of Sylvester II. 
Although he did not foresee the consequences, Sylvester may be re- 

* Every pope changes his name on his accession, in imitation of St. Peter, whom 
our Lord called Cephas, or Peter, instead of Simon. 



• 



400 MODERN HISTORY. 

garded as the first who made any progress in restoring the power of 
popery. His personal virtues removed the scandal which had long 
weakened the influence of his see, his patronage of learning restored 
to the church its superiority in intelligence, and, through his intimacy 
with the emperor, he obtained a renewal of the temporal grants which 
Charlemagne and Pepin had made to his predecessors. The popes 
now began to support the imperial cause against the turbulent nobles 
of Italy ; in return they were aided by the emperors in their struggles 
with the Roman princes and citizens ; but by this alliance the pontiffs 
were the principal gainers, for the emperor's attention was distracted 
by various objects while the popes were always on the spot to secure 
the fruit of every victory. So rapidly had their power been retrieved, 
that when Benedict VIII. crowned the emperor Henry, to whom he 
owed the preservation of his dignity, he demanded of his benefactor, 
before he entered the church : " Will you observe your fidelity to me 
and my successors in everything V and the emperor had the weakness 
to answer in the afhrmative. 

But the factions of the Roman nobles and citizens prevented the papal 
power from being consolidated ; three rival popes, each remarkable for 
his scandalous life, shared the revenues of the church between them 
(a. d. 1045) ; they were finally persuaded to resign by John Gratian, a 
priest of piety and learning, and he was elected to the vacant throne 
by the title of Gregory VI. The emperor Henry procured the deposi- 
tion of Gregory, and the election of Clement II. 

The most remarkable of the deposed popes was Benedict IX. ; he 
was the son of a Tusculan count, and was raised to the chair of St. 
Peter at the early age of ten years. His vices induced the Romans tc 
raise rivals against him ; but, supported by the aristocratic faction, he 
would probably have held his place, had he not been bribed to resign 
in favor of Gregory. The agent in this transaction was Hildebrand, 
the son of humble parents, who had raised himself by the force of his 
abilities and his reputation for piety to high rank in the church, and 
commanding influence in the state. Gregory was undoubtedly a better 
ruler than his immediate predecessors ; he expelled the robbers and 
freebooters who infested the roads around Rome ; he opened a secure 
passage for the pilgrims who wished to visit the shrine of St. Peter, 
and he vigorously exerted himself to reform the administration of jus- 
tice. It was imprudent in the emperor Henry to depose such a man at 
the instigation of the enemies of order; Clement II. felt great aversion 
to the proceeding, and very reluctantly consented to his own elevation. 

Gregory and Hildebrand, to the great regret of the Italian people, 
and especially the citizens of Rome, were driven into exile ; they re- 
tired to the celebrated monastery of Clugni, where Gregory died of 
vexation, leaving Hildebrand the heir of his wealth and his resentment. 
Clement was poisoned by an emissary of Benedict nine months after 
his consecration ; and his successor, Damasus II., shared the same 
fate. When the news reached Hildebrand, he immediately departed 
from the imperial court, hoping to have some influence in the nomina- 
tion of the next pope, but on the road he learned that the Diet of 
Worms, directed by the emperor, had elected Bruno, bishop of To\il, 
under the title of Leo IX. 



e 



GROWTH OF THE PAPAL POWER. 401 

We have now reached an important crisis in the struggle between 
the papal and the imperial power ; the latter had touched the highest 
point of its greatness, and was destined to fall by the dauntless energies 
of one man, Hildebrand, the humble monk of Soano by birth, the con- 
troller of the destiny of nations by talent and position. 

Section IV. — Revival of the Papal Power. 

FROM A. D. 1048 TO A. D. 1070. 

We have seen that papal usurpation began by an attack on the power 
of the Greek empire, and prevailed over the Byzantine court, because 
it was supported by the public opinion of western Europe. To secure 
its acquisitions, the papacy entered into alliance with the CarlovingiaA 
dynasty on terms favorable to both ; but in the struggle that followed 
the partition of Charlemagne's empire, it was shorn of its strength, for 
the growth of its greatness was too rapid to be permanent. When the 
nobles of Italy had attained the rank of petty princes, the territorial 
possessions of the church, naturally excited their cupidity, and when 
the German emperors had extended their sway beyond the Alps, they 
felt that a controlling influence in the papal elections was necessary to 
the permanence of their power. Had both combined, the papacy would 
have been annihilated, the pope would have been a mere vassal of the 
emperor, and his temporal dominions would have been rent in sunder by 
rival princes. But even when the papacy was enslaved, either to 
aristocratic factions, or to despotic autocrats, it was secretly collecting 
materials for its liberation and future triumph. It was generating an 
opinion which gave the papacy, as an institution, greater strength and 
surer permanence than it possessed in the days of its former prosperity. 

It was under the pressure of the feudal system that the organization 
of popery was completed and defined ; opposed both to princes and 
emperors, it was thrown for support entirely on the people. By its nu- 
merous gradations of rank, the church of the middle ages linked itself 
with every class of the community : its bishops were the companions 
of princes ; its priests claimed reverence in the baronial hall ; its preach- 
ing friars and monks brought consolation to the- cottage of the suffering 
peasant. Great as were the vices of individuals, the organization of the 
clerical body continued to be respectable, and this was an immense ad- 
vantage when every other portion of civilized society was a mass of 
confusion. When the distinction of caste was rigidly established in 
all the political forms of social life, the church scarcely knew any 
aristocracy but that of talent ; once received into holy orders, the serf 
lost all traces of his bondage ; he was not merely raised to an equality 
with the former lord, but he could aspire to dignities which threw those 
of temporal princes into the shade. The clerical was thus identified 
with the popular cause, and the bulk of the laity not only received the 
claims of the priesthood, but gave them additional extension. 

Hildebrand was the first who perceived the tendency and the strength 
of this current, and he probably was sincere in his belief that the 
church supplied the only means by which the regeneration of Europe 
could be effected. Feudalism, the worst of foes to social order, stood 
opposed to the sovereignty of the monarch and the liberty of the 

26 



402 MODERN HISTORY. 

subject ; the emperors were too weak, the people too ignorant, to strug- 
gle against it ; and the wise arrangements of Providence, by which 
good has been so frequently wrought out of evil, made the revival of 
popery the instrument by which Europe was rescued from barbarism. 
Hildebrand's personal character is really a matter of no importance ; 
his measures in the present age would justly subject him to the charge 
of extravagant ambition and bhmdering tyranny ; but in the eleventh 
century, every one of these measures was necessary to counteract some 
evil principle, and milder or more justifiable means would not have been 
adequate to the occasion. We must not pass sentence on an institution 
without examining the opinion on which it is founded ; and before we 
judge of the opinion, we must estimate the circumstances by which it 
was engendered. The disorganized state of Europe produced a strong 
opinion that some power for appeal and protection should be constitu- 
ted ; a power with intelligence to guide its decisions, and sanctity to en- 
force respect for them : the revived papacy seemed an institution suited 
to these conditions, and imder the circumstances it was capable of being 
rendered the great instrument for reforming civil society. 

Hildebrand's own writings prove that his design was to render the 
papacy such an institution as we have described ; it was indeed a 
beautiful theory to base power upon intelligence, and concentrate both 
in the church. But Hildebrand did not make a discovery which too 
often has eluded reformers and legislators, that his plan was suited only 
to peculiar circumstances, that it was only applicable to a period when 
state power was corrupt and popular intelligence restricted, and that to 
give it permanence was to extend its duration beyond the period of its 
utility, and consequently prepare the way for its becoming just as mis- 
chievous as the evils it had been devised to counteract. 

This general view of the state of society will enable us to form a 
better judgment of the struggle in which Hildebrand engaged than 
could be done if we confined ourselves to a simple narrative ; we shall 
now proceed to relate the course adopted by the enterprising monk to 
exalt the spiritual power. 

Leo IX., on whom the emperor, as we have said, conferred the 
papacy, was a prelate of virtuous principles and strict integrity, but he 
was a man infirm of purpose, and weak in understanding. Hildebrand 
was well aware of the advantages that might be derived from the pope's 
character, and in his first interview he gained such an ascendency over 
Leo's mind, that henceforth the pope was a passive instrument in the 
hands of his adviser. The pontiff naturally dreaded that the circum- 
stance of his having been nominated by the emperor, and elected by a 
German diet, would render him unpopular in Italy ; but Hildebrand 
smoothed the way, and by his personal influence secured Leo a favor- 
able reception at Rome. This service was rewarded by an accumula- 
tion of dignities ; Hildebrand soon united in his person the titles and 
offices of cardinal, sub-deacon, abbot of St. Paul, and keeper of the 
altar and treasury of St. Peter. The clergy and people of Rome ap- 
plauded these proceedings, because the favorite had induced Leo to 
gratify the national vanity, by submitting to the form of a new election 
immediately after his arrival in the city. 

Leo made unremitting exertions to reform the clergy and the monas* 



GROWTH OF THE PAPAL POWER. 403 

tic orders ; but, in the fifth year of his reign he marched against the Nor- 
mans, who were ravaging the south of Italy, and was unfortunately taken 
prisoner. Though the conquerors showed every respect to their cap- 
tive, the misfortune weighed heavily on his proud spirit ; and his grief 
was aggravated by the reproaches of some of his clergy, who con- 
demned him for desecrating his holy office by appearing in arms. He 
died of a broken heart soon after his liberation, and the deposed Bene- 
dict IX. seized the opportunity of reascending the papal throne. 

Hildebrand was opposed to the imperial influence, but he hated 
more intensely the nearer and more dangerous power of the Italian no- 
bles, and therefore he became an active and energetic opponent of their 
creature, Benedict. The monastic orders supported one whom they 
justly regarded as the pride and ornament of their body, and by their 
means Hildebrand gained such a commanding influence over the Roman 
people, that he could truly represent himself to the emperor as their 
delegate in choosing a new pope. Henry nominated a German bishop 
to the dignity, who took the name of Victor II., and the cardinal-monk 
hoped to exercise the same authority in the new reign that he had pos- 
sessed under Leo IX. The pope, however, soon became weary of 
having " a viceroy over him ;" he sent his ambitious minister into 
France with the title of legate, under the honorable pretext of correct- 
ing the abuses that had crept into the Gallican church. Hildebrand 
performed his task with more rigor than it would have been prudent 
for a less popular minister to display ; he excommunicated several im- 
moral priests and bishops, and even sentenced some monks to death 
for a breach of their monastic vows. After a year's absence he returned 
to Rome more powerful than ever, and Victor was content to receive 
him as his chief adviser and director. 

In the meantime the emperor Henry died, and was succeeded by his 
son of the same name, who was yet an infant. Hildebrand was too 
sagacious not to discover the advantage with which the papal power 
would struggle against the imperial during a minority, and he secretly 
prepared for the contest. The death of Victor, speedily followed by 
that of his successor, Stephen IX., delayed, but did not alter, the car- 
dinal-monk's intentions, for circumstances compelled him to appear as 
an advocate of the imperial authority. 

On the death of Stephen, the aristocratic faction, presuming on the 
minority of the emperor, rushed at night, with a body of armed men, 
into the Vatican church, where they declared John, bishop of Velitri, 
one of their body, pope, with the title of Benedict X. Hildebrand 
received this intelligence as he returned from Germany ; it was brought 
to him by the terrified cardinals and bishops who had fled from Rome ; 
he assembled the fugitives at Sienna, and prevailed upon them to elect 
the bishop of Florence, who took the name Nicholas 11, The empe- 
ror's sanction was easily procured for the latter election, and the impe- 
rial court was persuaded that it was supporting its own interests when 
it placed Nicholas upon the papal throne. 

Circumstances soon occurred to prove that the Germans had been 
deluded ; Nicholas assembled a council at Rome, in which it was de- 
creed that the cardinals alone should in future have a voice in the 
election of the pope ; but to avoid any open breach with the emperor, 



404 MODERN HISTORY. 

a clause was added, reserving to him all due honor and respect, A 
less equivocal proceeding soon followed ; the Normans, who had set- 
tled in the south of Italy, had become more amenable to the church 
than they had been in the days of Leo. The lust of conquest was 
abated, and they were now anxious to obtain some security for their 
possessions ; they therefore tendered their alliance and feudal allegi- 
ance to the pope, on condition of his confirming their titles. By the 
advice of Hildebrand, Nicholas gave to Richard Guiscard the princi- 
pality of Capua, and granted Robert Guiscard the title of duke, Avith 
the investiture of all the lands he had conquered, or should conquer, in 
Sicily, Apulia, and Calabria. 

The pope readily granted that to which he had no right, a proceed- 
ing that might have cost him dear, if the old emperor had survived : 
the Normans, in return, lent their aid to punish the enemies of Nicho- 
las in the Roman territory. The lands of the turbulent aristocracy 
were ravaged with unsparing cruelty, and it is to the desolation thus 
produced, that the depopulation of the country roimd Rome, even at 
the present day, must be attributed. 

While Hildebrand was maturing his plans for re-establishing the 
papacy, many circumstances occurred, which proved the expediency 
of establishing a central controlling power in the church. The eccle- 
siastics of Milan had been, for nearly two hundred years, independent 
of the holy see, and their church had become the scandal of Italy. 
Benefices were openly sold, immoralities flagrantly practised, until at 
length a respectable portion of the laity requested the interference of 
the pope. Peter Damian was sent as a legate to Milan, but the popu- 
lace, incited by the priests, raised a formidable insurrection, and threat- 
ened to murder him for menacing their independence. Peter, undis- 
mayed, ascended a pulpit in one of their principal churches, and made 
such an eff'ective discourse, that the rioters not only submitted, but en- 
couraged him to pursue his task of investigation. The inquiry proved, 
that nearly every priest in Milan had purchased hrs preferment, and 
liA-ed with a concubine. The archbishop, after an obstinate resistance, 
was brought to confess, that he had transgressed the canons ; but he 
was pardoned by the legate, on condition of swearing, with his clergy, 
to observe the ecclesiastical rules for the future. Scarcely, however, 
had the legate departed, "when the clergy assailed the archbishop for 
betraying the rights of their church, and compelled him to retract the 
conditions to which he had so recently sworn. The troubles in Milan 
burst out afresh, and the profligacy of the clerg)^ seemed to have been 
increased by the temporary inteiTuption. 

Ere Nicholas could make any effort to tenuinate these disorders, he 
was seized by a mortal disease ; his death made a great change in the 
political aspect of Italy, for the church party, encouraged by Hilde- 
brand, set both the emperor and the aristocracy at defiance. The car- 
dinals and bishops, without waiting for the imperial sanction, conferred 
the papacy on Anselmo, bishop of Lucca, who took the title of Alex- 
ander II. ; on the other hand, the counts of Tuscany, hoping to recover 
the lands that had been wrested from them by the Normans, declared 
that they would support the emperor's right of nomination. The Ro- 
man nobles had hitherto owed their partial success to their having sup- 



GROWTH OP THE PAPAL POWER. 405 

ported a national prelate ; they soon found that their strength was 
gone, when they gave their aid to a foreign competitor. Supported by 
a German and Lombard army, Cadislaus, who had been chosen by the 
emperor, appeared before the gates of Rome, but the citizens refused 
him admission. At first the iniperiaUsts gained some advantages, but 
tlie arrival of Duke Godfrey, with an auxiliary force of Normans, 
changed the fortunes of the war, and Cadislaus was compelled to make 
a hasty retreat. He sought refuge in the castle of St. Angelo, where 
he was closely besieged. Soon afterward, the young emperor, having 
been removed by a stratagem from the protection of his mother, was 
placed under the control of the archbishops of Bremen and Cologne ; 
at their instigation he recognised Alexander as the legitimate pope, and 
Cadislaus, finding himself abandoned by his principal protector, fled in 
disguise from the castle of St. Angelo to his native diocese, where he 
died in obscurity. 

During the brief reign of Alexander, Hildebrand was the real gov- 
ernor of the church. As soon as the war with Cadislaus was ended, 
he directed his attention to the affairs of Milan, excommunicating the 
perjured archbishop, and ordering that all the priests who were mar- 
ried, or who lived in concubinage, should be ejected from their cures. 
Supported by the populace and a large body of the nobles, the papal 
legate not only enforced this decree, but obtained from the clergy and 
people a solemn oath, that, for the future, they would hold no election 
of a bishop valid, unless it was confirmed by the pope. 

The excommunicated archbishop resigned his see, and sent the in- 
signia of his office, the pastoral rod and ring, to the emperor. God- 
frey, a deacon of Milan, was appointed to supply the vacancy by the 
imperial council ; but the citizens of Milan refused to receive him, 
and chose for their archbishop, Atto, a nominee of the pope. A fierce 
war raged between the rival prelates, and Alexander, indignant at the 
support that Godfrey received from the emperor, summoned that prince 
to appear before his tribunal, on a charge of simony, and granting in- 
vestitures without the approbation of the see of Rome. 

Neither the ambition nor the cares of Pope Alexander, or rather his 
instigator Hildebrand, were confined to the Italian peninsula. By 
means of the popularity which the pretensions of the mendicant friars 
had given their order throughout Europe, he established an interest for 
himself in every part of Christendom. Faithful agents kept a strict 
watch over the proceedings of the emperor Henry, legates were sent 
to Denmark and Norway, the allegiance of the king of Bohemia was 
secured by permission to wear the mitre, and the virtual independence 
cf the Anglo-Saxon church was destroyed by the Norman conquest, to 
the success of which the interference of the pope and of Hildebrand 
materially contributed. 

The pretexts of the pontiffs are characteristics of the superstitions of 
the age. Harold, the last Saxon monarch of 'England, had, during 
an accidental visit to Normandy, been forced to swear that he would 
favor the succession of William, whose claims were founded on a real 
or pretended promise of Edward the Confessor. This compulsory oath, 
it seems, would not have been considered binding, had not Harold un- 
wittingly sworn it on a chest of relics, collected from aU the surround- 



406 MODERN HISTORY. 

ing churches. When, therefore, on the death of Edward, he accepted 
the crown, proffered to him by the free voice of the Anglo-Saxons, he 
was regarded, not as a patriot resolved to maintain his country's inde- 
pendence, but as a perjured wretch who had trampled on the most sol- 
cnm obligations. Hildebrand eagerly seized this opportunity of estab- 
lishing the papal supremacy over a national church, whose claims to 
independence had long given offence at Rome. At his instigation, the 
claims of the Norman duke to the English crown were solemnly recog- 
nised by the papal council : a bull containing this decision was sent to 
William, together with a consecrated standard, and a ring, said to con- 
tain a hair from the head of St. Peter, enclosed in a diamond of consid- 
erable value. But we learn from a letter, subsequently addressed by 
Hildebrand to the conqueror, that there were some in the conclave who 
opposed this iniquitous interference with the rights of nations, and se- 
verely reproached the cardinal-monk for advocating the cause of a ty- 
rannical usurper. 

But Hildebrand did not extend to the Normans in Italy the same fa- 
vor that he showed to their brethren in England. Aided by the forces 
of the countess Matilda, a devoted adherent of the church, and heiress 
to a considerable territory, he forced them to resign the districts they 
had wrested from the holy see. Anxious to retain this sovereignty, 
Hildebrand violently opposed a marriage between the countess and God- 
frey Gobbo, a son whom her step-father had by a former wife, before his 
marriage with her mother. Such a union, indeed, was warranted by 
the strict letter of the canonical degrees, but still it was, in some degree, 
revolting to the feelings. Gobbo was excommunicated, but Hildebrand 
secretly hinted that he might be reconciled to the church, on making 
proper submissions. 

But all these political struggles were cast into the shade, by the 
daring citation of the emperor Henry : every one regarded it as a dec- 
laration of war between the spiritual and temporal authorities, and it 
must have been obvious to all, that the death of Alexander H. only de- 
layed the contest. More had been done during the reign of this pope 
to extend the authority of the papacy, than in any former pontificate ; 
but this must not be attributed either to the faults or to the merits of 
Alexander, who was a mere instrument in the hands of his ambitious 
minister. The monks, to raise Hildebrand's fame, published tales of 
the numerous miracles he wrought, which were greedily received by 
the superstitious populace, and tended greatly to extend his influence : 
we have taken no notice of these legends ; a greater miracle than any 
they record, is, that rational beings should be found sufficiently credu- 
lous to believe and repeat such monstrous absurdities. 

Section V. — Pontificate of Gregory VII. 

FROM A. D. 1073 TO A. D. 1086. 

Thkre were few statesmen in any part of Christendom, who did not 
dread the accession of Hildebrand to the papacy, but there were none 
prepared to provoke his resentment by interfering to prevent his elec- 
tion. The irregular and precipitate manner in which he was chosen, 
seems to prove that some opposition was dreaded by his partisans ; and 



GROWTH OF THE PAPAL POWER. 407 

Hildebrand himself found it necessary to disarm hostility, by an affec- 
tation of submission to the emperor. He wrote to Henry, that he had 
been chosen against his will, that he had no wish for the office, and that 
he would not be consecrated without the imperial sanction. Deceived 
by this hypocrisy, Henry ratified the irregular election, and Hildebrand 
was enthroned with the title of Gregory VH. 

No sooner was he secured on the throne, than he began to put in ex- 
ecution his favorite plan for securing the independence of the church, 
by preventing lay interference in the collation of benefices. Before he 
had been a month elected, he sent a legate ^nto Spain, to reform the ec- 
clesiastical abuses of that kingdom ; but principally to claim for the apos- 
tolic see all the conquests that had recently been made from the Moors, 
under the pretence that the Spanish peninsula, before the Saracenic 
invasion, had been tributary to the successors of St. Peter. Henry was 
so much daunted by this and similar displays of vigor, that he sent a 
submissive letter to the pontiff, acknowledging his former errors in his 
dispute with Alexander, which he attributed to his youth and the influ- 
ence of evil counsellors, desiring him to arrange the troubles in the 
church of Milan at his discretion, and promising to assist him in every- 
thing with the imperial authority. 

The two great objects of the pope were, to enforce the celibacy of 
the clergy, and the papal right to the investiture of bishops. The for- 
mer of these projects was a matter of discipline, defended on plausible 
grounds of expediency. Its advocates pleaded that a clergyman unen- 
cumbered with the cares of a family could devote his whole attention to 
the flock intrusted to his charge ; and that a bishop without children 
would be free to exercise his patronage without being warped by domes- 
tic affection. On the other hand, men were thus forced to sacrifice the 
noblest and best of human feelings ; they were denaturalized, cut off 
from the influences of social life : the church became the country and 
the home of every person who embraced the ecclesiastical profession. 
After ordination, the priest and the bishop were no longer Germans, 
Spaniards, or Englishmen ; they were Romans — ministers and peers of 
a mighty empire, that claimed the dominion of the whole globe. Like 
the envoy or minister of any foreign government, a member of the 
Romish hierarchy observes the laws of the state in which his master 
may have placed him, and respects for a time the authority of the local 
magistrate : but his order is his country, the pontiff is his natural sover- 
eign, and their welfare and their honor are the appropriate objects of his 
public care. The constant sight of such a sacrifice of the natural feel- 
ings of mankind, was obviously calculated to win the respect of the laity, 
and gain credence for the superior sanctity that was supposed to invest 
the character of a priest. 

The pope's determination to destroy the practice of lay investitures, 
was defended on more plausible grounds. The administration of eccle- 
siastical patronage by the emperor and other temporal princes, was lia- 
ble to great abuses, and had actually led to many : they supplied vacan- 
cies with the ignorant, the depraved, and the violent ; they sought for 
the qualifications of a soldier or a politician, when they had to elect a 
bishop. In a dark age, when monarchs and nobles were rarely able to 
write their own names ; when the knowledge of the alphabet, even in 



408 MODERN HISTORY. 

aristocratic families, was so rare, as to be deemed a spell against witch- 
craft ; and when the fierce qualities of a warrior were valued more highly 
than the Christian virtues, it seemed almost necessary to render ap- 
pointments in the church independent of the state. But to this obvious 
expediency, Gregory VII. added a blasphemous claim of right, as 
Christ's vicar on earth, and inheritor of his visible throne. While, 
however, we condemn such impious assumptions, we should not re- 
fuse to Hildebrand the credit of higher and purer motives than those 
of personal aggrandizement, mingling in his schemes for extending his 
own power and that of his* successors. It is undeniable that the cor- 
porate authority he procured for the church became, in many Euro- 
pean countries, a source of much benefit during the middle ages, 
overawing the violent, protecting the forlorn, mitigating the prevailing 
ferocity of manners, and supplying in various ways the defects of civil 
institutions. 

Gregory having assembled a general council at Rome, ordained, by 
consent of the bishops present, that if any one should accept investiture 
from a layman, both the giver and the receiver should be excommuni- 
cated ; that the prelates and nobles who advised the emperor to claim 
the collation of benefices should be excommunicated ; and that all mar- 
ried priests should dismiss their wives, or be deposed. These decrees 
were communicated to the sovereigns of Europe by Gregory himself, 
in letters' that must ever remain a monument of his consummate abilities. 
His monstrous claims for the universal supremacy of the church and of 
the Romish see, are proposed in a tone of humility and candor, well 
calculated to win the unthinking and unwary ; his dictations assume the 
form of affectionate suggestions, and his remonstrances resemble those 
of a tender and affectionate father. 

But the pope did not confine his exertions to mere words ; he obliged 
the Normans to quit their conquests in Campania, proposed a crusade 
against the Saracens, who were menacing Constantinople, and offered 
a province in Italy to Sweno, king of Denmark, under the pretence that 
the inhabitants were heretics. The emperor Henry was not deceived 
by Gregory's professions ; he hated the pontiff in his heart, and had 
good reason to believe that the enmity was reciprocal. It was there- 
fore with mingled jealousy and indignation that he saw a new power 
established which more than rivalled his own, and he entered into a se- 
cret alliance with the Normans against their common enemy. In the 
meantime, a conspiracy was formed against the pope in Rome itself by 
some of the aristocracy, whose privileges he had invaded. Cincius, the 
prefect of the city, arrested the pontiff while he was celebrating mass 
on Christmas day, and threw him into prison ; but the populace soon 
rescued their favorite, Cincius would have been torn to pieces but for 
Gregory's interference, and all who had shared in this act of violence 
were banished from the city. Soon afterward, Gregory cited the empe- 
ror to appear before the council at Rome, to answer to the charge of 
protecting excommunicated bishops, and granting investitures without 
the sanction of the holy see. Henry, enraged by the insult, and re- 
lieved from his anxieties in Germany by a recent victory over the Sax- 
ons, resolved to temporize no longer. He assembled a synod at Worms, 
of the princes and prelates devoted to his cause, and procured sentence 



GROWTH OF THE PAPAL POWER. 409 

of deposition against Gregory, on a charge of simony, murder, and 
atheism. 

Gregory was far from being disheartened by the emperor's violence ; 
he assembled a council at Rome, solemnly excommunicated Henry, ab- 
solved his subjects in Germany and Italy from their oath of allegiance, 
deposed several prelates in Germany, France, and Lombardy, and pub- 
lished a series of papal constitutions, in which the claims of the Roman 
pontiffs to supremacy over all the sovereigns of the earth were asserted 
in the plainest terms. 

The most important of these resolutions, which form the basis of the 
political system of popery, were — 

That the Roman pontiff alone can be called universal. 

That he alone has a right to depose bishops. 

That his legates have a right to preside over all bishops assembled in 
a general council. 

That the pope can depose absent prelates. 

That he alone has a right to use imperial ornaments. 

That princes are bound to kiss his feet, and his only. 

That he has a right to depose emperors. 

That no synod or council summoned without his commission can be 
called general. 

That no book can be called canonical without his authority. 

That his sentence can be annulled by none, but that he may annul 
the decrees of all. 

That the Roman church has been, is, and will continue, infallible. 

That whoever dissents from the Romish church ceases to be a catholic 
Christian. 

And, that subjects may be absolved from their allegiance to wicked 
princes. 

Some cautious prelates advised Gregory not to be too hasty in ex- 
communicating his sovereign ; to their remonstrances he made the fol- 
lowing memorable reply : " When Christ trusted his flock to St. Peter, 
saying, ' Feed my sheep,' did he except kings ? Or when he gave him 
the power to bind and loose, did he withdraw any one from his visita- 
tion ? He, therefore, who says that he can not be bound by the bonds 
of the church, must confess that he can not be absolved by it ; and 
he who denies that doctrine, separates himself from Christ and his 
church." 

Both parties now prepared for war, but all the advantages were on 
the side of Gregory At the very commencement of the struggle, Gobbo, 
the most vigorous supporter of the emperor, died, and his widow, the 
countess Matilda, placed all her resources at the disposal of the pontiff. 
So completely, indeed, did this princess devote herself to support the 
interests of Gregory, that their mutual attachment was suspected of 
having transgressed the limits of innocence. The duke of Dalmatia, 
gratified by the title of king, and the Norman monarch of Sicily, prof- 
fered aid to the pontiff; even the Mohammedan emperor of Morocco 
courted his favor, and presented him with the liberty of the Christian 
slaves in his dominions. 

Henry, on the contrary, knew not where to look for support ; in ev- 
ery quarter of his dominions monks and friars preached against their 



410 MODERN HISTORY. 

sovereign, and the prelates by whom he had been supported ; the Saxon 
nobles eagerly embraced a religious pretext to renew their insurrection ; 
the dukes of Suabia and Carinthia demanded a change of dynasty ; 
even the prelates who had been most zealous in urging Henry forward, 
terrified by threats of excommunication, abandoned his cause. A diet 
was assembled at Tribur, attended by two papal legates, in which it was 
resolved that Henry should be deposed, unless within a limited period 
he presented himself before the pope and obtained absolution. 

The prelates and nobles of Lombardy alone maintained their courage, 
and boldly retorted the excommunications of Gregory. Animated by 
the hope of obtaining their efficient aid, Henry resolved to cross the 
Alps instead of waiting for Gregory's arrival in Germany. The hard- 
ships which the unfortunate monarch underwent during this journey, in 
the depth of a severe winter — the dangers to which he was exposed 
from the active malice of his enemies — the sight of the sufferings of his 
queen and child, who could only travel by being enclosed in the hides 
of oxen, and thus dragged through the Alpine passes — would have bro- 
ken a sterner spirit than Henry's. He entered Lombardy completely 
disheartened, and, though joined by considerable forces, he thought only 
of conciliating his powerful enemy by submission. Having obtained a 
conference with the countess Matilda, Henry prevailed upon her to in- 
tercede for him with the pope ; and her intercession, supported by the 
principal nobles of Italy, induced Gregory to grant an interview to his 
sovereign. 

On the 21st of January, 1077, Henry proceeded to Canosa, where the 
pope resided, and was forced to submit to the greatest indignities that 
were ever heaped upon imperial majesty. At the first barrier, he was 
compelled to dismiss his attendants ; when he reached the second, he 
was obliged to lay aside his imperial robes, and assume the habit of a 
penitent. For three entire days he was forced to stand barefooted and 
fasting, from morning till night, in the outer court of the castle, during 
one of the severest winters that had ever been known in northern 
Italy, imploring pardon of his transgressions from God and the pope. 
He was at length admitted into the presence of the haughty pontifT, and, 
after all his submissions, obtained, not the removal, but the suspension 
of the excommunication. 

Such harsh treatment sank deep into Henry's mind ; and his hostility 
to Gregory was exasperated by the pontiff accepting a grant of the 
countess Matilda's possessions for the use of the church, which would 
legally revert to the empire after her decease. The reproaches of the 
Lombards also induced him to repent of his degradation, and he renewed 
the war by a dishonorable and ineffectual attempt to arrest Gregory and 
Matilda. In the meantime the discontented nobles of Germany had as- 
sembled a diet at Fercheim, deposed their sovereign, and elected Ro- 
dolph, duke of Suabia, to the empire. This proceeding greatly embar- 
rassed the pope ; he dared not declare against Henry, who was power- 
ful in Italy, and if he abandoned Rodolph, he would ruin his own party 
in Germany. He resolved to preserve a neutrality in the contest, and in 
the meantime he directed his attention to the internal state of the church, 
which had for some time been distracted by the controversy respecting 
the eucharist. 



GROWTH OF THE PAPAL POWER. 411 

It is not easy to determine by whom the doctrine of transubstantiation. 
was first broached : Seldenvery justly says, " This opinion is only rhet- 
oric turned into logic," and it is easy to see how the spiritual presence 
of our Savior in the holy communion might, in a dark and ignorant age, 
be represented as an actual change of the consecrated elements into his 
material substance. We are not concerned with the theological errors 
of this doctrine ; our subject only requires us to notice the political pur- 
poses to which it was applied. No article 0|f faith was better calcu- 
lated to exalt the power of the priesthood ; it represented them as daily 
working a miracle equally stupendous and mysterious ; true, its nature 
was incomprehensible, but this circumstance, instead of exciting a sus- 
picion of its absurdity, only increased the reverence with which it was 
regarded. We must not then be surprised at the zeal that the Romish 
priesthood has ever manifested in defending an opinion which has so 
materially strengthened its influence. The confessor to the queen of 
Spain is said to have rebuked the opposition of a nobleman, by saying, 
" You should respect the man who every day has your God in his hands 
and your queen at his feet." In this brief sentence, the purpose of the 
doctrine is distinctly stated ; it conferred political power, and was there- 
fore to be defended at all hazards. But common sense frequently re- 
volted at a doctrine contracted by sight, feeling, and taste ; in the elev- 
enth century it was ably exposed by Berengarius, a priest of Tours, who 
assailed it at once with ridicule and with argument. But in his eightieth 
year, Berengarius was prevailed upon by Gregory to renounce his for- 
mer opinions, and transubstantiation was generally received as an article 
of faith. 

A victory obtained by Rodolph induced Gregory to depart from his 
cautious policy ; he excommunicated Henry, and sent a crown of gold 
to his rival. The indignant emperor summoned a council in the moun- 
tains of the Tyrol, pronounced Gregory's deposition, and proclaimed 
Gilbert, archbishop of Ravenna, pope, by the name of Clement III. 
Gregory immediately made peace with the Normans, and, supported 
by them and the Countess Matilda, he bade his enemies defiance. But 
in the meantime, Rodolph was defeated and slain, the discontented 
Germans Avere forced to submit to the imperial authority, and Henry, 
at the head of a victorious array, crossed the Alps. The Norman 
dukes, engaged in war with the Greek emperors, neglected their ally, 
and the forces of the countess Matilda were unable to cope with the 
imperialists. Twice was Henry driven from before the walls of Rome ; 
but the third time he gained an entrance, by a lavish distribution of 
bribes, and procured the solemn installation of Clement. The emper- 
or's departure left his partisans exposed to the vengeance of Gregory ; 
the pontiff returned at the head of a Norman army, and gave the city 
to be pillaged by his barbarous auxiliaries. Having reduced Rome al- 
most to a mass of ruins, Gregory retired to Salerno, where he was 
seized with a mortal disease. He died unconquered, repeating with 
his latest breath the excommunications which he had hurled against 
Henry, the antipope, and their adherents. He viewed his own conduct 
in the struggle with complacency, and frequently boasted of the good- 
ness of his cause. " I have loved righteousness and hated iniquity," 
he exclaimed, " and it is therefore I die an exile." 



412 MODERN HISTORY. 

Gregory may be regarded as the great founder of the political system 
of popery ; and therefore, while he is extolled by some historians as a 
saint, others have described him as a disgrace to humanity. But the 
character of this remarkable man was formed by his age, and developed 
by the circumstances that surrounded him. He was the representative 
both of popery and democracy, principles apparently inconsistent, but 
which in ancient and modern times have frequently been found in close 
alliance. With the sanctity of the church he shielded the people ; with 
the strength of the people he gave stability to the church. In the 
course of his long career as the secret and as the acknowledged ruler 
of the papacy, he displayed unquestionable abilities of the highest or- 
der ; his pretensions to ascetic piety gained him the enthusiastic ad- 
miration of the multitude ; the soldiers regarded him as a brave warrior 
and successful general ; the higher ranks of the clergy yielded in the 
council to his fervid eloquence and political skill. His very faults be- 
came elements of his success: he was severe, vindictive, and inexor- 
able : he knew not what it was to forgive ; none of his enemies could 
elude the patient search and the incessant vigilance with which he 
pursued those against whom he treasured wrath. It Avas his custom 
to witness the execution of those whose death he decreed ; and it was 
awful to contemplate the serenity of his countenance and the placidity 
of his manners while he presided over tortures and massacres. It can 
not, therefore, be a matter of wonder that the power of such a man 
should have swept over Christendom like a torrent, and hurried every- 
thing into the vortex of his new and gigantic institutions. 

Section VI. — The War of Investitures. 

FROM A. D. 1086 TO A. D. 1152. 

Henry gained only a brief respite by the death of his formidable 
and inveterate antagonist. Victor HI. was elected by the cardinals, 
and during his brief reign he gained several advantages over the impe- 
rial party. He was succeeded by Urban II., the friend and pupil of 
Gregory, who commenced his pontificate by sending an encyclical let- 
ter to the Christian churches, declaring his resolution to adhere to the 
political system of his deceased master. Supported by the Normans, 
Urban entered Rome, and assembled a council of one hundred and fif- 
teen bishops, in which the emperor, the antipope, and their adherents, 
were solemnly excommunicated. At the same time he negotiated a 
marriage between Guelph, son of the duke of Bavaria, a distinguished 
supporter of the papal cause in Germany, and the countess Matilda. 
From this union, the present dukes of Brunswick and Lunenburgh, and 
the reigning family of England, trace their descent. Henry marched 
into Italy, and though vigorously opposed by Guelph, gained several 
important advantages ; but the papal intrigues raised enemies against 
him in the bosom of his family ; his eldest son Conrad rebelled, and 
was crowned king of Italy by Urban. This revolt compelled Henry to 
abandon his recent acquisitions, and retire toward the Alps. 

A council was summoned to meet at Placentia, and so large a num- 
ber of bishops assembled, that no church could contain them, and they 
were forced to deliberate in the open air. Most of Gregory's decrees 



GROWTH OF THE PAPAL POWEE,. 413 

were re-enacted ; but, in addition to the affair of investitures, the atten- 
tion of the council was directed to the rapid progress of the Moham- 
medans in the east, and the dangers that threatened the empire of Con- 
stantinople (a. d. 1095). The tales of the persecutions to which the 
Christian pilgrims were exposed by the ferocious Turks, who had be- 
come masters of the Holy Land, had excited general indignation 
throughout Europe. Peter the Hermit, a wild fanatic, preached every- 
where the necessity of rescuing the faithful from the infidel Saracens, 
as he ignorantly called the Turks, and such a flame was kindled by his 
exertions, that a decree was issued by the council of Clermont, author- 
izing the first crusade ; and at the same time the king of France, in 
whose dominions the council met, was excommunicated, and could only 
obtain absolution by humiliating submissions. 

The general insanity diffused through Europe by the preaching of 
the first crusade, the multitudes that abandoned their homes to follow 
Walter the Pennyless or Godescald the Fanatic, the massacres of the 
Jews, the sufferings and exploits of the disciplined adventurers that 
marched under the banners of Godfrey, will form the subject of the 
next section ; it is enough here to say that the general fanaticism 
proved of essential service to the papal cause, and that the partisans of 
Henry suffered severely from the fury of the crusaders in their passage 
through Italy. 

Paschal II. was the successor of Urban, and, like him, steadfastly 
pursued the policy of Gregory ; he easily triumphed over the antipope, 
who died of a broken heart, and he urged a second general crusade, 
which the reverses of the Christians in the Holy Land rendered neces- 
sary. To consolidate the papal structure, he assembled a council at 
Rome, and procured the enactment of a new oath, to be taken by all 
ranks of the clergy. By this oath they abjured all heresy, they prom- 
ised implicit obedience to the pope and his successors, to affirm what 
the holy and. universal church confirms, and to condemn what she con- 
demns (a. d. 1104). Soon after, the old emperor, Henry, was treach- 
erously arrested by his own son Henry V., and deprived of his impe- 
rial dignity : he subsequently escaped, but before hostilities made any 
progress, he died of a broken heart. The bishop of Liege honorably 
interred the body of his unfortunate sovereign, but papal enmity pur- 
sued Henry beyond the grave ; the benevolent prelate was excommu- 
nicated, and could only obtain absolution by disinterring the corpse. 

Though Henry V. owed his throne to papal influence, he would not 
yield the imperial right to granting investitures, and his example was 
followed by the kings of England and France. The form in which 
monarchs gave investiture by bestowing a pastoral ring and staff, was 
regarded by the popes as an interference with their spiritual jurisdic- 
tion, and when the form was altered, they gave no further trouble to 
the English and French monarchs, but, in their disputes with the em- 
perors, they not only forbade ecclesiastics to receive investiture from 
laymen, but even to take an oath of allegiance to them. 

The fifth Henry proved a more formidable enemy to the papacy than 
his father ; he led an army into Italy, made Paschal prisoner, compelled 
him to perform the ceremony of his coronation, and to issue a bull se- 
curing the right of investiture to the emperor and his successors. But 



414 MODERN HISTORY. 

the remonstrances of the cardinals induced the pope to annul the treaty, 
and he permitted Henry to be excommunicated by several provincial 
councils. The pontiff, however, did not ratify the sentence until the 
death of the countess Matilda, and the disputes about her inheritance 
created fresh animosities between the empire and the holy see. 

The death of Paschal prevented an immediate war. His successors, 
Gelasius II. and Calixtus II., however, supported his policy, and, after 
a long struggle, the emperor was forced to resign his claim to episco- 
pal investitures, but he was permitted to retain the investiture of the 
temporal rights belonging to the sees. 

During the pontificate of Honorius II., the successor of Calixtus, 
the church of Ireland, for the first time, was brought under the suprem- 
acy of the pope by the exertions of St. Malachi, a monk of great influ- 
ence and reputation. The greater part of the reign of Honorius was 
spent in a contest with the Normans in southern Italy, whom he forced 
to continue in their allegiance. 

Innocent II. and Anacletus, elected by rival factions, were both en- 
throned the same day, and the papacy was consequently rent by a 
schism. Anacletus was the grandson of a converted Jew ; he posses- 
sed great wealth, was a favorite with the Roman populace, and had an 
undoubted majority of the cardinals in his favor, yet he is stigmatized 
as an antipope. This was principally owing to the exertions of the 
celebrated St. Bernard, who warmly espoused the cause of Innocent, 
and procured him the support of the king of France and the German 
emperor. On the death of Anacletus, his party elected another anti- 
pope, but he soon made his submission to Innocent, and the schism was 
appeased. 

A general council was soon afterward assembled at Rome (a. d. 
1139), at which no less than a thousand bishops were present ; several 
ordinances were made for completing the ecclesiastical organization of 
the church. The opinions of Arnold of Brescia were condemned at 
this council ; they were derived from the celebrated Abelard, whose 
controversy with St. Bernard began to excite universal attention. 

Abelard was generally regarded as the most accomplished scholar 
and the best logician in Europe ; crowds of disciples flocked to hear 
his lectures, and though he did not break through the trammels of scho- 
lastic philosophy, he gave an impulse to the spirit of inquiry which, in 
a future age, produced beneficial effects. St. Bernard, whose opinions 
were invested by the bishops with a kind of apostolic authority, accused 
Abelard of teaching heretical opinions respecting the doctrine of the trini- 
ty. Abelard denied the imputation, and the dispute turned on metaphys- 
ical subtleties, to which neither party affixed a definite meaning. Abel- 
ard's opinions were condemned by a council at Sens, but he was 
permitted to retire into the monastery of Clugny, where he died in peace. 

This obscure controversy was the first symptom of the struggle be- 
tween scholastic divinity and philosophy. Abelard was subdued, but 
he bequeathed his cause to a succession of faithful disciples, who grad- 
ually emancipated knowledge from the confinement of the cloister, and 
liberated the human mind from the thraldom of popery. Abelard's opin- 
ions were purely theological ; his disciple, Arnold of Brescia, abandon- 
ing his master's mysticism, directed his attention to the reform of the 



GROWTH OF THE PAPAL POWER.. 415 

church and of the government. He declared that the political power 
and wealth of the clergy were inconsistent with the sanctity of their 
profession, and he began to preach these doctrines in Italy and Ger- 
many ; so great was his influence, that he was invited to Rome, in order 
to revive the republic. Innocent II., Celestine II., Lucius II., and 
Eugenius III., had to struggle with " the politicians," as the followers 
of Arnold were called, for the maintenance of their domestic power ; 
and during this period the aggressions of popery on the rights of kings 
and nations were suspended. Rome set the example of resistance to 
the pontiflTs ; Italy, for a brief space, furnished the boldest opponents to 
the papal usurpations ; but when Europe began to profit by the example, 
the Italians discovered that the overthrow of the papacy would diminish 
the profits which they derived from the payments made by superstition 
and ignorance to the Roman exchequer ; and they lent their aid to the 
support of the lucrative delusion they had been the first to expose, and 
even yielded their liberties to the pontiffs, on condition of sharing in 
their unhallowed gains. 

The claims of the popes to spiritual and temporal power, the means 
they employed to effect their object, their struggle against royal power 
on the one side, and national independence on the other, form the most 
important part of European history during several centuries. A calm 
and careful examination of the origin and growth of the papal system is 
therefore necessary to a right understanding of the social condition of 
Europe in the ages preceding the Reformation. To render this portion 
of history satisfactory to the student, it is necessary to trace back the 
early history of Christianity, and point out some of the corruptions by 
which its purity was early disfigured. 

Section VII. — The Crusades. 

The wars undertaken by the crusaders for the conquest of Palestine, 
at the instigation of the popes, form an essential part of the history of 
the great struggle between the spiritual and temporal powers. To un- 
derstand aright the influence they exercised, it will be necessary to cast 
a retrospective glance at their origin, and at the state of society in the 
eastern and western world, when first this great movement began. 

Pilgrimages to Jerusalem, and the localities that had been hallowed 
by our blessed Savior's presence, were common in the earliest ages of 
the church. They began to multiply very rapidly at the beginning of 
the eleventh century, in consequence of an opinion very generally dif- 
fused, that the end of the world was at hand ; many persons sold their 
estates, and migrated to the Holy Land, to wait there the coming of the 
Lord. While the Saracens remained masters of Palestine, they encour- 
aged and protected visiters whose arrival brought them considerable 
profit, but when the Seljukian Turks wrested the country from the kha- 
liphs of Egypt, the pilgrims were subjected to every extortion and out- 
rage that fanaticism and ignorance could dictate. Their sad recital of 
the calamities they were forced to endure excited universal indignation, 
and Gregory VII. was the first to propose a general arming throughout 
Christendom, for the purpose of driving the Turks beyond the Euphrates. 
The time was not propitious for such an undertaking ; the wars of the 



416 MODERN HISTORY. 

empirn engaged tlie attention and employed the arms of the chief mili- 
tary le."l(!rs. But when the Normans had completed the conquest of 
England and the two Sicilies, when the imperial power had sunk before 
the popes in Italy and the feudal princes in Germany, vast hordes of 
military adventurers who remained without employment, ready to em- 
brace any cause that promised to gratify their love of glory and plunder. 
At this moment an enthusiastic monk, usually called Peter the Hermit, 
indignant at the oppression of the Christians, which he had witnessed 
in Palestine, began to preach the duty of expelling the infidels from the 
patrimony of Christ, and by his energetic labors, widely diffused his 
own fanaticism. 

Peter's zeal was vigorously seconded by Pope Urban II. ; the pontiff 
went personally to France, and held a council at Clermont (a. d. 1095), 
where the war was sanctioned with great enthusiasm, and multitudes 
assumed the badge of the cross, as the symbol of their enlistment. The 
first hordes of crusaders were ignorant fanatics, guided by men of no 
note or experience. They marched without order or discipline, pil- 
laging, burning, and plundering the countries that they traversed. So 
great was the delusion that wliole families joined in these wild expedi- 
tions ; farmers were seen driving carts containing their wives and chil- 
dren in the line of march, while boys bearing mimic implements of war, 
sported round, mistaking every stranger for a Turk, and every new town 
for Jerusalem. Most of these wretches perished by fatigue, famine, 
disease, or the swords of the people they had outraged, but not before 
their excesses had indelibly stigmatized the cause in which they were 
engaged. The Jews along the Rhine suffered most severely from these 
fanatics, who were persuaded that the sacrifice of this unfortunate race 
would be the best propitiation for the success of their expedition. Myr- 
iads of the hapless Jews were massacred with every torture and indig- 
nity that malice could suggest ; whole families committed suicide by 
mutual agreement ; a few submitted to be baptized, and purchased safety 
by apostacy. The archbishop of Mayence exerted all the means in his 
power to protect the wretched victims, but had the mortification to wit- 
ness the murder of those who sought refuge in his own palace. 

At length a regular army was organized, under the command of God- 
frey of Bouillon, duke of Lower Lorraine, one of the most celebrated 
generals of the age. No sovereign joined his standard, but the leading 
nobility of Christendom were enrolled among his followers, among 
whom may be mentioned, Robert, duke of Normandy, eldest son of 
William the Conqueror, Hugh, brother of the king of France, Bohem- 
ond, prince of Tarentum, and Raymond, count of Toulouse. When the 
divisions of this formidable army arrived near Constantinople, Alexis, 
who then ruled the Byzantine empire, was naturally terrified by the 
appearance of hosts too powerful to be received as auxiliaries, and too 
formidable to be rejected as enemies. The crafty Greek had recourse 
to treachery and dissimulation ; after a disgusting train of fraudulent 
negotiations, the Latin warriors passed into Asia, leaving behind them 
worse enemies in the Christians of the Byzantine empire, whom it was 
part of their object to protect, than the Turks they had come to assail. 
Their early career in Asia was glorious, but purchased at an enormous 
expenditure of life. Nicea, the capital of the sultany of Rum, was 



GROWTH OF THE PAPAL POWER. 4lt 

taken ; a great victory over the sultan Soleiman opened a passage into 
Syria ; Antioch was captured after a seige of unparalleled difficulty, 
and finally, Jerusalem, which had been recently wrested from the Turks 
by the Egyptians, fell before the arms of the crusaders, and became the 
capital of a new kingdom (a. d. 1099). 

Jerusalem was obstinately defended by the Mussulmans ; they hurled 
beams and stones on the heads of those who tried to scale the walls, 
and flung burning oil and sulphur on the moveable towers and bridges 
employed by the assailants. The crusaders displayed equal energy, 
but on the second day of assault, just as they were sinking under the 
united effects of weariness and a burning sun, Godfrey declared that he 
saw a celestial messenger on the Mount of Olives, cheering the Chris- 
tians to the combat. The enthusiasm awakened by such a declaration 
bore down every obstacle ; the crusaders made good their lodgement 
on the wall, and the Mohammedans fled into the city. Amid the most 
rapturous shouts of triumph the banner of the cross was planted on the 
towers of Jerusalem, and as it unfurled itself in the wind, many of the 
bravest warriors wept for joy. But the triumph was sullied by an indis- 
criminate and unsparing massacre ; a helpless crowd sought shelter in 
the mosque of Omar, but the gates were speedily forced and the fugi- 
tives butchered ; the knights boasted that they rode in Saracen blood 
up to the knees of their horses. The massacre lasted all day, but 
when the shades of evening began to close around, the crusaders sud- 
denly recollected that they were in the midst of those places which had 
been hallowed by the presence and suff"erings of their Savior. As if 
by some common and supernatural impulse, the savage warriors were 
suddenly changed into devout pilgrims ; each hasted to remove from his 
person the stains of slaughter ; they laid aside their weapons, and in 
the guise of penitents, with bare heads and feet, streaming eyes and 
folded hands, they ascended the hill of Calvary and entered the church 
of the Holy Sepulchre. The services of religion were performed by 
the clergy of Jerusalem, who hailed their deliverers with enthusiastic 
gratitude. 

Godfrey of Bouillon was chosen sovereign of Palestine ; he refused 
the title of king, declaring that Christ was the true monarch of the Holy 
Land, and declined to wear a crown of gold, where his Savior had 
borne a crown of thorns. Baldwin, his brother and successor, was less 
scrupulous ; he assumed the royal ensigns and title, and transmitted the 
throne to his cousin, Baldwin du Bourg, whose posterity continued to 
reign in Palestine until the kingdom was overthrown by Saladin (a. d. 
1187). Several minor states were established by the crusaders, of 
which the most remarkable were the county of Edessa, the principality 
of Antioch, the county of Tripoli, and, at a later period, the kingdom of 
Cyprus. None of these states had long duration ; the Christians of the 
east, continually assailed by powerful enemies, could not be persuaded 
to unite cordially for mutual defence ; victories were scarcely less 
calamitous to them than defeats, on account of the difficulty of obtaining 
reinforcements from Europe ; and though the crusading enthusiasm en- 
dured for two centuries, its heat gradually abated, and nothing would 
have kept it alive but the privileges and grants made by the popes, and 
the principal European potentates, to those who joined in such ^pedi- 

27 



418 MODERN HISTORY. 

tions. Six principal crusades followed the first great movement ; they 
were all either unsuccessful or productive of advantages as fleeting as 
they were trivial. 

Forty-eight years after Jerusalem had been taken by the Christians, 
the emperor, Conrad III., and Louis VII., king of France, undertook a 
second crusade to support the sinking fortunes of their brethren in Pal- 
estine (a. d. 1117). The Atta-beg Zenghi, who had, by his superior 
prowess, obtained the chief command over the Turkish tribes in Irak, 
attacked the Christian territories beyond the Euphrates, and made him- 
self master of Edessa, justly regarded as the bulwark of the kingdom 
of Jerusalem. Conrad proceeded to Constantinople, without waiting 
for his ally. He had to encounter the treacherous hostility of the By- 
zantine emperor, which proved fatal to an army containing the flower 
of German chivalry, including a troop of noble ladies who served in 
the attitude and armor of men. Manuel, who then held the throne of 
Constantinople, gave the sultan secret intelligence of the German line 
of march, and furnished Conrad with treacherous guides. After a 
glorious but unsuccessful battle on the banks of the Maeander, Conrad 
was forced to retreat ; he met the French advancing from the Bospho- 
rus, and the contrast of his own condition with the pomp of Louis, led 
him to desert the cause. The French, undismayed and unwarned, pur- 
sued their march with inconsiderate speed ; their rear-guard was sur- 
prised by the Turkish troops, while the van was at a considerable dis- 
tance, and the greater part put to the sword. Louis brought the shat- 
tered remnant of his forces by sea to Antioch ; the Christians of Pales- 
tine joined him in an unsuccessful siege of Damascus, after which the 
monarch returned to Europe, dishonored by a faithless wife, and de- 
serted by ungrateful allies. This disgraceful termination of an expedi- 
tion from which so much had been expected, diffused feelings of mel- 
ancholy and surprise throughout Europe. St. Bernard, abbot of Clair- 
vaux, through whose influence the crusade was undertaken, had to en- 
counter the storm of public indignation ; he was stigmatized as a lying 
prophet, who, by pretended inspiration and false miracles, had lured 
myriads to a miserable doom. But Bernard was not daunted by these 
reproaches ; he replied to those accusations by pointing out the true 
causes of the failure, the follies and vices of the crusaders themselves ; 
he asserted that a new expedition, undertaken in a spirit of piety, 
would be crowned with success ; and he urged the states of Christen-i 
dom to combine in one great effort for securing the kingdom of Jerusa- 
lem. His efforts to revive the crusading spirit were, however, una- 
vailing, and death surprised him in the midst of his exertions. 

Noureddin,* the son of Zenghi, destroyed the d}'Tiasty of the Fati- 
mite khaliphs in Egypt. His favorite, Saladin,t usurped the govern- 
ment of Eg)^pt, and, though a Kurd by descent, became the favorite 
hero both of the Turks and Arabs. On the death of his ancient master, 
Saladin invaded the Christian territories, and, after a brief siege, made 
himself master of Jerusalem (a. d. 1187). The loss of the holy city 
£lled all Europe with sorrow ; the emperor, Frederic I., the lion-hearted 

• Nur-ed-din signifies "the light of religion." 
• t Salah-ed-din signifies " the safety of religion." 



GROWTH OF THE PAPAL POWEU. 419 

Richard of England, Philip Augustus of France, and several minor 
princes, assumed the cross, while the maritime states of Italy, by send- 
ing immediate reinforcements to the garrisons on the coasts of the 
Mediterranean, arrested the progress of Saladin. Frederic advanced 
through the Byzantine territories, harassed at every step by Greek 
fraud and treachery. Having wintered at Adrianople, he crossed the 
Hellespont, defeated the Turks in several engagements, and stormed 
the city of Iconium. But in the midst of his glorious career he was 
drowned in the river Cydnus (a. d. 1190). The army persevered, and 
joined the eastern Christians in the famous siege of Acre. 

While Acre was closely pressed by the Christians, the besiegers 
were, in their turn, so strictly blockaded by Saladin, that they suffered 
more than the garrison. The kings of England and France, however, 
followed by the flower of their dominions, appeared together as com- 
panions in arms, and reached Palestine by sea. The siege of Acre 
was so vigorously prosecuted after the arrival of the English that the 
town was soon forced to surrender, and the Christians began to indulge 
the hope of recovering Jerusalem. Their expectations were frustrated 
by the jealousy which arose between the French and the English ; 
Philip, unable to brook the superiority which Richard acquired by his 
military prowess, and perhaps, in some degree, by his wealth, returned 
home, leaving a part of his army under the command of the duke of 
Burgundy, for the defence of the Holy Land. But the animosity be- 
tween the French and English parties was increased rather than abated 
by the departure of Philip ; the envy of his companions rendered the 
valorous exertions of Richard unavailing ; he entered into a treaty witli 
Saladin, obtaining for the Christians free access to Jerusalem and the 
Holy Sepulchre, and then hasted home to defend his dominions from 
the attacks of his ancient rival (a. d. 1192). On his return, the 
English monarch was seized and imprisoned by the duke of Austria, 
whom he had grievously insulted in Palestine ; he was subsequently re- 
signed to the custody of the emperor of Germany, from whom he had 
to purchase his liberation by the payment of a large ransom. The il- 
lustrious Saladin did not long survive the departure of the royal crusa- 
der ; he died at Damascus, and the disputes that arose respecting his 
inheritance, prevented the Mohammedans from completing the destruc- 
tion of the Latin kingdom of Palestine. 

The fourth crusade was undertaken at the instigation of Innocent III. 
(a. d. 1202), aided by a fanatic preacher, Foulke of Neuilly. The fer- 
vor of enthusiasm was now abated ; no great sovereign joined in the 
enterprise, but several of the most potent feudatories offered their ser- 
vices, and Boniface, marquis of Montferrat, was chosen commander-in- 
chief. The crusaders obtained transports from the Venetians, by con- 
quering Zara, in Dalmatia, for the republic of Venice, in spite of the 
threats and remonstrances of the pope, who was justly indignant at 
seeing their first efforts directed against a Christian city. But this de- 
parture from their original design was followed by a still more remark- 
able deviation ; instead of proceeding to Palestine, they sailed against 
Constantinople, to dethrone the usurper, Alexius Angelus. The cru- 
saders succeeded in restoring the lawful emperor, Isaac, to his empire ; 
but the reward they claimed for their services was extravagant, and 



420 MODERN HISTORY. 

Isaac's efforts to comply with the stipulations provoked such resent- 
ment, that he was deposed by his subjects, and put to death, together 
with his son. The crusaders instantly proclaimed war against the 
usurper, Mourzoufle, laid siege to Constantinople, took the city by 
storm, pillaged it with remorseless cruelty, and founded a new Latin 
empire on the rains of the Byzantine (a. d. 1204). Baldwin, count of 
Flanders, was chosen sovereign of the new state, which, under five 
Latin emperors, lasted little more than half a century. Constantinople 
was recovered by the Greeks (a. d. 1261), and the hopes of uniting the 
eastern and western churches, which the possession of the Byzantine 
capital had inspired, were blighted for ever. 

The fifth crusade was conducted by the king of Hungary. Two 
hundred thousand Franks landed at the eastern mouth of the Nile, 
persuaded that the conquest of Egypt was a necessary preliminary to 
the recovery and safe possession of Palestine (a. d. 1218). After 
having obtained some important successes, their cause was niined by 
the arrogance and presumption of the papal legate, who assumed the 
direction of the army. They purchased some trivial concessions, by 
evacuating all their conquests ; and the pope, who at first proposed 
to come in person to their assistance, was too busily engaged in 
checking the progress of heresy, to venture on an expedition to Pales- 
tine. 

Frederic IL, emperor of Germany, led a formidable army to Pal- 
estine, after having been excommunicated by Pope Gregory IX. for 
delaying his expedition, a sentence which was renewed because he 
ventured to sail without waiting for the papal orders (a. d. 1228). 
This war exhibited the strange anomaly of a champion of the cross 
exposed to the bitterest hostility of the church. Frederic was every- 
where victorious, but the papal legates and the priests harassed him 
by constant opposition ; a crusade was preached against him in Italy^ 
and efforts were made to weaken his authority in his own hereditary 
dominions, On receiving this intelligence, Frederic concluded an 
equitable treaty with the sultan Melek Kamel, crowned himself at 
Jerusalem, for no ecclesiastic would perform the ceremony, and re- 
turned to Europe, after having effected more for the Christians of Pal- 
estine than any of their former protectors. Gregory again hurled 
anathemas against a prince Avho had made a treaty with the infidels ; 
but Frederic's vigorous exertions soon changed the aspect of affairs ; 
he reduced those who had rebelled during his absence, dispersed the 
papal and Lombard troops, and won absolution by his victories. 

Tranquillity, which endured fifteen years, raised the Latins of 
Palestine to a prosperous condition ; but a new and more formidable 
enemy, issuing from the deserts of Tartary, subverted the kingdom 
which had been fourided at such an expense of blood and treasure. 
The Khorasmian Turks, driven from their native deserts by the Mon- 
gols, threw themselves upon Palestine, stormed Jerusalem, subverted 
the Latin principalities, and the small Turkish states in Syria. Jeru- 
salem, and the greater part of Palestine, was subsequently annexed to 
the sultany of Egypt. 

Louis IX., of France, commonly called St. Louis, led the ninth 
crusade. Egypt was the scene of his operations ; after obtaining some 



GROWTH OF THE PAPAL POWER. 421 

important triumphs, he was defeated, made prisoner, and forced to 
purchase his freedom by the payment of a large ransom (a. d. 1250). 
The pope's inveterate hostility to Frederic was one of the chief causes 
that led to the ruin of this crusade. At the moment that Louis sailed, 
Jnnocent was preaching a crusade against the emperor in Europe, and 
the Dominicans were stimulating their hearers to rebellion and assassi- 
nation. The lamentable loss of the French army, the captivity of the 
" most Christian king," and the utter ruin of the Latin kingdom in Pal- 
estine, failed to shake the obstinacy of the pontiff. It seemed even 
that the death of Frederic redoubled his fury, as if his prey had escaped 
from his hands. " Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad," 
was his address to the clergy of Sicily, " for the lightning and the 
tempest, wherewith God Almighty has so long menaced your heads, 
have been changed, by the death of this man, into refreshing zephyrs 
and fertilizing dews." 

Untaught by calamity, he prepared for a second crusade ; on his 
voyage to the place of rendezvous, he was induced to steer to Tunis, 
in the wild hope of baptizing its king (a. d. 1270). Instead of a 
proselyte, Louis found a tedious siege, and a mortal disease. On his 
death, the remnant of his army was led back to Europe without making 
any further effort. The fate of Palestine was for a time delayed by the 
valor of Edward I., of England, who extorted a three years' truce 
from the Mohammedans. At length, some excesses of the Latins pro- 
voked the resentment of the Mameluke sultan, Khalil ; he resolved to 
expel them completely from Palestine, and laid siege to their last 
stronghold, Acre (a. d. 1291). The city was taken after a tedious 
siege, and after its fall the title of King of Jerusalem, still preserved 
by the Christian princes, became an empty name. 

Section VIII. — The Crusade against the Albigenses. 

It has been already mentioned that the growth of heresy was be- 
ginning to alarm the advocates of papal supremacy in the reign of 
Alexander III., and that a general council had pronounced a solemn 
decree against the Albigenses. But the feudal lords of France and 
Italy were slow in adopting an edict which would have deprived them 
of their best vassals, and the new opinions, or rather the original doc- 
trines of Christianity, were secretly preached throughout the greater 
part of Europe. It may be conceded to the defenders of the papal 
system that there were some among the preachers of a reformation 
who had given too great a scope lo their imaginations, and revived 
many of the dangerous errors of the Manichasans and Paulicians. 
There seems no just cause for doubting that a few enthusiasts ascribed 
the Old Testament to the principle of Evil ; because, as they asserted, 
" God is there described as a homicide, destroying the world by water, 
Sodom and Gomorrah by fire, and the Egyptians by the overflow of 
the Red sea." But these were the sentiments of a very small minori- 
ty ; the bulk of the x\lbigensian reformers protested simply against the 
doctrine of transubstantiation, the sacraments of confirmation, confes- 
sion, and marriage, the invocation of saints, the worship of images, 
and the temporal power of the prelates. Their moral character was 



422 MODERN HISTOIIY. 

confessed by their enemies, but while they acknowledged its external 
purity, they invented the blackest calumnies respecting their secret 
practices, without ever bringing forward a shadow of proof, and conse- 
quently without incurring the hazard of refutation. The progress of 
reform was silent ; for the efforts of the ptifnins, or Albigensian teach- 
ers, were directed rather to forming a rnoral and pure society within 
the church, than to the establishment of a new sect. They seemed 
anxious to hold the same relation to the Romish establishment that 
John Wesley designed the Methodists to keep toward the church of 
England. Their labors generated an independence of spirit and free- 
dom of judgment which would probably have led to an open revolt, had 
not Innocent III. discerned the danger to which the papal system was 
exposed, and resolved to crush freedom of thought before its exercise 
would subvert his despotism. 

Innocent's first step was to enlist cupidity and self-interest on his 
side ; he abandoned to the barons the confiscated properties of heretics, 
and ordered that the enemies of the church should be for ever banished 
from the lands of which they were deprived. He then sent commis- 
sioners into the south of France, to examine and punish those suspected 
of entertaining heretical opinions, and thus laid the first foundation of 
the Inquisition. The arrogance and violence of these papal emissaries 
disgusted every class of society ; finding that their persecutions were 
unpopular, they resolved to support their power by force of arms, and 
they were not long in discovering the materials of an army. 

Raymond VI., count of Toulouse, was engaged in war with some 
of the neighboring barons, and Peter de Castelnau, the papal legate, 
ofl'ered to act as mediator. He went to the barons, and obtained from 
them a promise that, if Raymond would consent to their demands, they 
would employ all the forces they had assembled to extirpate heresy. 
Castelnau drew up a treaty on these conditions, and offered it to Ray- 
mond for his signature. The count was naturally reluctant to purchase 
the slaughter of his best subjects, by the sacrifice of his dominions, 
and the admission of a hostile army into his states. He peremptorily 
refused his consent, upon which Castelnau excommunicated Raymond, 
placed his dominions under an interdict, and Avrote to the pope for a 
confirmation of the sentence. 

Innocent III. confirmed the legate's sentence, and began to preach 
a crusade ; but his violence transcended all bounds, when he learned 
that Castelnau had been slain by a gentleman of Toulouse whom he 
had personally insulted (a. d. 1208). Though Raymond appears to 
have had no sliare in this murder, it was against him that the papal 
vengeance was principally directed : he was excommunicated, his sub- 
jects absolved from their oath of allegiance, and the French king was 
invited to despoil him of his estates. 

Philip Augustus was too busily engaged in wars with the king of 
England and the emperor of Germany to turn his attention to the extir- 
pation of heresy ; but he permitted a crusade against the Albigenses to 
be preached throughout his dominions, and the monks of Citeaux be- 
came the chief missionaries of this unholy war ; they promised the 
pardon of all sins committed from the day of birth to death, to those 
who fell in the war, unlimited indulgence, the protection of the church, 



GROWTH OF THE PAPAL POWER. 423 

and a large share of spoil to all who survived. While the monks were 
enlisting ferocious bands of wretches, who believed that they might 
expiate their former crimes by the perpetration of fresh atrocities, In- 
nocent was preparing a new mission to Languedoc, whose savage bru- 
talities exceeded even those of the crusaders. A new monastic order 
was instituted, at the head of which was placed a Spaniard named St. 
Dominic, whose special object was to extirpate heresy, by preaching 
against the doctrines of those who dissented from the church, and pun- 
ishing with death those who could not be convinced by argument. 
This institution, too well known by the dreaded name of the Inquisi- 
tion, appears to have been originally planned by the bishop of Tou- 
louse, who introduced it into his diocese about seven years before it 
was formally sanctioned by Pope Innocent at the council of Lateran. 

Raymond VI., and his nephew Raymond Roger, viscount of Albi, 
alarmed at the approaching danger, presented themselves before the 
papal legate, Arnold, abbot of Citeaux, to avert the coming storm by 
explanations and submissions. They protested that they had never 
sanctioned heresy, and that they had no share in the murder of Castel- 
nau. The severity with which they were treated by the legate, con- 
vinced the young viscount that nothing was to be hoped from negotia- 
tion, and he returned to his states, resolved to defend himself to the 
last extremity : the count of Toulouse showed less fortitude ; he prom- 
ised to submit to any conditions which the pope would impose. 

Raymond's ambassadors were received by the pope with apparent 
indidgence ; but the terms on which absolution were offered to the 
count could scarcely have been more severe. He was required to make 
common cause with the crusaders, to aid them in the extirpation of 
heretics — that is, his own subjects — and to give up seven of his best 
castles as a pledge of his intentions. Innocent declared that, if Ray- 
mond performed these conditions, he would not only be absolved, but 
taken into special favor ; yet, at the very same moment, the pope was 
inflexibly resolved on the count's destruction. 

In the spring of the year 1209, all the fanatics who had taken arms 
at the preaching of the monks of Citeaux, began to assemble on the 
borders of Languedoc ; the land was spread in beauty before them — 
ere long it was to be a howling wilderness. Raymond VI. sank into 
abject cowardice ; he yielded up his castles, he promised implicit sub- 
mission to the legate, he even allowed himself to be publicly beaten 
with rods before the altar, as a penance for his errors. As a reward 
for his humiliation, he was permitted to serve in the ranks of the cru- 
saders, and to act as their guide in the war against his nephew. 

Raymond Roger showed a bolder spirit ; finding the papal legate 
implacable, he summoned his barons together, and having stated all his 
exertions to preserve peace, made a stirring appeal to their generosity 
and their patriotism. All resolved on an obstinate defence ; even those 
who adhered to the church of Rome justly dreaded the excesses of a 
fanatical horde eager to shed blood, and gratify a ruffian thirst for plun- 
der. The crusaders advanced : some castles and fortified towns were 
abandoned to them ; others not subject to the imputation of heresy 
were allowed to ransom themselves ; Villemur was burned, and Chas- 
seneuil, after a vigorous defence, capitulated. The garrison was per- 



424 MODERN HISTORY. 

mitted to retire, but all the inhabitants suspected of heresy, male and 
female, were committed to the flames amid the ferocious shouts of the 
conquerors, and their property abandoned to the soldiery. 

Bezicrs was the next object of attack ; the citizens resolved to make 
a A'igorous resistance, but they were routed in a sally by the advanced 
guard of the crusaders, and so vigorously pursued, that the conquerors 
and conquered entered the gates together. The leaders, before taking 
advantage of their unexpected success, asked the abbot of Citeaux 
how they should distinguish Catholics from heretics ; the legate's mem- 
orable answer was, " Kill all : God will distinguish those who belong 
to himself." His words were too well obeyed ; every inhabitant of 
Beziers was ruthlessly massacred, and when the town was thus one 
immense slaughter-house, it was fired, that its ruins and ashes might 
become the monument of papal vengeance. 

Carcasonne was now the last stronghold of Raymond Roger, and 
it was gallantly defended by the young viscount. Simon de Montfort, 
the leader of the crusaders, found himself foiled by a mere youth, and 
was detained for eight days before he could master the suburbs and 
invest the town. 

Peter II., king of Aragon, whom the viscount of Albi and Beziers 
recognised as his suzerain, took advantage of this delay to interfere in 
behalf of the young lord, who was his nephew as well as his vassal. The 
legate, unwilling to offend so powerful a sovereign, accepted his me- 
diation, but when asked what terms would be granted to the besieged, 
he required that two thirds of Carcasonne should be given up to plun- 
der. Raymond Roger spurned such conditions ; Peter applauded his 
courage, and personally addressed the garrison. " You know the fate 
that waits you ; make a bold defence, for that is the best means of 
finally obtaining favorable terms." The prudence of this advice was 
proved by the legate's consenting to a capitulation ; but when the vis- 
count, trusting to the faith of the treaty, presented himself in the camp 
of the crusaders, he was treacherously arrested, and thrown with his 
attendants into prison. Warned by the fate of their leader, the citizens 
of Carcasonne evacuated the town during the night, but some of the 
fugitives were overtaken by the cavalry of the crusaders ; the legate 
selected' a supply of victims from his prisoners ; four hundred of them 
were burned alive, and about fifty were hanged. 

It seemed that the object of the crusade was obtained ; the count of 
Toulouse had submitted to every condition, however humiliating ; the 
viscount of Narbonne abandoned every notion of resistance ; and the 
gallant lord of Beziers was a prisoner. The crusaders too began to 
grow weary of the war ; the French lords were ashamed of the cruel- 
ties they had sanctioned, and the faith they had violated ; the knights 
and common soldiers, having completed the term of their service, were 
anxious to revisit their homes. Bufthe legate, Arnold, was still un- 
satisfied ; he summoned a council of the crusaders, and tried to induce 
them to remain, in order that they might protect their conquests of 
Beziers and Carcasonne, the investiture of which he conferred on 
Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester. But the greater part of the 
French nobles refused to remain longer, arid Montfort had to defend his 
new acquisitions with the vassals from his own estates. The gallant 



GROWTH OF THE PAPAL POWER. 425 

Raymond Roger was detained a close prisoner in his own baronial hall 
at Carcasonne, where he soon died, the victim of a dysentery, produced 
by grief, or, as was generally suspected, by poison. 

The armies of the crusaders withdrew ; they left a desert, and called 
it peace ; but the sufferings of the Albigenses were not exhausted ; the 
monks of the Inquisition, attended by trains of executioners, went at 
their will through the land, torturing and butchering all who were sus- 
pected of heresy. Nor were the monks of Citeaux idle ; they had 
found honor and profit in preaching a crusade, and they were not dis- 
posed to relinquish the lucrative employment. Thus a new crusade 
was preached when there was no enemy to combat, and new hordes 
of fanatics were poured into Languedoc. They forced their chiefs to 
renew the war, that the exertions of those who profited by preaching 
extermination should not be lost, and that the bigotry of those who 
hoped to purchase their salvation by murder should not remain un- 
gratified. 

Strengthened by these reinforcements, Simon de Montfort threw off 
the mask of moderation, and declared war against the unfortunate count 
of Toulouse. Raymond was once more excommunicated, and his do- 
minions placed under an interdict. But the earl of Leicester soon 
found that he had been premature in his hostilities ; the king of Aragon 
refused to receive his homage for the viscounties of Beziers and Car- 
casonne, declaring that he would support the claims of the legitimate 
heir, Raymond Trencanel, the only son of the unfortunate Raymond 
Roger, a child about two years old, who was safe under the guardian- 
ship of the Count de Foix. A dangerous insurrection was raised in the 
states so recently assigned to Montfort ; and out of the two hundred 
towns and castles that had been granted to him, eight alone remained 
in his possession. 

The count of Toulouse was too much afraid of ecclesiastical ven- 
geance to defend himself by arms ; he sought the protection of the king 
of France, and he went in person to Rome to implore absolution. In- 
nocent promised him pardon on condition of his clearing himself from 
the charge of heresy and of participation in the murder of Castelnau ; 
but when he presented himself before the council, he found that his 
judges had been gained over by his inexorable enemy, the abbot of 
Citeaux, and instead of being permitted to enter on his defence, he was 
overwhelmed by a series of new and unexpected charges. His re- 
monstrances were neglected, his tears afforded theme for mockery and 
insult, and the sentence of excommunication was formally ratified. 

In the meantime the crusaders, under Simon de Montfort, pursued 
their career of extermination ; those whom the sword spared fell by the 
hands of the executioner ; and the ministers of a God of peace were 
found more cruel and vindictive than a licentious soldiery. Even the 
king of Aragon became alarmed, and sought to secure the friendship 
of the papal favorite, by affiancing his infant son to a daughter of De 
Montfort. The monarch probably expected that by this concession, he 
would obtain more favorable terms for Raymond, and he accompanied 
the count to Aries, where a provincial council was assembled. The 
terms of peace fixed by the legate were so extravagant, not to say ab- 
surd, that even Raymond rejected them, and secretly withdrew from 



426 MODERN HISTORY. 

the city in company with the king of Aragon. Once more the count 
was excommunicated, pronounced an enemy of the church and an apos- 
tate from the faith, and declared to have forfeited his title and estates. 

The war was now resumed with fresh vigor ; after a long siege, De 
Montfort took the strong castle of Lavaur by assault, hanged its brave 
governor, the lord of Montreal, and massacred the entire garrison. 
" The lady of the castle," says the Romish historian, " who was an 
execrable heretic, was by the earl's orders thrown into a well, and 
stones heaped over her : afterward, the pilgrims collected the number- 
less heretics that were in the fortress, and burned them alive with great 
joy." 

The same cruelties were perpetrated at every other place through 
which the crusaders passed ; and the friends of the victims took re- 
venge, by intercepting convoys, and murdering stragglers. It was not 
until he had received a large reinforcement of pilgrims from Germany, 
that the earl of Leicester ventured to lay siege to Toulouse. Raymond, 
in this extremity, displayed a vigor and courage, which, if he had man- 
ifested in the earlier part of the war, would probably have saved his 
country from ruin. He made so vigorous a defence, that the crusaders 
were forced to raise the siege, and retire with some precipitation. 

The friendship between the monks of Citeaux and the crusaders soon 
began to be interrupted by the ambition of the former. Under pre- 
tence of reforming the ecclesiastical condition of Languedoc, they ex- 
pelled the principal prelates, and seized for themselves the richest sees 
and benefices. The legate, Arnold, took for his share the archbishop 
of Narbonne, after which he abandoned Montfort, and went to lead a 
new crusade against the Moors in Spain. Innocent III. himself paused 
for a moment in his career of vengeance, and, at the instance of the 
king of Aragon, promised Raymond the benefit of a fair trial. But it 
is easier to rouse than to allay the spirit of fanaticism ; disobeyed 
by his legates, and reproached by the crusaders, the pope was com- 
pelled to retrace his steps, and abandon Raymond to the fury of his 
enemies. 

The king of Arragon came to the aid of his imfortunate relative, and 
encountered the formidable army of the crusaders at Muret ; but he was 
slain in the beginning of the battle ; the Spanish chivalry, disheartened 
by his fall, took to flight ; and the infantry of Toulouse, thus forsaken, 
could offer no effective resistance. Trampled down by the pilgrim- 
knights, the citizens of Toulouse who followed their sovereign to the 
field, were either cut to pieces, or drowned in the waters of the 
Garonne. 

Philip Augustus had triumphed over his enemies, the king of Eng- 
land and the emperor of Germany, just when the victory of Muret 
seems to have confirmed the power of De Montfort. But the ambitious 
adventurer derived little profit from his success, for the court of Rome 
began to dread the power of its creature (a. d. 1215). His influence 
with the papal legates and the prelates who had directed the crusade 
was, however, still very great, and he procured from the council of 
Montpellier the investiture of Toulouse and all the conquests made by 
"the Christian pilgrims." Philip Augustus was by no means disposed 
to acquiesce in this arrangement ; he sent his son Louis with a numer- 



GROWTH OF THE PAPAL POWER. 427 

ous army into the south of France, under pretence of joining in the 
crusade, but really to watch the proceedings of De Montfort. Louis 
subsequently returned to accept the proffered crown of England, and 
the quarrel in which this proceeding involved him with the pope di- 
verted his attention from Languedoc. 

Arnold of Citeaux, having returned from his Spanish crusade, took 
possession of his archbishopric of Narbonne, where he began to exer- 
cise the rights of a sovereign prince. Simon de Montfort, who had 
taken the title of duke of Narbonne in addition to that of count of Tou- 
louse, denied that his old companion in arms had a right to temporal 
jurisdiction ; he entered the city by force, and erected his ducal stand- 
ard. Arnold fulminated an excommunication against De Montfort, and 
placed the city under an interdict while he remained in it ; he found, 
however, to his great surprise and vexation, that these weapons were 
contemned by the formidable champion of the church. But a more 
vigorous enemy appeared in the person of Raymond VII., son of the 
count of Toulouse, who, in conjunction with his father, made a vigorous 
effort to recover the ancient inheritance of his race. Simon de Mont- 
fort, contrary to his own better judgment, was induced by Foulke, 
bishop of Toulouse, to treat the citizens with treacherous cruelty for 
showing some symptoms of affection to their ancient lord ; the conse- 
quence was, that they took advantage of his absence to invite Raymond 
to resume his power ; and on the 13th of September, 1217, the count 
was publicly received into his ancient capital amid universal acclama- 
tions. 

Simon, by the aid of the papal legate and the clergy, was able to 
collect a large army, but the bravest of the crusaders had either fallen 
in the preceding wars, or returned disgusted to their homes. Every 
one now knew that heresy was extinguished in Languedoc, and that 
the war was maintained only to gratify private revenge and individual 
ambition. De Montfort laid siege to Toulouse, but he was slain in a 
sally of the inhabitants, and his son Almeric, after a vain effort to re- 
venge his death, retired to Carcasonne. 

The Albigensian war was not ended by the death of its great leader. 
Almeric de Montfort sold his claims over Languedoc to Louis VIII., 
king of France ; and though this prince died in the attempt to gain pos- 
session of Toulouse, the war was so vigorously supported by the queen- 
regent, Blanche, that Raymond VII, submitted to his enemies, and his 
dominions were united to the crown of France (a. d. 1229). The In- 
quisition was immediately established in these unhappy countries, 
which have never since recovered completely from the calamities in- 
flicted upon them by the ministers of papal vengeance. 

Section IX. — Consequences of the Crusades. 

Though the popes did not succeed in establishing their supremacy 
over the eastern churches, yet they derived very important advantages 
from the wars of the crusaders. Not the least of these was the gen- 
eral recognition of their right to interfere in the internal management 
of states ; they compelled emperors and kings to assume the cross ; 
they levied taxes at their discretion on the clergy throughout Christen- 



428 MODERN HISTOEY. 

dom for the support of these wars ; they took under their immediate 
protection the persons and properties of those who enlisted, and grant- 
ed privileges to the adventurous warriors, which it would have been 
deemed impiety to contravene. Those who joined in these wars, fre- 
quently bequeathed their estates to the church, in the not improbable 
case of their death without heirs ; those whom cowardice or policy de- 
tained at home, atoned for their absence by founding ecclesiastical en- 
dowments. 

While the papal power increased, that of monarchs declined ; in 
Germany, the Hohenstauften gradually lost all influence ; in England, 
the barons extorted a charter from John, and the Hungarians chiefs 
placed similar restrictions on their sovereign. Peculiar circumstances 
led to a contrary result in France ; many of the great feudatories hav- 
ing fallen in a distant land, the monarchs were enabled to extend 
their prerogatives, while their domains were increased by seizing 
the properties of those who died without feudal heirs, or of those who 
were suspected of heretical opinions. The Christian kings of Spain 
and northern Europe derived also some profit from the fanaticism of 
the age, being aided by troops of warlike adventurers, in extending 
their dominions at the expense of their Mohammedan and pagan neigh- 
bors. 

Chivalry, though older than the crusades, derived its chief influence 
and strength from these wars. The use of surnames, coats of arms, 
and distinctive banners, became necessary in armies composed of men 
differing in language, habits, and feelings, collected at hazard from every 
Christian kingdom. Tournaments were the natural result of pride and 
courage, in warriors naturally jealous of each other's fame, while the 
institution of the military orders invested knighthood with a mysterious 
religious sanction. The first of these Avas the order of the Hospital- 
lers, or Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, known subsequently as the 
Knights of Malta. They Avere formed into a confraternity by Pope 
Pascal (a. d. 1114), but their order was greatly enlarged by Pope Ca- 
lixtus. They bore an octagonal white cross on their black robes, and 
were bound to wage war on infidels, and attend to sick pilgrims. After 
the loss of the Holy Land, they removed successively to Cyprus, 
Rhodes,' and Malta. Their order held Malta until a. d. 1798, when 
they were deprived of their last possession by Napoleon. 

The Knights Templars, distinguished by the red cross, were institu- 
ted soon after the Hospitallers. Their original duty was to keep the 
roads free for the pilgrims that visited the Holy Sepulchre, but as their 
numbers increased, they became the great bulwark of the Christian 
kingdom of Palestine, and the possessors of rich endowments in every 
part of western Europe.* At length their wealth excited the cupidity 
of monarchs ; they were overwhelmed by a mass of forged accusations ; 
many of the noblest knights were put to death by torture, and the order 
wholly abolished at the council of Vienne (a. d. 1312). 

The Teutonic order was originally a confraternity of German knights, 
formed during the seige of Acre, for the relief of the sick and wounded. 
It was formally instituted by Pope Celestin HI. (a. d. 1192), and a 

* The Temple in London belonged to the Red-cross knights ; the Hospitallers 
possessed a splendid preceptory in Clerkenwellj part of which is still standing. 



GROWTH OF THE PAPAL POWER. 429 

code of regulations prescribed for its direction. Their ensign was a 
black cross, on a white robe. They subdued the kingdom of Prussia 
(a. d. 1230), of which they held possession until the progress of the 
Reformation gave that country to a protestant prince (a. d. 1525). The 
last great order was that of St. Lazarus, instituted originally for super- 
intending the treatment of leprosy, a loathsome disease which the cru- 
saders introduced into Europe. It soon became military, like the pre- 
ceding, but never rose to similar eminence. 

The Italian maritime states supplied the crusaders with transports, 
and conveyed to them provision and the munitions of war. This traf- 
fic led to a rapid increase in the commerce and navigation of the Med- 
iterranean ; a taste for spices and other articles of oriental luxury was 
gradually diffused throughout Europe, and trading depots were formed 
by Venice, Genoa, and other Italian powers, on the shores of the Le- 
vant, and the coasts of the Greek empire. Several French towns imi- 
tated this example, and in the remote north an association was formed 
for the protection and extension of commerce between the cities of Lu- 
beck and Hamburgh (a. d. 1241), which laid the foundation of the 
Hanseatic league. The progress of industry, the encouragement which 
sovereigns found it their interest to grant to trade, and their anxiety to 
check the arrogance and rapacity of their feudal vassals, led to a great 
change in most European countries, the establishment of munieipal in- 
stitutions. 

The royal authority gained considerably by the extension of munici- 
pal freedom. The cities and towns saw that the sovereign was the 
person most interested in protecting their growing freedom, and they 
therefore gladly gave him their support in his struggles with the aris- 
tocracy and the clergy. The emancipation of the serfs was a conse- 
quence of municipal freedom. The free cities granted protection to all 
who sought shelter within their walls, and the nobles saw that they 
must either ameliorate the condition of their vassals, or witness the de- 
population of their estates. Liberty thus gradually recovered its right ; 
civilization consequently began to extend its blessings over society. 

The imperial house of Hohenstauffen fell from its pride of place on 
the death of the emperor Frederic II., the great opponent of the pa- 
pacy (a. d. 1250). His son Conrad fell a victim to disease, after a 
brief tjut troubled reign ; and the anarchy which succeeded in Ger- 
many, is justly named the calamitous period of the great interregnum. 
William of Holland, and an English prince, Richard, earl of Cornwall, 
were successively elected emperors, and enjoyed little more than the 
title. At length, Rodolph, count of Hapsburgh, was chosen (a. d. 
1273), and showed himself worthy of the crown by his energy in sup- 
pressing the predatory wars that were waged by his vassals. In the 
meantime, the popes, in defiance of the rights of the Hohenstauffen, 
had bestowed the kingdom of Naples on Charles, duke of Anjou, 
brother to the king of France. 

The cruelties of Charles led the Italians to invite young Conradin to 
assert the hereditary claims of his family. At the age of sixteen this 
brave prince entered Italy, where he was enthusiastically received. 
But the Italians were not able to compete with the French in the field ; 
when Conradin encountered Charles, his followers broke at the first on- 



430 MODERN HISTORY. 

set, and he remained a prisoner. The duke of Anjou subjected the 
young prince to the mockery of a trial, and commanded him to be exe- 
cuted. 

Thus fell the last prince of the house of Suabia, which had long 
been the most formidable obstacle to papal usurpation. The triumph 
of the papacy appeared complete : Italy was severed from the German 
empire ; but the peninsula recovered its independence only to be torn 
in sunder by factions ; the church did not succeed to the empire, and 
the pontiffs found that the spirit of freedom, which they had themselves 
nurtured, was a more formidable foe than the sovereigns of Germany. 

Section X. — Formation and Constitutional History of the Spanish Monarchy. 

For several hundred years after the great Saracen invasion in the 
beginning of the eighth century, Spain was broken up into a number 
of small but independent states, divided in their interests, and often in 
deadly hostility with one another. By the middle of the fifteenth cen- 
tury, the number of states into which the country had been divided was 
reduced to four; Castile, Aragon, Navarre, and the Moorish kingdom 
of Granada. The last, comprised within nearly the same limits as the 
modern province of that name, was all that remained to the Moslems 
of their once vast possessions in the peninsula. Its concentrated pop- 
ulation gave it a degree of strength altogether disproportioned to the 
extent of its territory ; and the profuse magnificence of its court, which 
rivalled that of the ancient khaliphs, was supported by the labors of a 
sober industrious people, under whom agriculture and several of the 
mechanic arts had reached a degree of perfection probably unequalled 
in any other part of Europe during the middle ages. 

The little kingdom of Navarre, embosomed within the Pyrenees, had 
often attracted the avarice of neighboring and more powerful states. 
But since their selfish schemes operated as a mutual check upon each 
other, Navarre still continued to maintain her independence when all 
the smaller states had been absorbed in the gradually increasing do- 
minion of Castile and 'Aragon. This latter kingdom comprehended the 
province of that name, together with Catalonia and Valencia. Under 
its auspicious climate and free political institutions, its inhabitants dis- 
played an uncommon share of intellectual and moral energy. Its long 
line of coast opened the way to an extensive and flourishing commerce ; 
and its enterprising navy indemnified the nation for the scantiness of 
its territory at home by the important foreign conquests of Sardinia, 
Sicily, Naples, and the Balearic Isles. 

The remaining provinces of the peninsula fell to the crown of Castile, 
which, thus extending its sway over an unbroken line of country from 
the bay of Biscay to the Mediterranean, seemed, by the magnitude of 
its territory, to be entitled to some supremacy over the other states of 
the peninsula ; especially as it was there that the old Gothic monarchy 
may be said first to have revived after the great Saracen invasion. 
This claim, indeed, appears to have been recognised at an early period 
of her history. 

The Saracens, reposing under the sunny skies of Andalusia, so con- 
genial with their own, seemed willing to relinquish the sterile regions 



GROWTH OF THE PAPAL POWER. 431 

of the north to an enemy whom they despised. But when the Span- 
iards, quitting the shelter of their mountains, descended into the open 
plains of Leon and Castile, they found themselves exposed to the pred- 
atory incursions of the Arab cavalry. It was not until they had reach- 
ed some natural boundary, as the river Douro, that they were enabled, 
by constructing a line of fortifications behind this natural fence, to se- 
cure their conquests. Their own dissensions were another cause of 
their tardy progress. More Christian blood was wasted in these na- 
tional feuds than in all their encounters with the infidel. The soldiers 
of Fernan Gongales, a chieftain of the tenth century, complained that 
their master made them lead the lives of very devils, keeping them in 
the harness day and night, in wars not against the Saracens, but one 
another. 

These circumstances so far checked the energies of the Christians, 
that a century and a half elapsed after the invasion before they had 
penetrated to the Douro (a. d. 850), and nearly thrice that period before 
they had advanced the line of conquest to the Tagus (a. d. 1147), not- 
withstanding this portion of the country had been comparatively desert- 
ed by the Mohammedans. But it was easy to foresee that a people 
living as they did imder circumstances favorable to the development of 
both physical and moral energy, must ultimately prevail over a nation 
oppressed by despotism, and the effeminate indulgence to which it was 
naturally disposed by a sensual religion and a voluptuous climate. In 
truth, the early Spaniard was urged by every motive which can give 
energy to human purpose. His cause became the cause of Heaven. 
The church published her bulls of crusade, offering liberal indulgences 
to those who served, and paradise to those who fell in the battle against 
the infidel. Indeed, volunteers from the remotest parts of Christian 
Europe eagerly thronged to serve under his banner, and the cause of 
religion was debated with the same ardor in Spain as on the plains of 
Palestine. 

To the extraordinary position in which the nation was placed may 
be referred the liberal forms of its political institutions, as well as a 
more early development of them than took place in other countries of 
Europe. From the exposure of the Castilian towns to the predatory 
incursions of the Arabs, it became necessary, not only that they should 
be strongly fortified, but that every citizen should be trained to bear 
arms in their defence. An immense increase of consequence was given 
to the burgesses, who thus constituted the most effective part of the 
national militia. To this circumstance, as well as to the policy of in- 
viting the settlement of frontier places by the grant of extraordinary 
privileges to the inhabitants, is to be imputed the early date, as well 
the liberal character of the charters of community in Castile and Leon. 
These, although varying a good deal in their details, generally conce- 
ded to the citizens the right of electing their own magistrates for the 
regulation of municipal affairs. In order to secure the barriers of jus- 
tice more effectually against the violence of power, so often superior to 
law in an imperfect state of society, it was provided in many of the 
charters that no nobles should be permitted to acquire real property 
within the Hmits of the municipality ; that no fortress or palace should 
be erected by them there ; that such as might reside within the terri- 



432 MODERN HISTORY. 

tory of a chartered city or borougli should be subject to its jurisdiction ; 
and that any violence offered by the feudal lords to its inhabitants might 
be resisted with impunity. Thus, while the inhabitants of the great 
towns in other parts of Europe were languishing in feudal servitude, the 
CastiHan corporation, living under the protection of their own laws and 
magistrates in time of peace, and commanded by their own officers in 
time of war, were in full enjoyment of all the essential rights and priv- 
ileges of freemen. 

The earliest instance on record of popular representation in Castile, 
occurred at Burgos in 1169 ; nearly a century antecedent to the first 
convocation of the English house of commons, in the celebrated Lei- 
cester parliament. Each city had but one vote whatever might be the 
number of its representatives. The nomination of the deputies was 
originally vested in the householders at large, but was afterward con- 
fined to the municipalities ; a most mischievous alteration which sub- 
jected their election eventually to the corrupt influence of the crown. 
They assembled in the same chamber with the higher orders of the 
nobility and clergy ; but on questions of importance retired to deliber- 
ate by themselves. After the transaction of other business, their own 
petitions were presented to the sovereign ; and his assent gave them 
the validity of laws. The Castilian commons, by neglecting to 
make their money grants dependant on corresponding concessions from 
the crown, relinquished that powerful check on its operations so bene- 
ficially exerted in the British parliament, but in vain contended for even 
there until a period much later than that now under consideration. 
Whatever may have been the right of the nobility and clergy to attend 
the Cortes, their sanction was not deemed essential to the validity of 
legislative acts ; for their presence was not even required in many as- 
semblies of the nation which occurred in the fourteenth and fifteenth 
centuries. The extraordinary power thus committed to the commons 
was, on the whole, unfavorable to their liberties. It deprived them of 
the sympathy and co-operation of the great orders of the state, whose 
authority alone could have enabled them to withstand the enactments 
of arbitrary power, and who in fact did eventually desert them in their 
utmost, need. 

But notwithstanding these defects, the popular branch of the Castilian 
Cortes, very soon after its admission into that body, assumed functions 
and exercised a degree of power superior to that enjoyed by the com- 
mons in other European legislatures. It was soon recognised as a 
principle of the constitution, that no tax should be imposed without the 
consent of the representatives of the people. The commons showed 
a wise solicitude in regard to the mode of collecting the public revenue. 
They Avatched carefully over its appropriation to its destined uses. A 
vigilant eye was kept on the conduct of public officers, as well as on 
the right administration of justice, and commissions were appointed by 
the Cortes to inquire into any suspected abuses of judicial authority. 
They entered into negotiations for aUiances with foreign powers, and 
by determining the amount of supplies for the maintenance of troops in 
time of war, preserved a salutary check over military operations. The 
nomination of regencies was subject to their approbation, and they de- 
fined the nature of the authority to be intrusted to them. Their con- 



GROWTH OF THE PAPAL POWEK 433 

sent "was esteemed indispensable to the validity of a title to the crown ; 
and this prerogative, or at least the shadow of it, long continued to sur- 
vive the wreck of their ancient liberties. Finally they more than once 
set aside the testamentary provisions of the sovereign in regard to the 
succession. 

It would be improper to pass by without notice an anomalous insti- 
tution peculiar to Castile, which sought to secure the public tranquillity 
by means which were themselves scarcely compatible with civil subor- 
dination. This was the celebrated Hermandad, or " Holy Brotherhood," 
which was designed as a substitute for a regularly-organized police. 
It consisted of a confederation of the principal cities, bound together by 
solemn league and covenant for the defence of their liberty in seasons 
of civil anarchy. Its affairs were conducted by deputies, who assem- 
bled at stated intervals for the purpose, transacting their business under 
a common seal, enacting laws which they were careful to transmit to 
the nobles and the sovereign, and enforcing their measures by an armed 
body of dependants. This wild kind of justice, so characteristic of an 
unsettled state of society, repeatedly received the legislative sanction ; 
and however formidable such a popular engine may have appeared to 
the eye of a monarch, he was often led to countenance it by a sense of 
his own impotence, as well as of the overweening power of the nobles, 
against whom it was principally directed. Hence these associations, 
though the epithet may seem somewhat overstrained, have received the 
appellation of " Cortes Extraordinary." 

With these immunities the cities of Castile attained a degree of -opu- 
lence and splendor unrivalled, unless in Italy, during the middle ages. 
At a very early period indeed their contact with the Arabs had familiar- 
ized them with a better system of agriculture and a dexterity in the 
mechanic arts unknown in other parts of Christendom. Augmentation 
of wealth brought with it the usual appetite for expensive pleasures ; 
but the surplus of riches was frequently expended in useful public 
works. 

The nobles, though possessed of immense estates and great political 
privileges, did not consume their fortunes or their energies in a life of 
effeminate luxury. From their earliest boyhood they were accustomed 
to serve in the ranks against the infidel, and their whole subsequent 
lives were occupied either with war, or those martial exercises which 
reflect the image of it. Looking back with pride to the ancient Gothic 
descent, and to those times when they had stood forward as the peers, 
the electors of their sovereign, they would ill brook the slightest indig- 
nity at his hand. Accordingly we find them perpetually convulsing the 
kingdom with their schemes of selfish aggrandizement. The petitions 
of the commons are filled with remonstrances on their various oppres- 
sions, and the evils resulting from their long desolating feuds. 

The over-weening self-confidence of the nobles, however, proved 
their ruin. They disdained a co-operation with the lower orders in 
defence of their privileges, when both were assailed by the Austrian 
dynasty, and relied too unhesitatingly on their power as a body, to feel 
jealous of their exclusion from the national legislature, where alone 
they could make an effectual stand against the usurpations of the crown. 

The long minorities with which Castile was afflicted, perhaps more 

28 



MODERN HISTORY, 

than any country in Europe, frequently threw the government into the 
iiands of the principal nobility, who perverted to their own emolument 
the high powers intrusted to them. They usurped the possessions of 
the crown, and invaded some of its most valuable privileges ; so that 
the sovereign's subsequent life was frequently spent in fniitless attempts 
to recover the losses of his minority. He sometimes, indeed, in the 
impotence of other resources, resorted to such unhappy expedients as 
treachery and assassination. 

Section XI. — Survey of the Constitution of Aragon. 

Aragon was first raised to political importance by its union with 
Catalonia, including the rich country of Barcelona, and the subsequent 
conquest of the kingdom of Valencia. The ancient country of Barce- 
lona had reached a higher degree of civilization than Aragon, and was 
distinguished by institutions even more liberal than those we have de- 
scribed in the preceding section as belonging to Castile. It was in the 
maritime cities, scattered along the coasts of the Mediterranean, that 
the seeds of liberty, both in ancient and modern times, were implanted 
and brought to maturity. During the middle ages, when the people of 
Europe generally maintained a toilsome and unfrequent intercourse 
with each other, those situated on the margin of this great inland sea 
found an easy mode of communication across the great highway of its 
waters. Among these maritime republics, those of Catalonia were 
eminently conspicuous. By the incorporation of this country, there- 
fore, with the kingdom of Aragon, the strength of the latter was greatly 
augmented. The Aragonese princes, well aware of this, liberally fos- 
tered the institutions to which the country owed its prosperity, and skil- 
fully availed themselves of its resources for the aggrandizement of their 
dominions. The Catalan navy disputed the empire of the Mediterranean 
with the fleets of Pisa, and still more with those of Genoa. With its 
aid the Aragonese monarchs achieved successfully the conquest of Sici- 
ly, Sardinia, and the Balearic isles, which they annexed to their empire. 
It penetrated into the farthest regions of the Levant, and a Catalan ar- 
mament conquered Athens, giving to their sovereign the classical title 
of duke of that city. 

But though the dominions of the kings of Aragon were thus extended 
abroad, there were no sovereigns in Europe whose authority was so 
limited at home. The national historians refer the origin of their gov- 
ernment to a written constitution of about the middle of the ninth cen- 
tury, fragments of which are still preserved in certain ancient documents 
and chronicles. On the occurrence of a vacancy in the throne at this 
epoch, a monarch was elected by the twelve principal nobles, who pre- 
scribed a code of laws, to the observance of which he was compelled 
to swear before assuming the sceptre. The import of these laws was 
to circumscribe within very narrow limits the authority of the sovereign- 
ty, distributing the principal functions to a justicia or justice ; and these 
peers were authorized, if the compact should be violated by the mon- 
arch, to withdraw their allegiance, and in the bold language of the or- 
dinance " to substitute any other ruler in his stead, even a pagan if they 
listed." The great barons of Aragon were few in number, they claimed 



GROWTH OP THE PAPAL ^OWER. 435 

descent from the twelve electoral peers we have described, and they 
very reluctantly admitted to equality those whom the favor of the sov- 
ereign raised to the peerage. No baron could be divested of his fief 
unless by public sentence of the justice and the cortes. The nobles 
filled of right the highest offices in the state ; they appointed judges in 
their domains for the cognizance of certain civil causes, and they exer- 
cised an unlimited criminal jurisdiction over certain classes of their vas- 
sals. They were excused from taxation, except in specified cases ; 
were exempted from all corporal and capital punishments ; nor could 
they be imprisoned, though their estates might be sequestrated, for debt. 
But the laws conceded to them privileges of a still more dangerous 
character. They were entitled to defy and publicly renounce their al- 
legiance to their sovereign, with the whimsical privilege in addition, of 
commending their families and estates to his protection, wliich he was 
obliged to protect until they were again reconciled. The mischievous 
right of private war was repeatedly recognised by statute. It was claimed 
and exercised in its full extent, and occasionally with circumstances of 
peculiar atrocity. 

The commons of Aragon enjoyed higher consideration, and still 
larger civil privileges, than those of Castile. For this they were perhaps 
somewhat indebted to the example of their Catalan neighbors, the influ- 
ence of whose democratic institutions naturally extended to other parts 
of the Aragonese monarchy. The charters of certain cities accorded to 
their inhabitants privileges of nobility, particularly those of immunity 
from taxation ; while the magistrates of others were permitted to take 
their seats in the order of the lesser nobles. By a statute passed in 1307, 
it was ordained that the cortes should assemble triennially . The great of- 
ficers of the crown, whatever might be their personal rank, were jealously 
excluded from their deliberations. It was in the power of any member 
to defeat the passage of a bill, by opposing to it his veto or dissent for- 
mally registered to that effect. He might even interpose his negative 
on the proceedings of the house, and thus put a stop to the prosecution 
of all further business during the session. During the interval of the 
sessions of the legislature, a committee of two from each department 
was appointed to preside over public affairs, particularly in regard to 
the revenue and the security of justice ; with authority to convoke a 
cortes extraordinary, whenever the exigency might demand it. 

The cortes exercised the highest functions, whether of a deliberative, 
legislative, or judicial nature. It had a right to be consulted on all mat- 
ters of importance ; especially on those of peace or war. No law was 
valid, no tax could be imposed without its consent ; and it carefully pro- 
vided for the application of the revenue to its destined uses. It deter- 
mined the succession to the crown ; removed obnoxious ministers ; re- 
formed the household and domestic expenditure of the monarch ; and 
exercised the power in the most unreserved manner of withholding sup- 
plies, as well as of resisting what it regarded ' as an encroachment on 
the liberties of the nation. 

The governments of Valencia and Catalonia were administered inde- 
pendent of each other long after they had been consolidated into one 
monarchy, but they bore a very near resemblance to the constitution of 
Aragon. The city of Barcelona, which originally gave its name to the 



43G MODERN HISTORY. 

coiintv of Avhicli it was the capital, was distinguished from a very early 
period bv ample municipal privileges. Under the Aragonese monarchs, 
Barcelona had so well profited by the liberal administrations of its 
ndors as to have reached a degree of prosperity rivalling that of any of 
the Italian republics. The wealth which flowed in upon Barcelona, 
and the resvdt of the activity and enterprise which the merchants of the 
place exhibited, was evinced by the numerous public works in which it 
set an example to all Europe. Strangers who visited Spain in the 
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, expatiate on the magnificence of 
this city, its commodious private edifices, the cleanliness of its streets 
and public squares, and on the amenity of its gardens and cultivated 
environs. 

But the peculiar glory of Barcelona Avas the freedom of its municipal 
institutions. The government consisted of a senate or council of one 
hundred, and a body of corrcgidorcs or counsellors, varying at times from 
four to six in number ; the former intrusted with the legislative, the lat- 
ter with the executive functions of administration. A large proportion 
of these bodies was selected from the merchants, tradesmen, and me- 
chanics of the city. They were invested, not merely with municipal 
authority, but with many of the rights of sovereignty. They entered 
into commercial treaties with foreign powers ; superintended the de- 
fence of the city in time of war ; provided for the security of trade ; 
granted letters of reprisal against any nation who might violate it ; and 
raised and appropriated public money for the construction of useful 
works, or the encouragement of such commercial adventures as were 
too hazardous or expensive for individual enterprise. 

Under the influence of these democratic institutions, the burghers of 
Barcelona, and, indeed, of Catalonia in general, which enjoyed more or 
less of a similar freedom, assumed a haughty independence of character, 
beyond what existed among the same class in other parts of Spain ; and 
this, combined with the martial daring fostered by a life of maritime 
adventure and warfare, made them impatient, not merely of oppression, 
but of contradiction on the part of their sovereigns, who have experi- 
enced more frequent and more sturdy resistance from this part of their 
dominions than from any other. Navogiers, the Yenetian ambassador 
to Spain early in the sixteenth century, although a republican himself, 
was so struck with what he deemed the insubordination of the Barcelo- 
nians, that he asserts, " The inhabitants have so many privileges that 
the king scarcely retains any authority over them ; their liberty," he 
adds, " should rather go by the name of licentiousness." 

Such, in the earlier stages of Spanish history, were the free consti- 
tutions of Castile and Aragon ; but when these two kingdoms were 
united into one great monarchy, it became the settled policy of the sov- 
ereigns to destroy all the institutions by which the liberties of the people 
were secured. As the power of the Mohammedans grew weaker, the 
kings of Castile had less reason to grant municipal privileges on condi- 
tion of defending the frontiers ; and their nobles, continually engaged in 
mutual dissensions, were unable to check the inroads of the crown on 
their aristocratic privileges. The nobles of Aragon, indeed, were al- 
ways ready to combine in a common cause, and it was aptly said by 
one of the monarchs, in reference to these two aristocracies, that " it 



GEOWTH OF THE PAPAL POWER. 437 

was equally difficult to divide the nobles of Aragon, and to unite those 
of Castile." But union availed little to the Aragonese nobles, when 
the seat of government was placed beyond the sphere of their influence, 
and when Castilian armies were ready to crush the first appearance of 
insurrection. It is also to be remarked, though rather in anticipation 
of what we shall have to discuss hereafter, that the conquest of Amer- 
ica not merely gave the kings of Spain vast supplies of gold, without 
their being compelled to have recourse to their parliaments or cortes, 
but it also enabled them to create many lucrative monopolies, for which 
the Spanish nobles bartered the privileges of their order and the rights 
of the people. There is a closer connexion between freedom of trade 
and freedom of institutions than is generally imagined : every protected 
interest exists at the expense of all the other classes of the community, 
and being itself based on injustice, must connive at injustice in others. 
Prospective loss, however great, is constantly hazarded by the ignorant 
and unthinking for immediate gain, however small, and it was this self- 
ish folly which mainly enabled the Austrian line of Spanish monarchs 
to overthrow the ancient constitution of their country, and to render 
Spain a memorable and sad example of the great truth, that a land of 
monopoly soon becomes a land of slavery, and eventually a land of 
misery. 

Section XII. — State of Western Europe at the commencement of the Four- 
teenth Century. 

RoDOLPH of Hapsburgh had no sooner obtained possession of the 
empire, than he resolved to strengthen the sovereign authority, by an- 
nexing some of the great fiefs to the crown. The usurpation of the dutchy 
of Austria by Ottokar, king of Bohemia, afforded him a pretext for inter- 
fering in the disposal of that province ; he defeated Ottokar, and deprived 
him not only of Austria, but also of Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola, 
which were formed into a new principality, and the investiture given to 
Albert, the emperor's son (a. d. 1282), who founded the imperial house 
of Austria. 

But while the emperor's authority was extended in Germany, it was 
almost unknown in Italy, where the republican cities generally withdrew 
even nominal allegiance from their former masters. Of these commer- 
cial states Venice was the most important. This city had been origi- 
nally founded by some refugees who sought shelter in the islands and 
lagoons of the Adriatic, from the ferocity of the Huns (a. d. 452) ; but it 
first rose into importance under the doge Pierre Urseolo II. (a. d. 992), 
who obtained freedom of commerce for his fellow-citizens from the By- 
zantine emperor and the sultan of Egypt, and subjected the maritime 
cities of Istria and Dalmatia. In the wars between the empire and the 
papacy, they had generally supported the latter ; Pope Alexander III., 
as a reward for their services, conferred on them the sovereignty of the 
Adriatic, and hence arose the singular ceremony of celebrating annu- 
ally a mystic marriage between that sea and the Venetian doge. The 
crusades tended greatly to extend the power of the republic, especially 
the fourth, in which, as we have already stated, the Greek empire was 
dismembered. On this occasion, the Venetians received from their 
allies several maritime cities in Dalmatia, Albania, Epirus, and Greece, 



438 MODERN HISTORY. 

the islands of Trete, Corfu, Cephalonia, and several others in the Ionian 
cluster. 

But the increasing wealth of Venice led to a fatal change in its po- 
litical constitution. The government was originally democratic, the 
power of the doge being limited by a council, who were freely chosen 
by the citizens. Several tumults at these elections furnished the doge, 
Peter Grandonigo, with an excuse for proposing a law abrogating an- 
nual elections, and rendering the dignity of councillor hereditary in the 
families of tho.>e who wer^at the period members of the legislative as- 
sembly (a. d. 1298). This establishment of a close aristocracy led to 
several revolts, of which that headed by Tiepolo was the most remark- 
able (a. d. 1310). Aftef a fierce bcittle within the city, the insurgents 
were routed ; ten inquisitors were chosen to investigate the conspiracy, 
and this commission was soon rendered permanent under the name of 
the Council of Ten. the most formidable tribunal ever founded to support 
aristocratic tyranny. 

Genoa, like Venice, owed its prosperity to its extensive commerce, 
which floiuished in spite of the several political convulsions that agi- 
tated the republic. The Genoese embraced the cause of the Greek 
emperors, and helped them to regain Constantinople. Their services 
were rewarded by the cession of Caffa, Azov, and other ports on the 
Black sea, through which they opened a lucrative trade with China and 
India. They obtained also Smyrna, and Pera, a suburb of Constantino- 
ple, together with several important islands intthe Archipelago. Nor 
were they less successful in extending their power in Italy and the 
western Mediterranean, though they had to contend against powerful 
rivals in the citizens of Pisa. The mutual jealousies of these republics, 
and the anxiety of both to possess the islands of Corsica and Sardinia, 
led to a long and sanguinary war. It ended (a. d. 1290) in the com- 
plete overthrow of the Pisans, whose commerce was annihilated by the 
loss of the island of Elba, and the destruction of the ports of Pisa and 
Leghorn. 

Charles of Anjou did not long enjoy the kingdom of the Two Sicilies. 
His subjects justly hated him for the murder of Conradin, and the inso- 
lence of the French soldiery confirmed their aversion. An atrocious 
insult offered to a Sicilian lady, provoked the celebrated insurrection, 
commonly called the Sicilian Vespers* (a. d. 1282), in which all the 
French residents in Sicily were massacred, with the exception of Wil- 
liam Parcellet, whose virtues honorably distinguished him from his 
countrymen. The islanders placed themselves under the protection of 
the king of Aragon, and Charles, though aided by the pope, was unable 
to regain his authority over them. 

Pope Martin, who was warmly attached to Charles of Anjou, excom- 
municated the king of x\ragon, and placed his kingdom under an inter- 
dict ; and, finding these measures inefTectual, he preached a crusade 
against him, and gave the investiture of his states to the count of Va- 

• The evening prayers in the catholic church are called Vespers, and the revolt 
commenced as the congrejation were assembling at Palermo for the evening ser- 
vice, during the festival of Easter. Some historians describe this massacre as the 
result of a deep and long-planned conspiracy ; but it is much more likely to have 
been simply a sudden outbreak of populai" indignation. 



GROWTH OF THE PAPAL POWER. 439 

lois, second son of the king of France. He proclaimed Charles of 
Aujou champion of the holy church, and declared that this sanguinary 
tyrant was a prince chosen by God himself. The pope, who thus be- 
stowed crowns, and exonerated subjects from their allegiance, was un- 
able to maintain himself in his own capital ; and while he hoped to 
humble kings, could not enforce the obedience of the Roman citizens. 
But this is not the only instance of a similar anomaly in the history of 
the papacy. Peter of Aragon, feigning obedience, exchanged his title 
of king for that of a simple knight, retaining, however, all the power of 
royalty ; but dreading the succors that the king of France sent to his 
uncle more than the papal menaces, he sought out means of gaining 
time to organize the defence of Sicily. Knowing the vain-glorious dis- 
position of his rival, Peter proposed that Charles and he, with a hundred 
knights at each side, §hould decide their respective titles in a*combat, 
near Bordeaux. The duke of Anjou, elated by the hopes of a duel with 
a prince who added to his modest title, " Knight of Aragon," the sound- 
ing designations, " Lord of the Seas, and Father of Three Kings," ac- 
cepted the terms ; and, while he prepared for the expected field, neg- 
lected his preparations for war. Martin fulminated against the duel, 
single combats being forbidden by the church ; but Peter had never 
intended to expose himself to the chance, and on the appointed day, 
Charles discovered, from the non-appearance of his adversary, that 
he had been baffled by superior policy, perhaps we should rather say, 
perfidy. 

Martin more than shared the indignation of his favorite ; he renewed 
the preaching of the crusade against Peter, granting to all who fought 
in the papal cause the same indulgences assigned to those who joined 
in the expeditions for the recovery of Palestine ; and he sent ambassa- 
dors urging the French king to hasten the invasion of Aragon. It is not 
easy to conceive how monarchs could be blind to the consequences of 
accepting these proffered crowns ; they thus recognised the principle 
©f the pope's right to depose sovereigns, and sanctioned a power which 
might at any time be employed against themselves or their successors. 
But the lessons of prudence are slow in penetrating hearts fascinated by 
ambition or fanaticism. 

The anathemas of Martin did not deprive Peter of his crown ; they 
scarcely even checked the current of his fortunes. All his subjects, 
clergy, nobles, and commons, ostentatiously displayed their attachment 
to their sovereign, and laughed the papal decrees to scorn. The Ara- 
gonese admiral defeated the fleet of the duke of Anjou within sight of 
Naples, and made his son, Charles the Lame, a prisoner (a. d. 1284). 
This scion of a detested race would not have escaped the fury of the 
Messenians, who wished to sacrifice him in revenge for the murder of 
Conradin, only for the generous interference of Queen Constance, Man- 
fred's daughter, who rescued him from the fury of the populace, and 
sent him for security to Catalonia. Charles of Anjou did not long sur- 
vive this calamity ; the remembrance of his former triumphs and pros- 
perity, his pride, his contempt for his enemies, and shame for having 
been baffled by policy, aggravated the mortification of a defeat which 
he no longer had power to retrieve. 

Spain continued divided into several small kingdoms, Christian and 



440 MODERN HISTORY. 

Mohammedan. To the former belonged Navarre, Aragon, and Castile, 
of which the last two were gradually extending themselves at the ex- 
pense of their Mohammedan neighbors. The Castilian monarch, Al- 
phonso I., captured Madrid and Toledo (a. d. 1085) ; he would proba- 
bly have expelled the Moors from Spain, had not a new burst of fa- 
naticism in Africa supplied the Mohammedans with hordes of enthusi- 
astic defenders in the moment of danger. The Moors not only recov- 
ered their strength, but became so formidable, that Pope Innocent III. 
published a cnisade against them. A numerous Christian army assem- 
bled on the confines of Castile and Andalusia; they encountered their 
enemies near the city of Uleda, and inflicted on them a defeat, from 
which the Spanish Mohammedans never recovered (a. d. 1212). Fer- 
dinand III., king of Castile and Leon, profiting by the weakness of the 
Moors, subdued the little kingdom of Cordova, Murcia, and Seville 
(a. d. 1256), so that the Mohammedans Avere reduced to the single 
kingdom of Granada. 

The crusade in Spain led to the foundation of a new kingdom in 
Europe. Henry of Burgundy, a member of the royal family of France, 
Avas so eminently distinguished by his valor in the Mohammedan wars, 
that Alphonso VI., king of Castile, gave him his daughter in marriage, 
with the investiture of the country of Portugal as her dowry. Henry 
enlarged his territory at the expense of the Mohammedans, but his fame 
was eclipsed by that of his son Alphonso, whom his soldiers proclaimed 
king on the glorious field of battle in which the power of the Moham- 
medans was destroyed (a. d. 1139). To secure his new royalty, Al- 
phonso placed himself and his kingdom under the protection of the 
holy see, and declared himself a liege subject of the pope. His suc- 
cessors found the Roman pontiffs by no means slow in availing them- 
selves of the power thus ceded to them ; several violent struggles were 
made by the kings to free themselves from the yoke, but the power of 
the popes prevailed, and a treaty was concluded, by which the Portu- 
guese clergy were secured in extensive possessions, almost royal priv- 
ileges, and a complete exemption from secular jurisdiction (a. d. 1289). 
As the governments of France and England began to assume a sta- 
ble forpi, rivalry arose between the two nations, which led to a long 
series of sanguinary wars. From the time of Capet's usurpation, the 
policy of the French kings had been to lessen the power of the great 
feudatories ; and it was a perilous error in Philip I. to sanction the 
duke of Normandy's conquest of England, for he thus permitted a vas- 
sal, already dangerous, to become his rival sovereign. The danger was 
greatly increased when Louis VII. divorced his faithless wife Eleanor, 
the heiress to the provinces of Guienne, Poitou, and Gascony. She 
married Henry II., king of England, and thus enabled him to add her 
inheritance to that of the Plantagenets in France, which included the 
dutchies of Normandy and the counties of Anjou and Maine (a. d. 1252). 
The vassal was now more powerful than his sovereign ; the throne of 
France indeed would scarcely have been secure, had not the family dis- 
putes of the Plantagenets, secretly fomented by the wicked Eleanor, 
caused Henry's sons to revolt against their indulgent father, and brought 
that able sovereign with sorrow to his grave. Philip Augustus was the 
founder of the greatness of the French monarchy. The Plantagenets 



GROWTH OF THE PAPAL POWER. 441 

of England sank rapidly before his superior talents. Richard I. was 
nothing more than a brave warrior, and unable to compete with the 
policy of his rival ; his successor, John, was neither a soldier nor a 
statesman ; he provoked the resentment of all his subjects, and while 
assailed in England by the discontented barons, and menaced abroad 
by the pope, he was deprived of most of his continental dominions by 
the Avatchful king of France. Philip's neighbors, and many of his 
vassals, were alarmed at the vast increase of his power after his con- 
quest of the Norman provinces ; they formed a league against him, but 
at the battle of Bouvines (a. d. 1214), he triumphed over the united 
forces of the Germans, the English, and the Flemings, and by this vic- 
tory secured the possession of his acquisitions. 

After the death of Nicholas (a. d. 1292), the papacy, as if exhausted 
by its own excesses, seemed to have fallen into a lethargy. The holy 
see remained vacant for two years and three months ; an interval which 
the heads of the church might have improved to accommodate the ec- 
clesiastical system to the improved state of intelligence, and the con- 
sequent changes in the wants and wishes of Europe But, in an evil 
hour, they had adopted the doctrine of infallibility, and believed them- 
selves bound to keep their system stationary while everything around 
was in progress. In a former age the papacy had taken the lead in the 
advancement of intelligence ; the clergy and the friars were the mis- 
sionaries of knowledge ; but the church had now fallen into the rear ; 
kings, not pontiffs, were the patrons of learning ; in the new contest 
between the spiritual and temporal powers, we shall find the latter con- 
quering, because on their side were ranged all who took a share in the 
advancement of civilization. Intelligence, emancipated from the clois- 
ter, found a temporary abode in the palace, and finally spread even to 
the cottage ; the popes became its enemies from the moment it quitted 
their protection, but they were necessarily vanquished in the struggle ; 
one age beheld monarchs despise the deposing power, the next witnes- 
sed the pope's authority a mockery, and his very name a reproach in 
one half of Europe. 

The vacancy in the papacy became the signal for civil wars in Rome, 
and throughout Italy ; superstition attributed these calamities to the car- 
dinals, who left the church without a head : an insane hermit stimula- 
ted the populace to menace them with death unless they proceeded to 
an election, and they chose a feeble, ignorant, old fanatic, who took the 
name of Celestine IV. Though destitute of any other qualification, 
Celestine had at least the pride of a pontiff — the bridle of the ass, on 
which, with blasphemous imitation, he made his public entry into Aquilla, 
was held by two kings, Charles II., the perjured sovereign of Naples, 
and his son Charles Martel, nominal king of Hungary. But the cardi- 
nals soon became weary of an idiot monk forced upon them by an in- 
sane hermit ; Benedict Cajetan worked upon the weak mind of Celes- 
tine to resign a dignity which he was unable to maintain, and, having 
previously gained the suffrages of the college, ascended the throne un- 
der the name of Boniface VIII.* In its altered circumstances, the 

* Almost the only thing memorable in the pontificate of Celestine, is the fabled 
miracle of the chapel of Loretto, which was said to have been transported by 
angels from Nazareth to the place where it now stands^ that it should not be 



442 MODERN HISTOEY. 

papacy thus found a ruler who had fortitude and courage sufficient to 
maintain its pretensions against the kings who had now begun to dis- 
cover their rights ; but the defeat of the pontiff added one to the many 
examples that history affords of the failure of antiquated pretensions 
when opposed to common sense and common honesty. 

Section XIII. — Pontificate of Boiiifacc VIII. 

Most historians assert that Boniface had recourse to very treacher- 
ous artifices, in order to obtain the resignation of Celestine : however 
this may be, the abdicated pontiff was immediately shut up in a prison, 
lest his scruples, or his remorse, should trouble his successor. Boni- 
face, to the ambition and despotic character of Gregory VII , added a 
more crafty manner, and more dissimulation, than had been recently 
seen in the chair of St. Peter. He aspired to universal sovereignty 
over ecclesiastics, princes, and nations ; and he diligently sought out 
means for rendering them submissive to his laws. Aware that it would 
be impossible to revive the crusading passion in Europe, he resolved to 
make the recovery of Palestine a pretext for interfering in the quarrels 
of sovereigns. He wrote to Philip the Fair, king of France, to Ed- 
ward I. of England, and to Adolphus, emperor of Germany, command- 
ing them, under pain of excommunication, to accommodate their differ- 
ences ; and he mediated a peace between the sovereigns of France 
and Aragon. 

James, king of Aragon, anxious to conciliate the pope, resigned his 
pretensions to Sicily ; but the islanders, detesting the house of Anjou, 
and despising the commands of a sovereign who had so weakly aban- 
doned his rights, crowned Frederic, the brother of James, at Palermo, 
and expelled the papal legates. Excommunications were fulminated 
against the Sicilians, and the sovereign of their choice ; even the fee- 
ble James was induced to arm against his brother, and aid in his expul- 
sion from the island ; and this violation of natural ties was rewarded 
by the cession of Sardinia and Corsica, over which the pope had not a 
shadow of right. But the ambition of Boniface was not limited to 
bestowing islands and Italian principalities ; he resolved to establish 
his authority over the most powerful sovereigns of Europe. 

Philip the Fair was one of the most able monarchs in Christendom ; 
resolute in establishing his influence over the great vassals of the 
crown, he strengthened himself by the support of his people, and re- 
solved that the nobles and the clergy should, henceforth, form classes 
of his subjects. Feudal anarchy disappeared, and equal jurisdiction 
was extended over all ranks ; the lower classes were delivered from 
the most galling burdens of vassalage, and the despotism of the sover- 
eign became a blessing to the nation. In the midst of his career he re- 
.ceived an embassy from the pope, commanding him to spare a con- 
quered vassal, to abstain from taxing the clergy, and to submit his dis- 
putes with the count of Flanders to the arbitration of the holy see. 
Philip spumed these demands, upon which the pope issued the cele- 
brated bull, called, from the words with which it commences, Clericis 

polluted by the Saracens. This absurd story was long credited by the RomanistSj 
but it is now derided even in Italy. 



GROWTH OF THE PAPAL POWER. 443 

laicos, excommunicating the kings who should levy ecclesiastical subsi- 
dies, and the priests who should pay them; and withdrawing the .clergy 
from the jurisdiction of lay tribunals. 

This attempt to establish a theocracy, independent of monarchy, 
excited general indignation. In England, Edward ordered his judges 
to admit no causes in which ecclesiastics were the complainants, but to 
try every suit brought against them, averring that those who refused to 
contribute to the support of the state, had no claim to the protection of 
the law. This expedient succeeded, and the English ecclesiastics 
hastened to pay their subsidies, without further compulsion. Philip the 
Fair exhibited even more vigor ; he issued an edict prohibiting the ex- 
port of gold, silver, jewels, provisions, or munitions of war, without a 
license ; and he forbade foreign merchants to establish themselves in 
his dominions. Boniface, aware that these measures would destroy the 
revenue which the court of Rome derived from France, remonstrated in 
urgent terms, explained away the most offensive parts of his former 
bull, and offered several advantages to the king if he would modify his 
edicts. Philip allowed himself to be persuaded ; the bull Clericis laicos 
was rendered less stringent : Louis IX. was canonized, and Philip 
could boast of having a saint for an ancestor ; finally, the pope prom- 
ised that he would support Charles of Valois, as a candidate for the 
empire. Dazzled by these boons, the French monarch accepted the 
arbitration of the pope, in his disputes with the king of England and 
the count of Flanders. But Boniface, to his astonishment, decided 
that Guienne should be restored to England, that all his former posses- 
sions should be given back to the count of Flanders, and that Philip 
himself should undertake a new crusade. When this unjust sentence 
was read in the presence of the French court, by the bishop of Dur- 
ham, Edward's ambassador, the king listened to it with a smile of con- 
tempt ; but the count of Artois enraged at such insolence, snatched the 
bull, tore it in pieces, and flung the fragments into the fire. This was 
the only answer returned ; Philip, heedless of the pope's anger, renew- 
ed the war. 

Boniface VIII. little dreamed that Philip's resistance would be so 
energetic, or of such dangerous example ; but he prepared for the 
coming struggle, by securing his authority in Italy, and especially in 
Rome, where the papal power had been long controlled by the factious 
nobles. Immediately after his elevation to the pontificate, he had 
caused himself to be elected senator, but the Ghibellines rendered the 
dignity of such a magistrate very precarious ; it was necessary to de- 
stroy them, and in this instance personal vengeance was united to the 
projects of ambition. The leaders of the Ghibelline faction at Rome 
were the illustrious family of the Colonna : two cardinals of that name 
had strenuously resisted the abdication of Celestine, and had long been 
marked out as victims. Under the pretext of their alliance with the 
kings of Sicily and Aragon, they were summoned to appear before the 
papal tribunal ; but, justly dreading that their doom was predetermined, 
they fled to their castles, protesting against the sentence of him whom 
they denied to be a legitimate pope. Boniface hurled the most terrible 
anathemas against them, declaring them infamous, excommunicate, and 
incapable of any public charge, to the fourth generation : he devoted 



444 MODERN HISTORY. 

them to the fires of the Inqiusition, and preached a crusade for their de- 
struction. Intimidated for a moment, the Colonnas submitted, and sur- 
rendered their town of Palcstrina as a pledge of their fidelity. No 
sooner was Boniface master of this stronghold, than, regardless of his 
oaths, he levelled the fortress to the ground, forbade it to be rebuilt, re- 
newed his persecutions against the Colonnas, and compelled them to fly 
from Italy. They sought shelter at the court of France, where they 
were hospitably received by Philip, who thus gave a signal proof of his 
independence and his generosity. 

Boniface was alarmed, but not dismayed ; he resolved to lull the 
king's vigilance by stimulating his ambition : for this purpose he pro- 
posed to dethrone Albert, emperor of Germany, and give the crown to 
Charles of Valois, whom he had already created imperial vicar, and 
captain-general of the holy church. Philip turned a deaf ear to this 
tempting proposal ; he even entered into alliance with Albert, and ce- 
mented the union by giving his sister in marriage to the emperor's son, 
Rodolph, duke of Austria. Boniface was enraged at this disappoint- 
ment, but his attention was diverted by the institution of a jubilee, to 
mark the commencement of a new century (a. d. 1300). He published 
a bull, promising full pardon and remission of all sins to those who, 
being confessed and penitent, should visit the tombs of the apostles at 
Rome, during fifteen days. Multitudes of pilgrims, anxious to obtain 
the benefits of the crusades, without the perils of war, flocked to the 
city, and, by their liberal expenditure, greatly enriched the Romans. 
This profitable contrivance was renewed by the successors of Boniface, 
at intervals of fifty years, and proved to be an efiicacious means of re- 
cruiting the papal treasury. 

Scarcely had the jubilee terminated, when the disputes between the 
pope and the king of France were revived, in consequence of the rival 
claims for supremacy, between the archbishop and the viscount of 
Narbonne. The king supported his vassal ; the prelate appealed to the 
pope, and Boniface promptly responded to the call. A legate was sent 
to Philip, and the choice of an ambassador was almost a declaration of 
war. The pope's messenger was the bishop of Pamiers, a rebellious 
subject, whose treasons were notorious, and whose insolence to his 
sovereign excited general indignation. The seditious prelate was 
driven from the court ; but the king, instead of bringing him to trial, 
complained to his metropolitan, the archbishop of Narbonne, and de- 
manded justice. Boniface addressed an insolent bull to the king, sum- 
moned the French bishops to meet at Rome, to consult respecting the 
doom that should be pronounced on their sovereign, and invited Philip 
himself to be present at this unprecedented conclave. But the king, 
supported by the legists or professors of the law, a body rising rapidly 
into importance, defied the papal power, and appealed to the good sense 
of his people. Boniface had sent a bull, known in history by the name 
AuscuUa fili* to France, in which all the delinquencies of Philip, not 
only toward the church, but every class of his subjects, were portrayed 
with apparent moderation, but with great vigor and eloquence. Peter 
Flotte, the royal chancellor, presented an abridgment of this document 
to the great council of the nation, craftily culling out those passages in 
• " Listen, son," the words with which it commenced. 



GROWTH OF THE PAPAL POWER. 445 

whicli the papal pretensions were most offensively put forward. This 
document, called " the little bull," was as follows : — 

" Boniface, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to Philip, king of 
the Franks. Fear God and keep his commandments. We desire you 
to know that you are subject to us in temporal as well as in spiritual 
affairs ; that the appointment to benefices and prebends belongs not to 
you ; that if you have kept benefices vacant, the profits must be reserved 
for the legal successors ; and if you have bestowed any benefice, we de- 
clare the appointment invalid, and revoke it if executed. Those who 
oppose this judgment shall be deemed heretics." 

Philip ordered this declaration to be publicly burned, and he published 
a memorable reply, which, however, was probably never sent to Rome. 
It is a very remarkable proof of the decline of the papal power that 
such a manifesto should be issued, and presented to the states-general 
of France, as their monarch's answer to the supreme pontiff. The let- 
ter of the king is thus given by historians : — 

" Philip, by the grace of God, king of the French, to Boniface, 
claiming to be pope, little or no greeting. May it please your sublime 
stupidity to learn, that we are subject to no person in temporal affairs ; 
that the bestowing of fiefs and benefices belongs to us by right of our 
crown ; that the disposal of the revenues of vacant sees, is part of our 
prerogative ; that our decrees, in this respect, are valid, both for the 
past and for the future ; and that we will support, with all our might, 
those on whom we have bestowed, or shall bestow, benefices. ■ Those 
who oppose this judgment shall be deemed fools or idiots." 

The manifestos sent to Rome by the three orders of the states-gen- 
eral, the nobles, the clergy, and the commons, are of greater importance 
to the historian than " the little bull" or the royal reply. That of the 
French barons was addressed to the college of cardinals ; it openly 
accused the pope of having periled the unity of the church by his ex- 
travagant ambition, and it denied, in the strongest terms, his right to 
appellate jurisdiction over the kingdom of France. The clergy ad- 
dressed Boniface himself in a measured and respectful tone, but they 
declared that they had taken a new oath to their sovereign, that they 
would firmly maintain the independence of his crown. The declara- 
tion of the commons has not been preserved, but like that of the nobles, 
it appears to have been addressed to the college of cardinals. The 
court of Rome was alarmed, letters of explanation were sent to the dif- 
ferent orders, but the pope declared he would not write to the king, 
whom he considered subject to the sentence of excommunication. 

While Boniface VIII. was thus engaged with France and its ruler, 
he did not lose sight of his pretensions over other kingdoms. Edward 
of England, having overcome the feudal turbulence of his vassals, was 
about to undertake the conquest of Scotland, when the holy see forbade 
the enterprise. Edward in reply traced his right to Scotland, up to the 
age of the prophet Samuel, and a synod of the English clergy declared, 
that the claims of their sovereign were better founded than those of the 
pontiff. A legate, by command of Boniface, labored to pacify Hungary, 
which was divided between the grandson of Charles the Lame, king of 
Naples, and Andrew the Venetian. On the death of the latter prince, 
the Hungarian barons, fearing the loss of their liberties under a king 



446 MODERN HISTORY. 

imposed upon them by the church, elected for their sovereign the son 
of the king of Bavaria, and he was solemnly crowned by the arch- 
bishop of Colreza. The pope wrote fierce denunciations against the 
election, and even commanded the king of Bavaria to dethrone his own 
son. But though Hungary refused submission, the obedience of Spain 
consoled the pontiif ; he declared the marriage of Sancho the Brave 
valid, after his death, and in consequence of this decision, Ferdinand 
IV., the eldest son of that monarch, was permitted to retain the king- 
dom of Castile. 

Though Philip had ordered that the goods of all the clergy who 
quitted the kingdom should be confiscated, many of the prelates braving 
the penalty, proceeded to the court of Rome. Conscious that this dis- 
obedience portended a struggle between the spiritual and temporal 
power, the French king took the unexpected precaution of denouncing 
the horrors of the inquisition, and thus representing royalty as the 
shield of the people against the tyranny of the priesthood. Boniface, 
encouraged by the presence of the French bishops, yielded to the 
impetuosity of his passions, and issued the famous bull tfnam sanctam, 
in Avhich the claims of the papacy to universal dominion are stated 
with more strength and precision than the court of Rome had yet 
ventured to use. After this document had been sanctioned by the 
council, a legate was sent to France, whose- instructions contained 
the demand that the king should not oppose the prelates who wished 
to travel, the disposal of benefices by the holy see, or the entrance of 
legates into his kingdom ; that he should not confiscate the properties 
of ecclesiastics, nor bring them to trial, before civil courts ; that the 
king should appear in person at Rome, and answer to the charge of 
having burned a bull sealed with the effigies of the holy apostles ; 
and finally, that he should recompense the losses occasioned by the 
depreciation of the currency, and abandon the city of Lyons to its 
archbishop, as an ecclesiastical fief Philip the Fair, undaunted by 
the threat of excommunication, peremptorily rejected all these demands, 
and in his turn caused Boniface to be accused by William de Nogaret, 
the royal advocate, of usurpation, heresy, and simony. The advocate 
required that a general council should be summoned to investigate 
these charges, and that the pope should be detained in prison until his 
guilt or innocence should be decided. 

Boniface was now seriously alarmed ; when he ascended the throne, 
Celestine had declared " This cardinal, who stole like a fox into the 
chair of St. Peter, will have the reign of a lion, and the end of a dog ;" 
his violence in the struggle with the king of France, tended to realize 
i)oth predictions. But it was necessary to obtain allies, and Frederic, 
king of Sicily, was won over to declare himself a vassal of the holy 
see, by obtaining the recognition of his royal title, and absolution from 
the many anathemas hurled against him. The emperor Albert was 
similarly prevailed upon to recognise the extravagant pretensions of the 
papacy, on obtaining a bull confirming his election ; he even issued let- 
ters patent confessing that the imperial power was a boon conferred at 
the pleasure of the holy see. Thus strengthened, Boniface laid aside 
all appearance of moderation, and solemnly excoimiiunicated the con- 
tumacious king of France. 



GROWTH OF THE PAPAL POWER. 447 

Philip on the other hand assembled the states of his realm at the 
Louvre, and presented to them a new act of accusation against Boni- 
face, in which he was charged with the most detestable and unnatural 
crimes. It was voted that an appeal should be made to a new pope 
and a general council, and so general was the disapprobation of the 
pontiff's ambitious schemes, that the greater part of the French ecclesi- 
astical dignitaries, including nine cardinals, sent in their adhesion to 
the appeal. 

Boniface met the storm with firmness ; he replied to the charges 
urged against him with more temper than could have been anticipated, 
but he secretly prepared a bull of excommunication, depriving Philip 
of his throne, and anathematizing his posterity to the fourth generation. 

This final burst of hostility was delayed until the 8th of September 
(a. p. 1303), when the Romish church celebrates the nativity of the 
blessed Virgin, and Boniface aAvaited the day in the city of Anagni. 

On the eve of the Virgin's nativity the pope had retired to rest, hav- 
ing arranged his plans of vengeance for the following day ; he was 
suddenly roused by cries of " Long live Philip ! Death to Boniface !" 
Nogaret, at the command of the king of France, had entered Anagni 
with three hundred cavaliers, and being joined by some of the towns- 
men, was forcing his way into the palace. Sciarra Colonna and No- 
garet rushed together into the chamber of Boniface ; they found the 
old man clothed in his pontifical robes, seated on his throne, waiting 
their approach with unshaken dignity. They made him their prisoner, 
and prepared for his removal to France" until a general council. But 
Nogaret having unwisely delayed three days at Anagni, the citizens 
and the neighboring peasants united to liberate the pontiff; Colonna 
and his French allies were forced to abandon their prey, and could 
only save their lives by a rapid flight. Boniface hastened to Rome ; 
but fatigue, anxiety, and vexation, brought on a violent fever, which 
soon put an end to his troubled life. 

The reign of Boniface was fatal to the papal poAver ; he exaggerated 
its pretensions at the moment when the world had begun to discover 
the weakness of its claims ; in the attempt to extend his influence fur- 
ther than any of his predecessors, he exhausted the sources of his 
strength, and none of his successors, however ardent, ventured to re- 
vive pretensions which had excited so many wars, shed so much blood, 
and dethroned so many kings. The priesthood and the empire, fa- 
tigued by so long and disastrous a struggle, desired tranquillity, but 
tranquillity was for the court of Rome a political death. The illusion 
of its own omnipotence vanished with the agitations by which it had 
been produced, and new principles of action began to be recognised in 
its policy. 

The death of Boniface marks an important era in the history of 
p opery ; from this time we shall see it concentrating its strength, and 
husbanding its resources ; fighting only on the defensive, it no longer 
provokes the hostility of kings, or seeks cause of quarrel with the em- 
perors. The bulls that terrified Christendom must repose as literary 
curiosities in the archives of St. Angelo, and though the claims to 
universal supremacy will not be renounced, there will be no effort made 
to enforce them. A few pontiffs will be found now and then reviving 



448 MODERN HISTORY. 

the claims of Gregory, of Innocent, and of Boniface ; but their attempts 
will be found desultory and of brief duration, like the last flashes, fierce 
but few, that break out from the ashes of a conflagration. 

Benedict XL, the successor of Boniface, hasted to exhibit proofs of 
the moderation which results from defeat. Without waiting for any 
solicitation, he absolved Philip the Fair from the anathemas fulminated 
against him by Boniface ; recalled the Colonnas from exile, and en- 
couraged the Roman people to restore the ancient inheritance of that 
illustrious family ; finally, he exerted himself to reconcile the Guelphs 
and Ghibellines in Tuscany, but unfortunately without eff"ect. His 
early death prepared the way for a new crisis, in which the political 
system of the papacy was destined to suflfer greater shocks than any to 
which it had been yet exposed, and to give fresh proofs that it could not 
be improved, even by the stern lessons of adversity. 

Section XIV. — State of England and the Northern Kingdoms at the Cam- 
mencement of the Fourteenth Century. 

William the Conqueror reduced the Saxon population of England to 
the most degrading state of vassalage, but he could not destroy the love 
and memory of their ancient laws and liberties retained by the nation. 
His sons, William Rufus, and Henry I., were successively enabled to 
seize the throne in prejudice of the rights of their elder brother Robert, 
by promising to restore the ancient laws of the kingdom. Henry, to 
conciliate the English more effectually, married a princess of Saxon 
descent ; on his death he bequeathed the crown to the surviving child 
by this marriage, Matilda, the wife of Geoffiy Plantagenet, earl of 
Anjou. This arrangement was defeated by the usurpation of Stephen : 
England was convulsed by a civil war, which was terminated by Ste- 
phen's adopting Henry, Matilda's son, as his successor. 

Henry II., the first of the Plantagenet dynasty, on ascending the 
throne, imited to England the dutchy of Normandy, the county of Anjou, 
and the fairest provinces of northwestern France (a. d. 1154). To 
these he added the more important acquisition of Ireland, partly by a 
papal donation, and partly by right of conquest. 

Ireland was at this period divided into five petty sovereignties, whose 
monarchs harassed each other by mutual wars, and could rarely be in- 
duced to combine for their common interest. The island had been fre- 
quently devastated, and once completely subdued, by the Danes; 
several septs of these foreigners retained possession of the chief com- 
mercial cities, and even the king of Man was formidable to a country 
distracted by intestine wars. When their Norman brethren conquered 
England, the Danes in Ireland entered into a close correspondence 
with William and his successors, a circumstance Avhich probably first 
suggested to Henry the notion of conquering the island. He applied 
to the pope for a sanction of his enterprise. Adrian, the only English- 
man that ever filled the papal throne, was at that time the reigning pon- 
tiff*; his desire to gratify his native sovereign Avas stimulated by his 
anxiety to extend the papal authority. The Irish church had been 
long independent of Rome ; and the connexion between its prelates and 
the papacy was as yet insecure ; it was therefore on the condition of 



GEOWTH OF THE PAPAL POWER. 449 

subjecting Ireland to the jurisdiction of the Romish church that a bull 
was issued, granting Henry permission to invade the country. The 
bitter feuds in the Plantagenet family, and the state of his continental 
dominions, long prevented the English monarch from availing himself 
of this permission. At length Dermod, king of Leinster, driven from 
his dominions by a rival sovereign, sought English aid, and was per- 
mitted to engage the services of Strongbow, and some other military 
adventurers, on condition of doing homage for his kingdom to Henry. 
The rapid successes of Strongbow awakened Henry's jealousy ; he went 
to Ireland in person, and received the submission of its principal 
sovereigns (a. d. 1172). He returned without completing the conquest 
of the country, a circumstance productive of much misery and blood- 
shed through several successive centuries. 

The reign of Richard I. was a period of little importance in English 
history ; but that of his brother and successor, the profligate John, lec^ 
to the most important results. The barons, provoked by his tyranny 
and his vices, took up arms, and compelled him to sign the Great Char- 
ter, which laid the first permanent foundation of British freedom ; the 
pope forced him to resign his crown, and to receive it back again, only 
on condition of vassalage to the holy see, while Philip Augustus took 
advantage of these circumstances to deprive the English monarchs of 
most of their continental possessions. John's death saved England 
from becoming a province of France : absolved by Pope Innocent III. 
from his oath, he ventured to abrogate the Great Charter, upon which 
the English barons proffered the crown to Louis, the eldest son of 
Philip Augustus, who invaded England with the fairest prospects of 
success. John was completely defeated (a. d. 1216); he fled toward 
Scotland, but died upon the road. The English, already disgusted, 
with their French allies, embraced this opportunity of rallying round 
Prince Henry, and Louis was glad to conclude a treaty for abandoning 
the island. 

Henry HI. was a monarch wholly void of energy ; it was his misfor- 
tune to fill the throne at one of the most turbulent periods of English 
history, without talents to command respect, or resolution to enforce 
obedience. During his long reign, England was engaged in few for- 
eign wars, but these were generally unfortunate. On the other hand, 
the country was agitated by internal commotions during the greater 
part of the fifty years that he swayed the sceptre. The discontent of 
the prelates and barons at the favor that the king showed to foreigners 
induced them to form an association, by which the king was virtually 
deposed, and the supreme authority vested in a committee of peers, 
with the earl of Leicester at its head. Leicester introduced an impor- 
tant change into the constitution, by summoning representatives of 
counties, cities, and boroughs, to unite with the barons in the great 
council of the nation (a. d. 1265). This innovation laid the basis for 
the house of commons, which henceforth had an increasing share in 
English legislation. The tyranny of the barons being found less en- 
durable than that of the king, Henry was restored to his former power ; 
and his authority seemed fixed so permanently, that Prince Edward led 
an armament to the Holy Land, in aid of the last crusade of St. Louis. 
Henry died during his son's absence (a. d. 1272) ; but though two 

29 



450 MODERN HISTORY. 

years elapsed before Edward's return home, the tranquillity of the 
country continued undisturbed. 

The chief object of Edward's ambition was to unite the whole of 
Great Britain under one sovereignty. Under the pretext of the Welsh 
prince, Llewelyn, having refused homage, he invaded the country, and 
completely subdued it, but not without encountering a desperate resist- 
ance. The English monarch stayed more than a year in Wales to 
complete its pacification, and during that time his queen, Eleanor, gave 
birth to a son in the castle of Carnarvon (a. d. 1284). The Welsh 
claimed the child as their countryman, and he was declared Prince of 
Wales, a title which has ever since been borne by the eldest sons of 
the English kings. 

The failure of the direct heirs to the crown of Scotland gave Edward 
a pretence for interfering in the affairs of that kingdom. Three com- 
petitors, Baliol, Bruce, and Hastings, laid claim to the crown ; to avert 
the horrors of civil war, they agreed to leave the decision to Edward ; 
and he pronounced in favor of the first, on condition of Baliol's becom- 
ing a vassal to the king of England. Baliol soon grew weary of the 
authority exercised over him by Edward, and made an eflTort to recover 
his independence ; but being defeated and taken prisoner, he abdicated 
the throne (a. d. 1296), and was confined in the Tower of London. 
The Scottish nation, though vanquished, was not subdued ; several in- 
surrections were raised against the English yoke ; but after the defeat 
and capture of the Scottish hero, Sir William Wallace, all hope of in- 
dependence seemed to have vanished. At length, Robert Bruce raised 
the standard of revolt, and was crowned king at Scone (a. d. 1306). 
Edward once more sent an army into Scotland, and soon followed in 
person to subdue that obstinate nation. His death on the border (a. d. 
1 307) freed Bruce from his most dangerous foe ; and in the following 
reign the independence of Scotland was established by the decisive 
battle of Bannockburn (a. d. 1314). 

The northren kingdoms of Europe, in the thirteenth and fourteenth 
centuries, offer little to our notice but scenes of horror and carnage. 
The natural ferocity and warlike spirit of the Northmen, the want of 
fixed rules of succession, and the difficulty of finding employment for 
turbulent spirits in piratical expeditions when the increase of civili- 
zation had given consistency to the governments of the south, and 
enabled them to provide for the protection of their subjects, multiplied 
factions, and produced innumerable civil wars. Crusades, however, 
were undertaken against the Sclavonian and other pagan nations, by 
which the kings of Denmark and Sweden added considerably to their 
dominions, and gave them a high rank among the states of Europe. 
Prussia and Livonia were subdued by the knights of the Teutonic 
order ; and Hungary, after having been almost ruined by the Mongolian 
hordes, began gradually to recover its importance after the retreat of 
these barbarians (a. d. 1244). 

Section XV. — Revolutions in the East in consequence of the Mongolian 
Invasion. 

There is no phenomenon more remarkable in history than the rise, 
progress, and extent of the Mongolian empire. Jenghiz Khan, in a 



GROWTH OF THE PAPAL POWER. 451 

single reign, issuing from a petty principality in the wilds of Tartary, 
acquired an empire stretching about six thousand miles from east to 
west, and at least half that space from north to south, including within 
its limits the most powerful and wealthy kingdoms of Asia. 

The Mongols were first raised into eminence by Jenghiz Khan ; his 
original name was Temujin, and he was the chief of a small horde which 
his father's valor had elevated above the surrounding tribes. At an 
early age he was invited to the court of Vang Khan, the nominal head 
of the tribes of the Tartarian deserts, and received the hand of that 
potentate's daughter in marriage. Mutual jealousy soon led to a war 
between Temujin and his father-in-law ; the latter was slain in battle, 
and Temujin succeeded to his authority. On the day of his installation, 
a pretended prophet named Kokza, addressing the new sovereign, 
declared that he was inspired by God to name him Jenghiz Khan, 
that is, supreme monarch, and to promise him the empire of the 
universe. 

Inspired by this prophecy, which, however, he is suspected of 
having suggested, Jenghiz zealously labored to establish military 
discipline among the vast hordes that flocked to his standard ; and 
when he had organized an army, he invaded those provinces of north- 
ern China called Khatai by the oriental writers, and Cathay by our 
old English authors. In five years this extensive country was subdued, 
and Jenghiz directed his arms westward, provoked by an outrage of the 
sultan of Kharasm. This kingdom of Kharasm was among the most 
flourishing in central Asia ; the literary eminence of Bokhara, and the 
coinmercial prosperity of Samarcand, were celebrated throughout the 
East. The sultans Mohammed and his son and successor, Jalaloddin, 
were monarchs of dauntless bravery, but nothing could withstand the 
fury of the Mongols, and not only Kharasm, but the greater part of 
northern and eastern Persia, full under the sway of Jenghiz. Astrachan 
was taken by a Mongolian detachment, and some of the hordes pushed 
their incursions as far as the confines of Russia. Jenghiz died in his 
seventy-sixth year (a. d. 1227), continuing his career of conquest 
almost to the last hour of his life. Few conquerors have displayed 
greater military abilities, none more savage ferocity. He delighted in 
slaughter and devastation ; his maxim was to slaughter without mercy, 
all that offered him the least resistance. 

The successors of the Mongolian conqueror followed the course he 
had traced. They completed the subjugation of China, they overthrew 
the khaliphate of Bagdad (a. d. 1258), and rendered the sultans of 
Iconium tributary. Oktai' Khan, the immediate successor of Jenghiz, 
sent two armies from the centre of China, one against the peninsula 
of Corea, the other to subdue the countries north and east of the 
Caspian. This latter army, under the guidance of Batu Khan, pene- 
trated and subdued the Russian empire (a. d. 1237) ; thence the 
Mongols spread into Hungary, Poland, and Silesia, and even reached 
the coasts of the Adriatic sea. The dutchy of Wladimir was the only 
native Russian dynasty that preserved its existence ; it owed its good 
fortune to Alexander Newski, whose prudent measures conciliated the 
favor of the conquerors, and secured him a tranquil reign. After the 
death of Kublai Khan, the grandson of Jenghiz, the Mongolian empire 



452 * MODERN HISTORY. 

was partitioned by the provincial governors, and gradually sank 
into decay. 

The overthrow of the Seljukian sultans and the Fatimite khaliphs, 
by Noureddin and Saladin, has been already mentioned. The dynasty 
of the Ayubites was founded by Saladin's descendants in Syria and 
Egj'pt, and this, after having been divided into several states, v/as over- 
thrown by the Mamelukes in the thirteenth century. 

The Mamelukes were Turkish captives, whom the ferocious Mon- 
gols sold into slavery ; great numbers of them were imported into 
Egypt in the reign of Sultan Saleh, of the Ayubite dynasty. This 
prince purchased multitudes of the younger captives, whom he formed 
into an army and kept in a camp on the seacoast, where they received 
instruction in military discipline.* From this they were removed to 
receive the charge of the royal person, and the superintendence of the 
ofBcers of state. In a short time, these slaves became so numerous 
and so powerful that they were enabled to usurp the throne, having 
murdered Turan Shah, the son and successor of Saleh, Avho had vainly 
endeavored to break the yoke which the Mamelukes had imposed upon 
their sultan (a. d. 1250). This revolution took place in the presence 
of St. Louis, who had been taken prisoner at the battle of Mansurah, 
and had just concluded a truce for ten years with Turan Shah. The 
Mameluke insurgent, named at first regent or atta-beg, was finally pro- 
claimed sultan of Egypt. 

The dominion of the Mamelukes over Egypt lasted for more than 
two centuries and a half. Their body, constantly recruited by Turkish 
and Circassian slaves, disposed of the throne at its pleasure ; the boldest 
of their chiefs, provided he could prove his descent from Turkestan, 
was chosen sultan. Notwithstanding the frequent wars and revolutions 
necessarily resulting from the licentiousness of military election, the 
Mamelukes made a successful resistance to the Mongols, and after the 
death of Jenghiz Khan's immediate heirs, conquered the kingdoms of 
Aleppo and Damascus, which the Mongolian khans had taken from the 
Ayubites (a. d. 1260). The surviving princes of the Ayubite dynasty 
in Syria and Arabia tendered their submission to the Mamelukes, who 
were, thus masters of all the ancient Saracenic possessions in the 
Levantine countries, with the exception of the few forts and cities which 
were still retained by the Franks and western Christians. The Mame- 
lukes soon resolved to seize these last memorials of the crusades. 
They invaded the principalities of Antioch and Tripoli, which were 
subdued without much difficulty. A fierce resistance was made by the 
garrison of Acre, but the town was taken by assault and its gallant 
defenders put to the sword. Tyre soon after surrendered by capitula- 
tion (a. d. 1291), and thus the Christians were finally expelled from 
Syria and Palestine. 

•Hence they were called the Baharite or Maritime Mamelukes, to distinguish 
them from the Borjite or Garrison Mamelukes, another body of this militia, formed 
by the Baharite sultan, Kelaiin, to counterbalance the authority usurped by the 
Turkish emirs. The Borjites derived their name from the forts which they garri- 
soned ; they soon increased in power, and made the Baharite dynasty undergo the 
fate it inflicted on the Ayubite sultans. They rose against their masters (a. d. 
1382), gained possession of the supreme authority, and placed one of theii- chiefs 
on the throne of Egypt. The Borjites in their turn were overthrown by the 
Ottomans (a. d. 1317). 



PROGRESS OP CIVILIZATION AND INVENTION. 453 



CHAPTER V. 

THE REVIVAL OF LITERATURE ; THE PROGRESS OF 
CIVILIZATION AND INVENTION. ■ 

Section I. — Decline of the Papal Power. — The Great Schism of the West. 

Clement V., elevated to the papacy by the influence of the French 
king, Philip the Fair, to gratify his patron, abstained from going to 
Rome, had the ceremony of his coronation performed at Lyons, and 
fixed his residence at Avignon (a. d. 1309). 

Philip further insisted that the memory of Boniface should be stig- 
matized, and his bones disinterred and ignominiously burned. Clement 
was afraid to refuse ; but, at the same time, he dreaded the scandal of 
such a proceeding, and the danger of such a precedent ; he therefore 
resolved to temporize, and persuaded Philip to adjourn the matter until 
a general council should be assembled. But some sacrifice was neces- 
sary to appease the royal thirst for vengeance, and the illustrious order 
of the Templars was sacrificed by the head of that church it had been 
instituted to defend. On the 13th of October, 1307, all the knights of 
that order were simultaneously arrested ; they were accused of the 
most horrible and improbable crimes ; evidence was sought by every 
means that revenge and cupidity could suggest ; the torture of the rack 
was used with unparalleled violence to extort confession ; and sentence 
of condemnation was finally pronounced on these unfortunate men, 
whose only crime was the wealth of their order, and their adherence 
to the papal cause in the reign of Boniface. 

The assassination of the emperor Albert inspired Philip with the 
hope of procuring the crown of Charlemagije for his brother, and he 
hastened to Avignon to claim the promised aid of the pope. But 
though Clement had abandoned Italy to tyrants and factions, he had 
not resigned the hope of re-establishing the papal power over the penin- 
sula, and he shuddered at the prospect of a French emperor reconciling 
the Guelphs and Ghibellines, crushing opposition by the aid of his 
royal brother, and fixing the imperial authority on a permanent basis ; 
he therefore secretly instigated the German princes to hasten the elec- 
tion, and Henry VII. of Luxemburg was chosen at his suggestion. 
Though Henry possessed little hereditary influence, his character and 
talents secured him obedience in Germany ; he had thus leisure to at- 
tend to the affairs of Italy, which no emperor had visited during the 
preceding half century. He crossed the Alps with a band of faithful 
followers ; the cities and their tyrants, as if impressed by magic with 
unusual respect for the imperial majesty, tendered him their allegiance, 



454 MODERN HISTORY, 

and the peninsula, for a brief space, submitted to orderly government. 
But the rivalry of the chief cities, the ambition of powerful barons, and 
the intrigues of Clement, soon excited fresh commotions, which Henry 
had not the means of controlling. 

The council of Vienne had been summoned for the posthumous trial 
of Boniface VIII., and an examination of the charges brought against 
the Templars (a. d. 1309). Twenty-three witnesses gave evidence 
against the dec^iased pontiff, and fully established the charges of profli- 
gacy and infidelity ; but Clement's own immoralities were too flagrant 
for him to venture on establishing such a principle as the forfeiture of 
the papacy for criminal indulgences, and the confession that Chris- 
tianity had been described by a pope as a lucrative fable, was justly 
regarded as dangerous, not only to the papacy, but to religion itself. 
Philip was persuaded to abandon the prosecution, and a bull was issued 
acquitting Boniface, but, at the same time, justifying the motives of his 
accusers. The order of the Templars was formally abolished, and their 
estates transferred to the Hospitallers, or Knights of St. John of Jeru- 
salem ; but the Hospitallers were forced to pay such large sums to 
Philip and the princes who had usurped the Temple lands, that they 
were impoverished rather than enriched by the grant. The council 
passed several decrees against heretics, and made some feeble efforts 
to reform the lives of the clergy ; finally, it ordained a new crusade, 
which had no result but the filling of the papal coflfers with gifts from 
the devout, bribes from the politic, and the purchase-money of indul- 
gences from the cowardly. 

When the emperor Henry VII. was crowned at Rome, he establish- 
ed a tribunal to support his authority over the cities and princes of 
Italy ; sentence of forfeiture was pronounced against Robert, king of 
Naples, on a charge of treason, and this prince, to the great indignation 
of the French monarch, was placed under the ban of the empire. The 
pope interfered to protect the cousin of his patron, Philip ; the wars 
between the papacy and the empire were about to be renewed, when 
Henry died suddenly at BoRconventio, in the state of Sienna. It was 
generally believed that the emperor was poisoned by his confessor, a 
Dominican monk, who administered the fatal dose in the eucharist. 
Clement fulminated two bulls against Henry's memory, accusing him 
of perjury and usurpatioi'' ; he also annulled the sentence against Rob- 
ert of Naples, and nominated that prince imperial vicar of Italy. 

The death of Henry exposed Germany to the wars of a disputed 
succession ; that of Clement, which soon followed, produced alarming 
dissensions in the church. Philip did not long survive the pontiff, and 
his successor, Louis X., was too deeply sunk in dissipation to regard 
the concerns of the papacy. Twenty-seven months elapsed in contests 
between the French and Italian cardinals, each anxious to have a pon- 
tiff of their own nation. When first they met in conclave, at Carpen- 
tras, the town was fired in a battle between their servants, and the car- 
dinals, escaping from their burning palace through the windows, dis- 
persed without coming to any decision. At length, Philip the Long, 
count of Poictiers, assembled the cardinals at Lyons, having voluntarily 
sworn that he would secure their perfect freedom. During their de- 
liberations, the death of Louis X. gave Philip the regency, and soou 



PHOGRESS OF CIVILIZATION AND INVENTION. 455 

after the crown of France ; the first use he made of his power was to 
shut up the cardinals in close conclave, and compel them to expedite 
the election. Thus coerced, they engaged to choose the pontiff who 
should be nominated by the Cardinal de Porto ; this prelate, to the 
great surprise of all parties, named himself, and was soon after solemnly 
ijQstalled at Avignon, under the title of John XXII. 

Europe was at this period in a miserable state of distraction. Italy 
was convulsed by the civil wars between the Guelphs and Ghibellines, 
whose animosities were secretly instigated by the intrigues of the king 
of Naples ; Spain and Portugal were harassed by the struggles between, 
the Christians and the Moors ; England and France were at war with 
each other, while both were distracted by internal commotions ; two 
emperors unfurled their hostile banners in Germany ; and, finally, the 
Ottoman Turks were steadily advancing toward Constantinople. In 
these difficult times, John displayed great policy ; he refused to recog- 
nise either of the rivals to the empire, and took advantage of their dis- 
sensions to revive the papal claims to the supremacy of Italy. But the 
battle of Muhldorf having established Louis of Bavaria on the imperial 
throne, John, who had previously been disposed to favor the duke of 
Austria, vainly attempted to gain over the successful sovereign. Louis 
sent efiicient aid to the Ghibellines, and the papal party in Italy seemed 
on the point of being destroyed. John, forced to seek for allies, re- 
solved to offer the imperial crown to Charles the Fair, who had just 
succeeded his brother Philip on the throne of France. The Germans, 
ever jealous of the French, were filled with indignation when they 
heard that the pope was endeavoring to remove their popular emperor ; 
Louis summoned a diet, in which he publicly refuted the charges 
brought against him by the court of Avignon ; several learned men 
published treatises to prove the subordination of the ecclesiastical to 
the imperial authority ; the chapter of Freysingen expelled the bishop 
for his attachment to the pope ; and the citizens of Strasburg threw a 
priest into the Rhine, for daring to affix a copy of John's condemnation 
of Louis to the gates of the cathedral. Even the religious orders were 
divided ; for, while the Dominicans adhered to the pope, the Francis- 
cans zealously supported the cause of the emperor. 

Irritated rather than discouraged by anathemas, Louis led an army 
into Italy, traversed the Appenines, received the iron crown of Lom- 
bardy at Milan, and, advancing to Rome, found a, schismatic bishop 
willing to perform the ceremony of his coronation. It was in vain that 
John declared these proceedings void, and issued new bulls of excom- 
munication ; the emperor conciliated the Guelphs by his real or pre- 
tended zeal for orthodoxy, and, confident in his strength, ventured to 
pronounce sentence of deposition and death against John, and to procure 
the election of Nicholas V. by the Roman clergy and people. The 
Franciscans declared in favor of the antipope, who was one of their 
body ; and if Louis had shown prudence and forbearance equal to his 
vigor, the cause of Pope John would have been irretrievably ruined. 
But the avarice of the emperor alienated the affections, not only of the 
Romans, but of many Italian princes, who had hitherto been attached 
to the Ghibelline party ; he was deserted by his chief supporters, and 
he embraced the pretext afforded him by the death of the duke of Aus- 



456 MODERN HISTORY. 

tria, to return to Bavaria. Nicholas, abandoned by his allies, was forced 
to surrender to the pope, and only obtained his life by submitting to ap- 
pear before John, with a rope round his neck, and to ask pardon of the 
pope and the public, for the scandal he had occasioned (a. d. 1330). 
Though by this humiliation the antipope escaped immediate death, he 
was detained a close prisoner for the remainder of his days, " treated," 
says a contemporary, " like a friend, but watched like an enemy." 

The emperor would doubtless have suffered severely for his share in 
the elevation of Nicholas, had not the church been disturbed by a re- 
ligious controversy. In a discourse at Avignon, the pope maintained 
that the souls of the blessed would not enjoy the full fruition of celes- 
tial joys, or, as he termed it, " the beatific vision," until the day of judg- 
ment. The university of Paris, and several leaders of the mendicant 
orders, declared that such a doctrine was heretical ; Philip of Valois, 
who had only recently obtained the crown of France, required that the 
pope should retract his assertions, and John was compelled to appease 
his adversaries by equivocal explanations. The dispute afforded the 
emperor a pretext for refusing obedience to the papal bulls, and appeal- 
ing to a general council ; new wars were about to commence, when 
John died at Avignon, leaving behind him the largest treasure that had 
ever been amassed by a pontiff. 

It was not without cause that the Italians named the sojourn of the 
popes in Avignon, " the Babylonish captivity." The strength of the 
papacy was shaken to its very foundation, when its possessors appear- 
ed mere dependants on the kings of France, the instruments of war and 
of power, whose possession monarchs contested, Avhile they spurned 
their authority. The successor of John owed his election to his prom- 
ise, that he would not reside at Rome : he took the title of Benedict 
XII., and began his reign by an attempt to restore peace to the church 
and to the empire. Philip of Valois had other interests, and he com- 
pelled the pope to adopt his views. Edward III. was preparing to as- 
sert his claims to the crown of France, and Philip feared that he would 
be supported by his brother-in-law, the emperor ; he therefore threat- 
ened Benedict with his vengeance, if he should enter into negotiations 
with Louis, and, as a proof of his earnestness, he seized the revenues 
of the cardinals. The king of England and the German emperor, aware 
that the pope was a mere instrument in the hands of their enemies, dis- 
regarded his remonstrances and derided his threats. Benedict had not 
courage or talents adequate to the crisis ; his death delivered the papacy 
from the danger of sinking into contempt, under a feeble ruler, who 
sacrificed everything to his love of ease ; the cardinals, in choosing a 
successor, sought a pontiff whose energy and ambition might again in- 
vest the church with political power. 

Clement VI., unanimously chosen by the electors, commenced his 
reign by claiming the restoration of those rights of the holy see which 
had fallen into abeyance during the government of his feeble predeces- 
sor. The Romans sent a deputation to request that he would return to 
the city, and appoint the celebration of a jubilee at the middle of the 
century ; Clement granted the latter request, but he refused to visit 
Rome, through dread of the turbulent spirit of its inhabitants (a. d. 
1343). But Clement did not neglect the affairs of Italy, though he 



PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION AND INVENTION. 457 

refused to reside in the country : Roger, king of Naples, at his death 
bequeathed his kingdom to his daughter Jane, or Joan, and named a 
council of regency : Clement insisted that the government, during the 
minority of the princess, belonged to the holy see ; he, therefore, an- 
nulled the king's will, and sent a papal legate to preside over the 
administration. The emperor Louis V. sent an ambassador to the 
pope, soliciting absolution ; Clement demanded humiliating submissions, 
which were indignantly refused ; upon which the anathemas were re- 
newed, and the German electors were exhorted to choose a new sover- 
eign. As if resolved to brave all the princes that opposed the king of 
France, Clement nominated cardinals to the vacant benefices in Eng- 
land ; but Edward III., supported by his clergy and people, refused to 
admit the intruders ; nor could any threats of ecclesiastical censure 
shake his resolution. About the same time, Clement conferred the 
sovereignty of the Canary islands on Prince Louis of Spain, as Adrian 
had given Ireland to the English king. " In these grants," says Henry, 
" the pretensions of the popes seem to be less remarkable than the cre- 
dulity of princes." 

The pusillanimity of Louis V. is more surprising than the credulity 
of those who obtained papal grants to confirm questionable titles ; 
though supported by all the princes and most of the prelates in Ger- 
many, the emperor sought to purchase pardon by submission ; but the 
Diet would not allow the extravagant claims of the pope to be recog- 
nised, and the humiliations to which Louis submitted alienated his 
friends, without abating the hostility of his enemies. 

But Italy was now the theatre of events calculated to divert public 
attention from the quarrels of the pope. Jane, queen of Naples, had 
married Andrew, brother to the king of Hungary, Avhose family had 
ancient claims on the Neapolitan crown. Political jealousy disturbed 
the harmony of the marriage ; a conspiracy was formed by the courtiers 
against Andrew ; he was murdered in his wife's bed, and she was more 
than suspected of having consented to the crime. Clement shared the 
general indignation excited by this atrocity, and, in his chimerical 
quality of suzerian of Naples, ordered that a strict search should be 
made after the murderers, against whom he denounced sentence of ex- 
communication (a. d. 1346). Jane soon conciliated the pontiff, and 
purchased a sentence of acquittal, by selling her pretensions to the 
county of Avignon for a very moderate sum, which, it may be added, 
was never paid. But the king of Hungary was not so easily satisfied ; 
he levied a powerful army to avenge the murder of his brother ; and the 
emperor of Germany gladly embraced the opportunity of venting his 
resentment on the Guelphs and the partisans of the king of France, to 
whose intrigues he attributed the continuance of the papal excommuni- 
cations. 

Clement saw the danger with which he was menaced by the Hunga- 
rian league ; to avert it, he negotiated with the king of Bohemia, and 
prevailed upon some of the German electors to nominate that monarch's 
son, Charles, marquis of Moravia, to the empire. The new sovereign 
agreed to recognise all the extravagant claims of the popes, which his 
predecessors had so strenuously resisted ; but no real authority was 
added to the papacy by this degradation of the empire ; even Clement 



458 MODERN HISTORY. 

was aware that his authority should be supported by artifice and nego- 
tiation, rather than by any direct assertion of power. 

While the princes ol" Europe were gradually emancipating them- 
selves from the thraldom of the pontiffs, a remarkable revolution wrested 
Rome itself from their grasp, and revived for a moment the glories of 
the ancient republic. Rienzi, a young enthusiast of great learning, but 
humble origin, addressed a pathetic speech to his countrymen on the 
deplorable state of their city and the happiness of their ancient liberty. 
Such was the effect of his eloquence, that the citizens immediately 
elected him tribune of the people, and conferred upon him the supreme 
power (a. d. 1347). He immediately degraded the senators appointed 
by the pope, punished with death several malefactors of high rank, and' 
banished the Orsini, the Colonnas, and other noble families, whose fac- 
tions had filled the city with confusion. The messengers sent by the 
tribune to announce his elevation were everywhere received with great 
respect ; not only the Italian cities, but even foreign princes, sought his 
alliance : the king of Hungary and the queen of Naples appealed to him 
as a mediator and judge, the emperor Louis sought his friendship, and 
the pope wrote him a letter approving all his proceedings. Such unex- 
pected power intoxicated the tribune ; he summoned the candidates for 
the empire to appear before him, he issued an edict declaring Rome the 
metropolis of the world, and assumed several strange titles that prove 
both his weakness and his vanity. This extravagance proved his ruin ; 
Rienzi was excommunicated by the pope, the banished nobles entered 
Rome, the fickle populace deserted the tribune, and after wandering 
about for some time in various disguises, he was arrested by the papal 
ministers, and sent to Avignon, where he was detained a close prisoner. 

In the meantime, the king of Hungary had entered Italy ; Jane, 
whose recent marriage to the duke of Tarentum, one of the murderers, 
of her husband, had given great offence to her subjects, abandoned the 
Neapolitan territories at his approach, and sought refuge at Avignon. 
But a dreadful pestilence, which at this time desolated southern Europe, 
compelled the king of Hungary to abandon the territories he had so 
easily acquired. About the same time, the death of the emperor Louis 
left Charles without a rival ; and Clement resolved to take advantage 
of the favorable juncture to restore the papal authority in Italy. He 
ordered a jubilee to be celebrated at Rome ; he excommunicated Vis- 
conti, archbishop of Milan, but afterward sold absolution to this prelate, 
who was formidable as a statesman and a soldier ; finally, he persuaded 
the king of Hungary and the queen of Naples to submit their differences 
to his arbitration. But the court of Avignon was devoted to the house 
of Anjou ; it did not venture to pronounce the queen innocent, but it 
declared that a weak woman could not resist the temptations of evil 
spirits, and decided that she should be restored to her kingdom on pay- 
ing a subsidy to the king of Hungary. That generous prince refused 
the money, declaring that he had taken up arms to avenge the murder 
of his brother, not to gain a paltry bribe. Thus the pontiff still seemed 
the arbitrator of kings ; some years before he had engaged Humbert, a 
prince of southern France, to bequeath his dominions to the French 
king, on the condition that the eldest son of that monarch should take 
the title of dauphin ; he had been victorious, though by accident, in his 



PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION AND INVENTION. 459 

contest with the emperor Louis, and at his death Clement left the 
papacy in full possession of all its titles to supreme power. 

But while the nominal authority of the papacy was as great as ever, 
its real power was considerably weakened. Innocent VI., unable to 
escape from the yoke which the kings of France had imposed on the 
popes during their residence at Avignon, resolved to recover the ancient 
patrimony of St. Peter ; Rienzi was summoned from his dungeon, and 
was sent back to Rome with the title of senator. But the turbulent 
Romans soon grew weary of their former favorite and Rienzi was mur- 
dered by the populace, at the time he was most zealously laboring to 
chastise the disturbers of public tranquillity, and rescue the people from 
the oppression of the nobles (a. d. 1354). Soon afterward the emperor 
Charles IV. entered Rome, and, by the permission of the pope, was 
solemnly crowned. This feeble prince negotiated with all parties, and 
betrayed all ; he sold liberty to the cities, because he had neither the 
military force nor the political power to defend a refusal, and he sub- 
mitted to receive a passport from the pope, and to abide in Rome only 
the limited period prescribed by the jealousy of the pontiff. 

But though the popes, during their residence at Avignon, favored the 
discords of Italy, stimulated the mutual animosity of the Guelphs and 
Ghibellines, and encouraged civil war in the empire, they were desirous 
to terminate the sanguinary struggles for the crown of France, and made 
several efforts to reconcile the English Edward to the house of Valois. 
Edward was not to be checked in his career of victory ; the glory of 
the French arms was destroyed at Crecy, and the king of France him- 
self became a prisoner at Poictiers. It was through the mediation of 
Innocent VI. that King John recovered his liberty, and the war between 
England and France was terminated by the peace of Bretigny. Soon 
after his deliverance, John, distressed for money, was induced by a large 
bribe to give his daughter in marriage to Visconti, the most formidable 
enemy of the church, while Innocent was too occupied by nearer dan- 
gers to prevent an alliance so injurious to his interests. The numerous 
bands of mercenaries, who were thrown out of employment by the res- 
toration of peace, formed themselves into independent bands, called Free 
Companies, and quitting the southern districts of France, already deso- 
lated by frequent campaigns, directed their march toward Provence. 
The anathemas hurled against them neither retarded their progress nor 
diminished their number ; a crusade was vainly preached ; no soldiers 
would enlist, when the only pay was indulgences ; the plundering 
hordes approached Avignon, and the treasures of the ecclesiastics were 
on the point of falling into the hands of these unscrupulous spoilers. 
By paying a large bribe, and giving them absolution for all their sins, 
Innocent prevailed upon the Free Companies to turn aside from Avignon 
and enter into the service of the marquis of Montferrat, who was engaged 
in the war against the Visconti. 

Urban V. succeeded Innocent, and though, like him, inclined to favor 
the king of France, he became convinced that the residence of the popes 
at Avignon was injurious to his interests. The emperor solicited Urban 
to visit Rome, and the Free Companies having again extorted a large 
bribe, for sparing Avignon, the pope hasted to leave a residence where 
he was exposed to insult and subservient to foreign authority. The 



460 MODERN HISTORY. 

pope was received in Italy with great joy, the emperor Charles has- 
tened to meet him, and gave the last example of imperial degradation, 
by leading the horse on which the pontiff rode when he made his tri- 
umphal entry into Rome (a. d. 1368). This spectacle, instead of grati- 
fying the Italians, filled them with rage ; they treated the emperor with 
so much contempt, that he soon returned to Germany ; and Urban, 
finding that he could not check the republican licentiousness which had 
so long prevailed in Rome and the other cities of the patrimony of St. 
Peter, began to languish for the more tranquil retirement of Avignon. 
The only advantage he gained by his visit to Italy, was the empty honor 
of seeing the emperor of the east bow at his footstool, and offer as the 
reward of aid against the Turks, the union of the Greek and Latin 
churches. But Urban could not prevail upon the western princes to 
combine in defence of Constantinople ; and the Greek emperor would 
have been unable to gain the consent of his subjects to lay aside either 
the peculiar ceremonies or doctrines that had severed their church from 
the papacy. The renewal of the war between France and England, 
when Charles V. succeeded the imbecile John, afforded Urban a pre- 
text for returning to Avignon. Death seized him soon after he reached 
the city, and Gregory XI. was chosen his successor. 

Gregory's great object was to break the power of the Visconti, who 
had become the virtual sovereigns of northern Italy ; but he did not 
neglect the general interests of the church, exerting himself diligently 
to suppress heresy. The emperor created the pontiff his vicar, and 
Gregory, to support his authority, took some of the free companies 
into pay, and among the rest a band of Englishmen commanded by 
John Hawkwood. It was of importance to gain over the city of Flor- 
ence ; the papal legate thought that this object could best be obtained 
by producing a famine, and stimulating the citizens by the pressure of 
want to rise against their government. In pursuance of this infamous 
policy, means were taken to cut off the import of corn, while Hawk- 
wood ravaged the territory of the city and destroyed the harvests. Of 
all the Italian people, the Florentines had been the most constant in 
their attachment to the cause of the holy see — their indignation was 
therefore excessive, and their hate implacable. 

A general revolt against the papal power was soon organized 
through Italy by the outraged Florentines ; they embroidered the word 
LiBERTAS on their standards in letters of gold, while their emissaries 
preached freedom in the cities, in the castles, and in the cottages ; the 
summons was eagerly heard, and the states of the church soon refused 
to recognise the sovereignty of its head. Gregory sent new legates, 
and menaced the confederates with excommunication ; he pronounced 
sentence of excommunication against the Florentines, exhorting all 
princes to confiscate the property of those who should be found in 
their several dominions, and to sell their persons into slavery ; — an 
iniquitous edict, which was partially acted upon both in France and 
England : new hordes of mercenaries were taken into pay, and when 
the citizens of Bologna applied to the legate for pardon, he replied 
that he would not quit their city until he had bathed his hands and 
feet in their blood. The Florentines were xmdaunted, but the dis- 
union and mutual jealousies between the other confederates proved 



PROGRESS OV CIVILIZATION AND INVENTION. 461 

fatal to the national cause ; the citizens of Rome were anxious to have 
the pontifical court restored to their city, and to obtain this desirable 
object, they willingly sacrificed their claims to freedom. In their state 
of moral degradation, indeed, they were unable to appreciate the advan- 
tages of rational liberty, and unfit to exercise its privileges. 

During these commotions in Italy, Gregory, being informed of the 
reformed doctrines, or, as he called them, the heresies published in 
England by John Wickliflfe, wrote to the chancellor and university of 
Oxford, severely reproving them for permitting such opinions to be 
promulgated, and ordaining that Wickliffe should be brought to trial 
before an ecclesiastical tribunal. Similar letters were sent to Richard 
II., the young king of England, who had just succeeded his grand- 
father Edward III., but the duke of Lancaster and several other nobles 
took the reformer under their protection ; Wickliffe was rescued from 
the malice of his enemies, while his doctrines rapidly, though secretly, 
spread not only through Italy, but through Germany. The chief 
articles he was accused of teaching, were, that the wafer in the 
eucharist, after consecration, is not the real body of Christ, but its 
figure only ; that the Roman church had no right to be the head of all 
churches ; that the pope has no more authority than any other priest ; 
that lay patrons may, and ought to, deprive a delinquent church of its 
temporal possessions ; that the gospel was sufficient to direct any 
Christian ; that no prelate of the church ought to have prisons for 
punishing delinquents. The publication of these sentiments enraged 
Gregory, who had, from the very commencement of his reign, shown 
himself a virulent persecutor, and procured the burning of several un- 
fortunate wretches accused of heresy, both in France and Germany. 
Scarcely had he made his triumphal entry into Rome, when he pre- 
pared to take some effective measures for checking the progress of 
innovation. But domestic troubles soon engaged his attention ; the 
Romans, who had received him on his first arrival with so much en- 
thusiasm, soon began to brave his authority and disobey his edicts ; 
baffled in his expectations of peace and power, he even contemplated 
returning to Avignon, where part of the papal court still continued. 
But before taking this step, he resolved to secure the tranquillity of 
Italy, and, if possible, avert the divisions which he foresaw would 
probably trouble the church after his death (a. d. 1378). A congress 
was opened at Serazanae, but before its deliberations could produce 
any important result, Gregory was seized with mortal illness, and all 
hopes of peace were destroyed by the schism which arose respecting 
the choice of his successor. 

The death of Gregory XI. was the commencement of a new era for 
the ancient capital of the world, from which the popes had been absent 
during so many years. Pride, interest, and self-love, combined to attach 
the Romans to the papacy ; had they combined with the Florentines, it 
is possible that the cities of Italy might have formed a confederacy suf- 
ficiently strong to defy an absent pope, and an emperor powerless and 
distant ; perhaps they might even have solved the problem which still 
continues to baffle statesmen, and form a federative union in Italy. But 
the R,omans were incapable of such profound views ; they looked to 
nothing beyond the advantages to be derived from the residence of the 



462 MODERN HISTORY. 

papal court ; and, instead of aiming at reviving their ancient glory, 
they contented themselves with disputing the profits that had hitherto 
been enjoyed by the city of Avignon. 

No sooner had the cardinals, the majority of whom belonged to the 
French party, shut themselves up in a conclave, than the Romans were 
filled with alarm lest a Transalpine prelate should be chosen, who would 
establish his court at Avignon. They assembled in arms round the 
Vatican, .and by their menaces sent terror into its inmost recesses. 
They demanded that the new pope should be an Italian ; this was the 
only virtue they required in the successor of St. Peter. The French 
cardinals, already disimited, were intimidated by these clamors ; they 
gave their votes to a Neapolitan archbishop, who took the title of Ur- 
ban VI. 

The cardinals seem to have expected that Urban, who was cele- 
brated for his modesty, his humility, and his skill in the canon law, 
would have acknowledged that his election was vitiated by the force 
that had been used, and that he would therefore have abdicated the 
pontificate. But Urban soon convinced them of their error; he not 
only showed a determination to retain his power, but openly set the 
discontented cardinals at defiance. In a public discourse, immediately 
after his coronation, he severely reprehended their pomp and luxury, 
threatened to punish those who had been convicted of receiving bribes, 
and reproached some of them by name for corresponding with the 
enemies of the church. Exasperated by this austerity, the discontented 
cardinals fled to Anagni, proclaimed the late election void, sent circu- 
lars to all Christian princes warning them not to acknowledge Urban, 
took a body of Bretons into their pay, and, relying on the protection 
of this military force, excommunicated the new pope as an apostate 
usurper. The duke of Brunswick, the husband of Jane, queen of 
Naples, alarmed at the prospect of a schism, attempted to mediate ; 
but his efforts to effect a reconciliation were bafiled by the resentment 
of the cardinals and the haughtiness of Urban. On all sides proposals 
were made to assemble a general council, but the pope, the cardinals, 
and the emperor, disputed the right of convocation ; the fortune of war 
could alonp determine the fate of the church. 

Urban showed no desire to conciliate his opponents ; he announced 
a speedy creation of new cardinals to overwhelm their votes, and 
threatened the queen of Naples for granting them protection. He 
showed similar severity in his conduct to the Roman aristocracy, and, 
on a very slight pretext, ventured to deprive the count of Fondi of 
his fiefs. The count at once declared himself a partisan of the 
cardinals ; he gave them shelter in the town of Fondi, where, pro- 
tected by Neapolitan troops, they proceeded to a new election. It is 
said by many historians that they would have chosen the king of 
France, Charles V., had not his being maimed in the left arm incapaci- 
tated him from performing the ceremonies of the mass ; but their se- 
lection was scarcely less swayed by temporal motives when they gave 
their votes to Cardinal Robert of Geneva, who assumed the title of 
Clement VII. This prelate had served in the field, and even acquired 
some reputation as a warrior ; but he was generally and justly hated by 



PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION AND INVENTION. 463 

the Italians for having massacred all the inhabitants of Cesena during 
the Florentine war. 

The death of the emperor Charles IV. added new troubles to the 
complicated' policy of Europe ; that despicable slave of superstition had 
purchased from the venal electors the nomination of his son Wences- 
laus as his successor ; and the young prince, from the moment of his 
succession, gave himself up to the practice of the meanest vices, and 
w^allowed in disgusting debauchery. These crimes, however, did not 
prevent him from enjoying the favor of Urban, w^hose cause he warmly 
espoused — a merit which, in the eyes of the pontiff, compensated for 
the want of all the virtues. 

The queen of Naples declared in favor of Clement, and invited him 
to her court. So great, however, was the hatred of a French pontiff, 
that, in spite of the turbulent disposition of Urban, the defection of the 
cardinals, the authority of the queen, and the jealousy of the states so 
recently at war with the court of Rome, all Italy declared against 
Clement, and the Neapolitans showed such hatred to his cause, that he 
was forced to escape by sea to Marseilles, whence he proceeded to 
establish his court at Avignon. 

The king of France, Charles V., had eagerly espoused the cause of 
the cardinals who had elected the antipope ; most of them were his 
subjects, and all were devoted to the interests of France ; he therefore 
declared himself the partisan of Clement, trusting that he would obtain 
important political advantages by the residence of the pope at Avignon. 
Unfortunately the result was to involve his kingdom in a ruinous war, 
which long doomed France to loss and calamity. 

Urban's vengeance was promptly directed against the queen of Na- 
ples, whose supposed murder of her husband, thirty years before, was 
still remembered to her disadvantage ; he declared that she had forfeited 
her right to the throne, which he conferred on her cousin Charles of 
Durazzo ; and to support this king of his vengeance, he not only sold 
ecclesiastical benefices, but pledged the plate belonging to the churches. 
Jane, driven from her kingdom, adopted the duke of Anjou as her son 
and successor ; the French monarchs believed themselves bound to 
support his claims, and exhausted their resources in the effort. 

All Europe was divided by the schism : Italy, Holland, Germany, 
Bohemia, Poland, Hungary, Flanders, and England, declared for Ur- 
ban ; while Clement was supported by Spain, Navarre, Scotland, 
Savoy, Lorraine, and France. The rival popes hurled anathemas 
against each other ; excommunication was answered by excommunica- 
tion ; and both prepared piles to burn the partisans of their adversary 
as heretics. Charles V. set the example, by issuing an edict confisca- 
ting the property and life of those who ventured to recognise Urban in 
his dominions. Urban retorted, by preaching a crusade against Charles ; 
the English eagerly seized this pretext for renewing war against 
France, and a powerful army entered Britanny to support its duke 
against his liege lord. 

The death of Charles V., and the minority of his son Charles VI., 
added to the embarrassments of France ; the duke of Anjou seized the 
royal treasures to support his claims on Naples ; the new taxes imposed 
upon the people provoked insurrection; the revolters were punished 



464 MODERN HISTORY. 

with remorseless cruelty, and they, on the other hand, practised horri- 
ble retaliations whenever they had an opportunity. Charles Durazzo, 
in the meantime, found little difficulty in taking possession of the Nea- 
politan territories ; Jane, abandoned by her subjects, was forced to sur- 
render to her cousin, and, by his command, was strangled in prison 
(a. d. 1382). Louis of Anjou immediately claimed her inheritance, 
and, having obtained the investiture of Naples from Clement, entered 
Italy at the head of fifteen thousand men. No opposition was offered 
to the French in their passage ; Louis reached the frontiers of the 
Abruzzi in safety, and was there joined by several Neapolitan nobles 
attached to the memory of Jane, and anxious to avenge her death. 

Durazzo was unable to meet his enemy in the field ; but he garri- 
soned his fortresses, encouraged the peasantry of the Abruzzi to harass 
the French by a guerilla warfare, and destroyed all the forage and pro- 
visions in the open country. Famine and pestilence wasted the gallant 
chivalry of France ; the duke of Anjou fell a victim to a fever, whose 
severity was aggravated by his disappointment ; his army dispersed, 
and many noble barons, who had joined his banners, were forced to 
beg their way home, amid the jeers and insults of the Italians. The 
English, commanded by the bishop of Norwich, made a feeble attack 
upon the schismatic French ; they were defeated, and the bishop re- 
turned with shame to his diocese. 

Urban disapproved of the cautious policy of Durazzo, and, proceed- 
ing to Naples, began to treat the king as his vassal ; Charles tempo- 
rized, until the death of the duke of Anjou delivered him from pressing 
danger, but then he refused all obedience to the pope, and treated him 
so uncivilly, that Urban removed to Nocera. Several of the cardinals, 
weary of the tyranny to which they were subjected, plotted the murder 
of the pope ; but their conspiracy was discovered, and six of them 
were sentenced to suffer the tortures of the rack that they might be 
compelled to betray their accomplices. Urban personally superintended 
these cruelties, and suggested new modes of torture to the execution- 
ers. When confessions were thus obtained, he degraded the cardinals 
from their dignity, and pronounced sentence of excommunication, not 
only against them, but against the king and queen of Naples, the anti- 
pope Clement, his cardinals, and his adherents. Durazzo, justly en- 
raged, marched against Nocera, and captured the town ; but the pope 
found shelter in the citadel, from which he, several times-a-day, fulmi- 
nated anathemas with bell and candle against the king of Naples and 
his army. Urban at length made his escape, and, embarking on board 
some Genoese galleys, reached Genoa in safety, where he was honor- 
ably received by the doge, who deemed the city honored by his pres- 
ence. During his flight, he ordered the bishop of Aquila to be mur- 
dered, suspecting that he meditated desertion ; and soon after he put to 
death five of the guilty cardinals, sparing the sixth, who was an Eng- 
lishman, at the intercession of Richard II. — a monarch who had given 
the weight of England's influence to Urban's cause. 

Clement VII. did not conduct himself one Avhit better than his rival ; 
he insulted and imprisoned the German and Hungarian ambassadors, 
who were sent to propose expedients for terminating the schism ; his 
exactions from the churches that acknowledged his authority alienated 



PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION AND INVENTION. 465 

the minds of those whom their political position had ranged on his 
side ; his intrigues and his servility were offensive to the kings that 
supported him. The double papacy was found a heavy tax on Christen- 
dom ; each pontiff collected around him a court of dissolute and prodi- 
gal cardinals, whose lavish expenditure was supported by alienating 
the revenues of all the benefices within their grasp. 

But the kingdom of Naples was especially destined to suffer from 
the schism ; the rival pontiffs claimed the right of bestowing the Nea- 
politan crown at their discretion, and their pretensions perpetuated 
civil discord. Charles Durazzo quitted his kingdom to seek a new 
crown in Hungary, but fell a victim to assassins in the hour of success ; 
Margaret, his queen, on receiving the news, assumed the regency, and 
caused her son Ladislaus to be recognised as sovereign by the states 
of the realm. But Urban VI., who had excommunicated Charles Du- 
razzo, pretended that the kingdom of Naples reverted as a vacant fief 
to the holy see, and began forming a party against the queen. Clem- 
ent on his side raised a similar claim, and sold the church plate to pay 
troops ; he zealously supported the house of Anjou, and employed Otho 
of Brunswick, the widower of the unfortunate Jane, to expel the family 
of Durazzo. 

Hitherto the division in the church had been political ; a doctrinal 
controversy, however, was added to the schism, which, though it led 
to no immediate results, deserves to be briefly described. A Dominican 
doctor of divinity, John de Mon9on, preaching on the doctrine of ori- 
ginal sin, declared that the virgin Mary was conceived in sin. But the 
faculty of theology in the university of Paris, the Sorbonne, declared 
that his assertion was an impious outrage against the mother of Christ : 
the doctors added that the prophesied sacrifice of Christ had an effect 
before its accomplishment, on his birth and that of his mother, and to 
this exemption from the ordinary law of humanity, they gave the name 
of the Immaculate Conception. 

The worship of the virgin Mary has always been the most popular 
portion of the Romish liturgy ; the doctrine of the Sorbonne seemed 
to confer new honor upon her name, and it was ardently received by 
multitudes of ignorant enthusiasts. 

Mon9on, alarmed at the ferment he had unwittingly excited, fled to 
Avignon. The entire order of the Dominicans, enraged to find one of 
their brethren accused of heresy, sent seventy of their most eminent 
doctors to support Mon9on's opinions before the papal tribunal. The 
Sorbonne, on the other hand, deputed its most eminent professors to 
prosecute Mon^on, and procure the condemnation of his opinions. 
The pope was sorely embarrassed ; the opposing parties were so pow- 
erful that he did not wish to alienate either ; and he, therefore, had re- 
course to the expedient of dismissing Mon^on secretly, and sending 
him to seek refuge in Aragon. 

But the theologians of the Sorbonne would not rest satisfied with an 
imperfect victory ; profiting by the popular ferment to work on the 
mind of their sovereign, Charles VI., they persuaded the king, who 
had not yet attained his twenty-first year, and whose ignorance was 
extreme, to undertake the decision of a question beyond the limits of 
human knowledge. The young and stupid king took upon himself to 

30 



466 MODERN HISTORY. 

maintain that the virgin Mary was free from the stain of original sin ; 
he even sent to prison all who denied the doctrine of the Immaculate 
Conception. 

Clement VII., always in fear of being sacrificed to his rival, Urban 
VI., and relying for support chiefly on the court of France, did not 
venture to make any further resistance. He issued a bull condemning 
John de Mon^on, and all his adherents : he permitted the king to insti- 
tute a new festival in honor of the Immaculate Conception. The whole 
order of St. Dominic was degraded to the lowest rank of monastics, 
and it was ordained that no one of their body should, in future, hold 
the office of confessor to the king. 

Urban VI. paid little regard to theological controversies; he was 
more anxious to re-establish his authority over southern Italy. But as 
he marched toward Naples, his troops mutinied for want of pay, and he 
was forced to return to Rome. The citizens proved to be as discon- 
tented as the soldiers ; to stifle their murmurs he published a bull for 
the celebration of a jubilee the following year at Rome, and ordered 
that this solemnity should be repeated every thirty-three years, accord- 
ing to the number of years that Christ remained upon earth. He hoped 
that this festival would enrich the Romans and himself, but he died be- 
fore the time for its celebration (a. d. 1389). It is supposed that his 
end was hastened by poison, for his most ardent supporters were weary 
of his tyranny. 

A few days after the death of Urban, the cardinals at Rome chose a 
new pontiff", who took the title of Boniface IX., and commenced his 
reign by an interchange of anathemas and excommunications with his 
rival at Avignon. More prudent than his predecessor, Boniface hasted 
to make terms with the family of Durazzo at Naples ; he recognised 
young Ladislaus as a legitimate king, and sent a legate to perform the 
ceremony of his coronation. Ladislaus, in return, took an oath of 
fidelity and homage, binding himself never to recognise the antipope 
at Avignon. 

Clement VII. strengthened himself by a closer union with the king 
of France, whom he induced to visit Avignon, and to witness the cere- 
mony of the coronation of Louis II. of Anjou, as king of Naples. 
The imbecile Charles was so gratified by his reception, that he pro- 
jected a crusade against Rome, but he was soon induced to abandon 
his purpose, and he gave very feeble aid to his cousin of Anjou, when 
he prepared an armament to invade the Neapolitan territories. The 
doctors of the Sorbonne became eager to terminate the schism ; and, 
encouraged by their success in the controversy of the Immaculate Con- 
ception, they presented to the king a project for restoring the peace of 
the church, by compelling the rival popes to resign, and submit the 
choice of a new pontiff" to a general council (a. d. 1394). Though 
this counsel Avas not favorably received by the king, it gave great alarm 
to Clement, and agitation of mind is supposed to have produced the 
apopletic fit which occasioned his death. 

The French ministers wrote to the cardinals at Avignon, urging them 
to embrace the opportunity of terminating the schism ; but these prelates 
hasted to conclude a new election without opening the letter, with the 
contents of which they were acquainted. Peter de Luna, cardinal of 



PROGEESS OF CIVILIZATION AND INVENTION. 467 

Aragon, was nominated pope ; he took the name of Benedict XIII., and 
the schism became wider than ever. When the news of the election 
reached Paris, Charles, instead of recognising the pope of Avignon, 
convoked the clergy of his kingdom to deliberate on the means of re- 
storing peace to the church. After some delay, the convocation met, 
and came to the inconsistent resolution of recognising Benedict, and pro- 
posing that the schism should be terminated by the abdication of the 
two popes. Ambassadors were sent with this proposal to Avignon, but 
a ridiculous though insuperable difficulty prevented the success of their 
negotiations. The plenipotentiaries on both sides preached long ser- 
mons to each other, until the French princes who were joined in the 
legation, completely fatigued, and seeing no probable termination of 
the conference, returned home indignant and disappointed. The king 
of England and the emperor of Germany joined the French monarch 
in recommending the double application ; Boniface declared his readi- 
ness to resign, if Benedict would set the example, but the latter pontiff 
absolutely refused submission. An army was sent to compel hiiii to 
obedience ; Avignon was taken, and Benedict besieged in his palace, 
but his obstinacy continued unshaken, and the party feuds which the 
weakness of the king encouraged in France, gave him hopes of final 
triumph. 

The state of the western governments tended to protract the schism 
of the church ; the king of France fell into idiotcy ; Richard II. was de- 
posed in England by his cousin Henry IV. ; the duke of Anjou was 
driven from Naples ; the Byzantine emperor and the king of Hungary 
were harassed by the Turks, whose increasing power threatened ruin 
to both ; the Spanish peninsula was distracted by the Moorish wars ; 
and the emperor Wenceslaus was forced to abdicate by the German 
electors. Boniface took advantage of these circumstances to establish 
the papal claim to the first-fruits of all ecclesiastical benefices, and to 
render himself absolute master of Rome, by fortifying the citadel and 
castle of St. Angelo. The Roman citizens were deprived of the last 
shadow of their former franchises ; the readiness with which they sub- 
mitted, is, however, a sufficient proof that they were unworthy of free- 
dom. The pope did not long survive this triumph ; the Roman cardinals 
elected Innocent VII. to supply his place ; but he died about twelve 
months after his etevation, and was succeeded by Gregory XII. (a. d. 
1406). Benedict having, in the meantime, recovered his freedom, pro- 
tested against the Roman elections, but offered to hold a personal con- 
ference with Gregory for reconciling all theil- differences. The cardi- 
nals, weary of these controversies, deserted the rivals, and having 
assembled a general council at Pisa, elected a third pope, who took the 
title of Alexander V. 

There were now three heads to the Christian church : Ladislaus and 
some of the Italian cities supported Gregory ; the kings of Scotland 
and Spain adhered to Benedict ; while Alexander was recognised in 
the rest of Christendom. The disputes of these hostile pontiffs had 
greatly tended to enfranchise the human mind, and weaken the hold of 
superstition. Wickliffe's doctrines spread in England, and in Ger- 
many they were advocated by John Huss, who eloquently denounced 
the corruptions that debased the pure doctrines of Christianity. Pope 



468 MODERN HISTOEY. 

Alexander was preparing to resist the progress of the courageous 
reformer, when his death threw the affairs of the church into fresh con- 
fusion. 

The presence of an armed force induced the cardinals to elect John 
XXIII., whose promotion gave great scandal, as he was more remark- 
able for his military than his religious qualifications (a. d. 1411). John 
soon compelled Ladislaus to abandon Gregory's party ; he then assem- 
bled a opneral council at Rome, where sentence of condemnation was 
pronouiued on the doctrines of Huss and Wickliffe. But Ladislaus soon 
grew w tjary of peace ; he led an army against Rome, plundered the city, 
and compelled the pope to seek protection from Sigismond, emperor of 
Germany. John consented very reluctantly to the imperial demand, 
that the schism should finally be terminated by a general council ; he 
made an ineffectual effort to have the assembly held in one of his own 
cities, but Sigismond insisted that it should meet in Constance. John 
then attempted to interpose delays, but the general voice of Christendom 
was against him ; he judged his situation accurately, when, pointing to 
Constance from the summit of the Alps, he exclaimed, " What a fine 
trap for catching foxes !" 

The attention of all Christendom Avas fixed upon the deliberations of 
the council of Constance, whither bishops, ambassadors, and theologians, 
flocked from every part of Europe (a. d. 1415). John Huss, having 
obtained the emperor's safe conduct, appeared before the council to de- 
fend his doctrines, but Sigismond was persuaded to forfeit his pledge, 
and deliver the courageous reformer to his enemies, to be tried for heresy. 
Pope John was not treated better ; a unanimous vote of the council de- 
manded his abdication ; he fled to Austria, but he was overtaken and 
detained in the same prison with Huss, until he ratified the sentence of 
his own deposition. Gregory XII. soon after abdicated the pontificate, 
but Benedict still continued obstinate ; his means of resistance, however, 
were so trifling, that the council paid little attention to his refusal. John 
Huss, and his friend Jerome of Prague, were sentenced to be burnt at 
the stake as obstinate heretics, but their persecutors could not stop the 
progress of the truth ; the Hussites in Bohemia had recourse to arms for 
the defence of their liberties, and, under the command of the heroic 
Zisca,' maintained the cause of civil and religious liberty, in many glori- 
ous fields. 

The emperor, the princes of Germany, and the English deputies, stren- 
uously urged the council to examine the abuses of the church, and form 
some plan for its thorough reformation ; but the prelates, fearing that 
some proposals might be made injurious to their interests, steadily re- 
sisted these efforts ; declaring that the election of a pope ought to have 
precedence of all other business. After long disputes, the choice of 
the electors fell on Otho Colonna, a Roman noble, Avho took the title of 
Martin V. The new pontiff" combined with the cardinals to strangle all 
the plans of reform, and the council, from whose deliberations so much 
had been expected, terminated its sittings, without having applied any 
eff'ectual remedy to the evils which had. produced the schism. A prom- 
ise, indeed, was made, that another council would be convened, for the 
reform of the church, at Pavia, but no one cared to claim its perform- 
ance ; the conduct of those who met at Constance convinced the world 



PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION AND INVENTION. 469 

that no eifectual redress of grievances could be expected from such 
assemblies. 

The projects of reform, begun at Constance, were revived at the coun- 
cil of Basle (a. d. 1431) ; but Eugenius IV., the successor of Martin, 
soon felt that the proposed innovations would be fatal to the papal au- 
thority, and dissolved the council. This precipitancy caused another 
schism, which lasted ten years ; but at length the ex-duke of Savoy, who 
had been chosen pope by the partisans of the council, under the name 
of Felix v., gave in his submission ; and the council, from whose labors 
so much had been expected, ended by doing nothing. Still the convo- 
cations of the prelates of Christendom at Constance and Basle struck a 
fatal blow against the despotism of the popes. Henceforth monarchs 
had, or seemed to have, a court of appeal — one so dreaded by the pon- 
tiffs, that the mere dread of its convocation procured from them liberal 
concessions. But a new and more formidable enemy to the despotism 
of the pontiffs than the resistance of kings or of councils, was the prog- 
ress of literature and knowledge, which brought the extravagant claims 
of spiritual and temporal rulers to be investigated on their real merits, 
not according to their asserted claims. 

Section II. — First Revival of Literature, and Inventions in Science. 

In the controversy between Philip the Fair and Boniface VIII., liter- 
ary talent was for the first time employed against the church by John 
of Paris, a celebrated Dominican, who advocated the royal indepen- 
dence with great zeal and considerable ability. The celebrated poet 
Dante Alighieri, who may be regarded as the founder of Italian litera- 
ture, and almost of the Italian language, followed tha same course, advo- 
cating strenuously the cause of the emperor Louis of Bavaria. Their 
example was a model for many other writers, who laid aside the shackles 
of authority, and supported the independence of states. But literature 
itself was subject to trammels which checked the progress of improve- 
ment. It was deemed a crime scarcely less than heresy, to doubt of 
any explanation given by the schoolmen of physical, mental, or moral 
phenomena. Roger Bacon, a Franciscan monk, was the first who re- 
vived experimental science ; he made several important discoveries in 
mechanics and chymistry, but his great merit is to be found, not so 
much in his various inventions and projects, as in the bold appeal which 
he. made to experiment, and the observation of nature. His lectures at 
Oxford, published under the title of " Opus Majus" (a. d. 1266), raised 
against him a host of enemies ; he was prohibited from giving instruc- 
tions in the university, and was subjected to confinement in his convent. 
His scientific discoveries were deemed a species of magic in that age 
of ignorance ; he was the first of the long list of victims of ecclesiastical 
persecution, and the leader of a long line of patriots who supported the 
cause of intellectual and moral liberty against the odious encroachments 
of spiritual despotism. The emancipation of literature accompanied 
that of science ; the impulse which Dante had given to the cultivation 
of Italian poetry was long felt ; he was followed by Petrarch and Boc- 
cacio, whose writings at once elevated the character and formed the 
language of their countrymen. 



470 MODERN HISTORY. 

Several new inventions, or perhaps importations from the remote 
East, accelerated the progress of men in learning and the arts. Of these 
we may mention more particularly the art of forming paper from linen- 
rags, painting in oil, the art of printing, the use of gunpowder, and of the 
mariner's compass. 

Before the invention of linen-paper, parchment was generally used in 
Europe, both for copying books and preserving public records. This 
material was scarce and dear. When the Arabs conquered Bokhara 
(a. d. 704), they are said to have found a large manufactory of cotton- 
paper at Samarcand, which is not improbable, as the fabric was known 
in China before the Christian era. They brought the knowledge of the 
art into their western territories, but the scarcity of the materials long 
impeded its progress. At length, in the thirteenth century, it was dis- 
covered that linen would answer all the purposes of cotton ; but when, 
where, or by whom, this valuable discovery was made, can not be ascer- 
tained. The first great factory of linen-paper of which we have any 
certain accounts, was established at Nuremberg (a. d 1390), but there 
is reason to believe that paper was manufactured in western Europe a 
century earlier. 

The invention of painting in oils is usually attributed to two brothers. 
Van Eyck, of whom the younger, called John of Bruges, flourished tow- 
ard the close of the thirteenth century. The invention, however, is of 
much earlier date, but the brothers deserve the merit of having brought 
it into practical use, and carried it to a high degree of perfection. Owing 
to this invention, modern paintings excel the ancients both in finish of 
execution and permanence. 

More important than either of these was the invention of printing, 
which seems to have been at least partially derived from the East. 
Solid blocks of wood, graven with pictures and legends, were used in 
China from a very remote period. The great improvement of having 
separate types for each letter, was made by John Gutenberg, a citizen 
of Mayence (a. d. 1436) ; he used small blocks of wood, but the matrix 
for casting metal types was soon after devised by Peter SchoefTer, of 
Gemheim. Gutenberg established the first printing-press known in 
Europe, at Strasburg ; thence he removed to Mayence, where he entered 
into partnership with John Fust, or Faustus, whose ingenuity greatly 
contributed to perfect the invention. Gutenberg did not put his name 
to any of the books he printed ; Faustus, more ambitious of fame, placed 
his name and that of his partner to his celebrated Psalter, and thus re- 
ceived no small share of the glory that properly belonged to the first 
discoverer. The art of engraving on copper, was discovered about 
the same time as the use of moveable types, but its history is very 
obscure. 

Scarcely less important than printing was the manufacture and use 
of gunpowder. Tiie explosive power of saltpetre was probably 
known in the east from a very remote age. With less certainty we 
may conjecture that the process of compounding saltpetre with other 
ingredients, was brought from the remote east by the Saracens. Friar 
Bacon, the first European writer who describes the composition of gun- 
powder, derived his knowledge of chymistry chiefly from the Arabian 
writers, who were the originators of that science. The employment of 



PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION AND INVENTION. 471 

gunpowder for throwing bullets and stones began in Europe about the 
commencment of the fourteenth century ; it was introduced by the Sar- 
acens in their Spanish wars ; and the first certain account of this change 
in warfare, is in an Arabian history of the siege of Baza, by the king 
of Granada (a. d. 1312). It is generally supposed that the Genoese 
were the first who used poAvder in mines, to destroy walls and fortifica- 
tions, at the siege of Seranessa (a. d. 1487). Bombs and mortars are 
said to have been invented by Malatesta, prince of Rimini (a. d. 1467) ; 
and about the same time guns, or rather portable cannons, began to be 
used by soldiers. Several circumstances prevented the immediate adop- 
tion of firearms and artillery in war : long habit made many prefer their 
ancient weapons ; the construction of cannons was imperfect, they were 
made more frequently of wood, leather, or iron hoops, than solid metal, 
and were therefore liable to burst ; the gunpowder was of imperfect 
manufacture, and frequently failed in the field. Above all, the mail-clad 
chivalry of Europe opposed a change in the art of war which greatly 
lowered the value of knights and cavalry. 

The last great invention that requires notice, is the polarity of the 
magnet, and its application to the mariner's compass. It was generally 
believed that the inventor of this precious instrument was Flavio Gioia, 
a native of Amalfi, in the kingdom of Naples ; and so precise were the 
historians, that they specified the date of the invention as either a. d. 
1302, or 1303. A more careful examination of the subject showed 
that the magnet's polarity had been noticed by Chinese, Arabian, and 
even European writers, long before the commencement of the fourteenth 
century. 

The time when the polarity of the magnet was first known to the 
Chinese is lost in the night of antiquity. But many centuries before 
tlie Christian era, this property of the loadstone was applied to the 
construction of magnetic chariots ; but it was probably not until the 
Chinese began to direct their attention to navigation, under the Tsin 
dynasty, that is, between the middle of the third and the commence- 
ment of the fifth centuries of our era that it was used for the guidance 
of vessels at sea. We have no certain account of the introduction of 
the compass into Europe, but writers of the twelfth century, speaking 
of it, as far as we know for the first time, mention it as a thing gene- 
rally known. From this sudden notoriety of the polarity of the magnet, 
it seems probable that its use had been practically known to sailors, be- 
fore it engaged the attention of the learned. Only one century previ- 
ous to this notoriety, we find that the northern navigators had no better 
expedient for directing their course, than watching the flight of birds. 
" The old northern sailors," says a Danish chronicle, " took a supply 
of ravens for their guides ; they used to let these birds fly from their barks 
when in the open sea ; if the birds returned to the ship, the sailors 
concluded that there was no land in sight, but if they flew off", the ves- 
sels were steered in, the direction of their flight." The improvements 
in the compass were made by slow degrees, and for the most important 
of them the world is indebted to Englishmen. 



472 MODERN HISTORY. 

Section III. — Progress of Coinmerce. 

From the beginning of the fourteenth to the middle of the fifteenth 
century the commerce of Europe was engrossed by the Italian, Han- 
seatic, and Flemish cities. The Italians, but more especially the 
Florentines, Genoese, and Venetians, possessed the trade of the Le- 
vant. The jealousy of the rival republics led to sanguinary wars, 
which ended in rendering the Venetians supreme in the Mediterranean. 
The manufacture of silk, which had been introduced into Sicily from 
Greece, spread thence into various parts of Italy, but the largest fac- 
tories were established at Venice. This city supplied the greater part 
of Europe with silks, spices, and Asiatic produce. Italian merchants, 
commonly called Lombards, carried these goods into the northern and 
western kingdoms. The privileges and exemptions granted them by 
sovereigns, enabled them to rule the traffic of Europe, and to become 
the chief bankers and money-dealers in its different states.* 

But all the Italian free cities did not enjoy equal prosperity. The 
states of Lombardy that had wrested their freedom from the German 
emperors, soon fell into anarchy. Disgusted with the advantages by 
which they knew not how to profit, some voluntarily resigned their lib- 
erties to new masters, while others yielded to usurpers. Thus the 
marquis of Este became lord of Modena and Reggia (a. d. 1336) ; the 
house of Gonzago gained possession of Mantua, and the Visconti took 
the title of dukes of Milan (a. d. 1395). Florence retained its freedom 
and prosperity for a longer period. It was not until the reign of the em- 
peror Charles V. (a. d. 1530), that its republican form of government 
was abolished, and the supreme authority usurped by the princely family 
of the Medicis. 

The rivalry between the Genoese and the Venetians led, as we have 
already mentioned, to long and deadly wars. The last and most mem- 
orable of these, was that called the war of Chiozza (a. d. 1379), in 
which the Genoese received so severe a check, that they were no 
longer able to contest the supremacy of the sea with their rivals. 

But these wars were not the only cause of the decline of Genoa ; 
the streets of the city frequently streamed with the blood of rival fac- 
tions ; the nobles and commons fought for supremacy, which want of 
internal union prevented either party from maintaining ; and at length, 
incapable of governing themselves, they sought the protection of foreign 
powers. With their usual inconstancy, the Genoese were ever chan- 
ging masters ; twice they placed themselves under the king of France, 
but after a short experience of French rule, took for their sovereign, 
first the marquis of Montferrat, and afterward the duke of Milan. From, 
the year 1464, Genoa remained a dependancy on the dutchy of Milan, 
until 1528, when it recovered its former freedom. 

While the power of the Genoese republic was declining, that of 
Venice was increasing by rapid strides. The permanence given to its 
government by introducing the principle of hereditary aristocracy, saved 

* The street in London where these foreigners were settled, still retains the 
name of Lombard street, and continues to be the chief seat of banking establish- 
ments. It is not generally known that the three balls exhibited over pawnbroker's 
shops, are the arms of Lombardy, and have been retained as a sign, ever since the 
Lombards were the sole money-lenders of Europe. 



PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION AND INVENTION. 473 

the states from internal comoilsions, while the judicious establishment 
of commercial stations, on the shores of the Adriatic and Levant, se- 
cured and fostered its trade. The greatest advantage that the Vene- 
tians obtained over their commercial rivals, arose from their treaty with 
the sultan of Egypt (a. d. 1343) ; by this alliance, the republic obtained 
full liberty of trade in the Syrian and Egyptian ports, with the privilege 
of having consular establishments at Alexandria and Damascus. These 
advantages soon enabled them to acquire supreme command over the 
trade of central and southern Asia ; the spices and other commodities 
of India were brought to Syrian markets, and the Genoese establish- 
ments on the Black sea soon became worthless. The territorial ac- 
quisitions of the republic on the northern coasts of the Adriatic, formed 
a powerful state about the middle of the fifteenth century. But the 
power of the republic was less secure than it appeared ; oppressive to 
its dependancies, it provoked hostile feelings, which only waited for an 
opportunity to blaze forth in open rebellion ; insolent to all the sur- 
rounding powers, a secret jealousy and enmity were excited, which,* 
at no distant date, exposed Venice to the resentments of a league too 
powerful to be resisted. 

We have already mentioned the Hanseatic confederation of the com- 
mercial cities in northern and western Europe, to protect their trade 
from pirates and robbers. In the fourteenth century, the league be- 
came so extensive as to form an important power, that claimed and re- 
ceived the respect of kings and emperors. The maritime cities of Ger- 
many, from the Scheldt and the isles of Zealand, all round to the bor- 
ders of Livonia, joined the confederacy, and several cities in the in- 
terior sought its protection, and admission into its alliance. The first 
known act of confederation was signed by the deputies of the several 
cities at Cologne (a. d. 1364). All the allied cities were divided into 
four circles, whose limits and capitals varied at different periods ; the 
general administration of the confederacy was intrusted to a confeder- 
acy which assembled triennially at Lubeck. In the early part of the 
fifteenth century, no less than eighty cities sent delegates to the con- 
gress, while many others were connected with the league, though they 
had not the power of sending delegates. Possessing the exclusive 
commerce of the Baltic sea, the Hanse towns exercised the right of 
making war and peace, and forming alliances ; they equipped powerful 
fleets and waged successful wars with the northern sovereigns that at- 
tempted to interfere with their monopoly, or limit the privileges extorted 
from the ignorance or weakness of their predecessors. 

The principal marts were Bruges for the Flemish countries, London 
for England, Bergen for Norway, and Novogorod for Russia. In the 
close of the fifteenth century, Novogorod was deprived of its republican 
constitution, and the merchants migrated to Narva and Revel. Through 
the Flemings the Hanseatic commercial cities were brought into con- 
nexion with those of Italy ; the merchants of both met in the fairs and 
markets of Bruges, where the produce of the unexplored north was ex- 
changed for that of the unknown regions of India. The progress of 
trade, and the intercourse thus effected between remote nations, excited 
a love for maritime and inland discovery, which soon produced impor- 



474 MODERN HISTORY. 

tant changes, and aided the other causes that necessarily led to the 
overthrow of the confederation. 

Extcnsiv^e as was the commerce of the Hanseatic cities, it possessed 
neither permanence nor durability. Having neither produce nor man- 
ufactures of their own, the merchants had merely a carrying trade, and 
the produce of simple barter ; consequently the progress of industry, 
especially in countries where the useful arts were cultivated, raised 
powerful rivals against them, and gave commerce a new direction. 
The establishment of stable government was also injurious to a con- 
federation ; the German princes gradually recovered their supremacy 
over the cities that had been withdrawn from their authority. This re- 
sult was hastened by the internal dissensions of the confederate cities. 
When the northern sovereigns, enlightened on the advantages that their 
subjects might derive from commerce, assailed the privileges of the 
Hanse towns by force of arms ; many of the southern cities withdrew 
themselves from the league ; and the northern confederates, thus de- 
serted, were unable to preserve their monopoly of the Baltic trade, 
which they were forced to share with the merchants of England and 
Holland. The confederacy thus gradually declined, until in the seven- 
teenth centuiy, this league, once so extensive, included only the cities 
of Hamburg, Lubeck, and Bremen. 

In Flanders, commercial prosperity was based on manufacturing in- 
dustry ; the Flemings supplied the principal markets of Europe with, 
cloth in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries ; while, through the 
commercial cities of Italy, they were enabled to send the produce of 
their looms to the ports of the Levant, and exchange them for spices, 
jewels, and other articles of oriental luxurj'. The wealth, the popula- 
tion, and the resources of these cities, rendered the earls of Flanders 
more wealthy, and scarcely less powerful than their nominal sovereigns, 
the kings of France. When Edward I. of England wished to recover 
Guienne, which had been wrested from his predecessors, he sought the 
alliance of Guy de Dampierre, earl of Flanders, and proposed to make 
the earl's daughter, Philippa, his queen ; being attracted both by her 
personal charms and the enormous sums promised as her dowry. So 
great was the lady's wealth, and such the importance attached to the 
Flemish alliance, that Philip the Fair had recourse to the most infamous 
treachery in order to defeat the marriage. As he was the godfather of 
the young lady, he invited her and the earl to pay him a visit in Paris ; 
but no sooner did they reach the capital than he threw them both into 
prison, declaring that the marriage of so wealthy an heiress could not 
be arranged without the consent of the superior lord, and that the earl 
was guilty of felony in promising the hand of his daughter to an enemy 
of the kingdom. Guy escaped from prison, but his daughter died a 
captive, under circumstances which led to a strong suspicion of poison ; 
the earl, believing, or feigning to believe the charge, assembled his 
chief vassals at Grammont, and there, in the presence of the ambassa- 
dors from England, Germany, and Lorraine, he solemnly renounced 
his allegiance to the crown of France, and proclaimed war against 
Philip. Such was the commencement of the long series of Flemish 
wars, which early assumed the form of a desperate struggle between 
the mercantile and landed aristocracy. 



\ 

PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION AND INVENTION. 475 

Commerce and manufactures had brought together a large and 
weahhy population into the cities of Flanders ; the burgesses had pur- 
chased charters of privileges from their respective lords, being well 
aware that municipal freedom was necessary to commercial prosperity ; 
they began to rival their former masters in wealth and influence, and 
they formed an order of their own, which was as much respected in 
the trading communities as the landed aristocracy in the rural districts. 
The nobles soon began to view the rapid progress of the merchants and 
ti-aders with jealousy and dislike. Not only were the lords grieved at 
the loss of their power to distort discretionary imposts, but they regret- 
ted the growth of that mercantile wealth which invested counting-houses 
and stores with a political influence not inferior to that which had 
hitherto attached exclusively to castles and estates. Municipal im- 
munities were found to be at variance with feudal privileges ; neither 
the merchants nor the nobles would make such concessions as might 
form the basis of a reasonable compromise, and war was thus rendered 
inevitable. Under the guidance of several eminent and popular lead- 
ers, particularly the two Artaveldes, the mercantile Flemings main- 
tained a long and vigorous warfare against their earls and aristocracy, 
though the latter were supported by the whole power of France. 
At the close of the contest, the trading cities preserved their immuni- 
ties ; but in the course of the war, capitalists had been ruined, artisans 
had fled to more peaceful lands, the nobles were impoverished, and the 
peasants reduced to despair. Though the Flemings continued to retain 
a large share of their commercial and manufacturing supremacy, they 
had the mortification to witness the rise of a powerful rival in England, 
where the woollen manufacture gradually attained to a greater height 
than it had reached even in Flanders. 

Wool was the most important article of British produce ; and about 
the middle of the fourteenth century, we find that wool constituted about 
thirteen fourteenths of the entire exports of the kingdom. 

Little cloth was made in England, and that only of the coarsest 
description, until Edward III., in the year 1331, invited weavers, 
dyers, and fullers, to come over from Flanders and settle in England, 
promising them his protection and favor on condition that they would 
carry on their trades here, and teach the knowledge of them to his 
subjects. The native wool-growers and merchants looked upon these 
foreign manufacturers with very jealous eyes, especially when Edward 
created a monopoly in their favor, by prohibiting the wearing of any 
cloth but of English fabric ; and many petitions are preserved from the 
weavers of woollen stuffs, complaining of the heavy impositions laid upon 
them by the corporations, in which the corporation of Bristol is espe- 
cially conspicuous. The manufacture, however, took root and flourished, 
though it received a severe check from the jealousy of parliament, which, 
by a very unwise law, prohibited the export of woollen goods, and per- 
mitted that of unwrought wool. 

The land-owners of England were slow in discovering that their own 
prosperity was connected with that of the manufacturing interest. Their 
avowed object in legislation was to keep up the high price of the raw 
material, the wool grown upon their estates ; and their had the honesty 
to say so in the preamble to a statute (14 Rich. II. c. 4) prohibiting 



/ 

476 MODERN HISTORY, 

any denizen of England from buying wool except from the owners of the 
sheep and for his own use. This of course closed the home market; 
the grower, in his anxiety to grasp the profits of the wool-merchant and 
retailer in addition to his own, found that he had turned off his best 
customers ; and we learn from a contemporary historian that the growers 
were reduced to the greatest distress by having the accumulated stock 
of two or three years left on their hands. 

In the reign of Henry VI., not more than a century after its introduc- 
tion, the woollen manufacture had thriven so well, that it was made to 
contribute to the revenue, and we were enabled to compete with the 
nations by whom we had been taught it, on equal terms : a reciprocity 
law, passed at this time, ordains, that " if our Avoollen goods were not 
received in Brabant, Holland, and Zealand, then the merchandise grow- 
ing or Avrought within the dominions of the duke of Burgundy shall be 
prohibited in England under pain of forfeiture." But there was already 
a growing jealousy between the landed and manufacturing interests, 
caused by the rise in the price of labor, resulting from increase of em- 
ployment ; for so early as the reign of Henry IV., an act was passed 
that " no one should bind his son or daughter to an apprenticeship, un- 
less he was possessed of twenty shillings." This attempt to limit the 
supply of labor in manufacture would have wholly destroyed the woollen 
trade, had not the first monarch of the house of Tudor granted an ex- 
emption from the act to the city of Norwich, and subsequently to the 
whole county of Norfolk. 

The besetting error of legislators in this age was the belief, that 
gold and silver had some inherent and intrinsic value in themselves, 
independent of their exchangeable and marketable value. They could 
not understand that the very essence of all commerce is barter, and that 
money only serves as a third term or common measure for ascertaining 
the comparative value of the articles to be exchanged. Ignorant of this 
fact, they made several attempts to compel foreigners to pay for English 
goods in money. In 1429, a law was passed, that no Englishman 
should sell goods to foreigners except for ready money, or other goods 
delivered on the instant. 

This wa3 such a fatal blow to trade, that, in the very next year, the 
parliament was compelled to relax so far as to admit of the sale of goods 
on six months' credit. With equal wisdom, and for the same perplexing 
reason, " the prevention of the exportation of treasure out of the country," 
a law was passed prohibiting " foreign merchants from selling goods in 
England to any other foreigner." This precious piece of legislation did 
not, of course, prevent the exportation of the precious metals, but it pre- 
vented the import of merchandise and of bullion, a result which quite per- 
plexed the legislature, but did not lead to the abolition of the foolish law. 

Henry VII., removed a still greater check to industry, by restrainmg 
the usurpations of corporations. A law was enacted, that corporations 
should not pass by-laws without the consent of three of the chief officers 
of state ; they were also prohibited from exacting tolls at their gates. 
The necessity of legislative interference was proved by the conduct of 
the corporations of Gloucester and Worcester, which had actually im- 
posed transit tolls on the Severn — these, of course, were abolished. 
But the monarch was not superior to the prejudices of his age ; he 



PROGHESS OF CIVILIZATION AND INVENTION. 477 

affixed prices to woollen cloths, caps, and hats, which, of course, led to 
a deterioration of the several articles. Yet this law was highly ex- 
tolled as a master-stroke of policy by the statesmen of the day. 

The parliaments in the reign of Henry VIII., were too busily engaged 
in enforcing the king's caprices, by inconsistent laws against heresy 
and treason, to pay much attention to trade and commerce. One cir- 
cumstance, however, connected with the woollen trade deserves to be 
noticed. So greatly had our woollen manufactures increased, that the 
Flemings, no longer able to compete with the English as producers, 
entered into the carrying trade, bought the English commodities, and 
distributed them into other parts of Europe. In 1528, hostilities com- 
menced between England and the Low Countries ; there was an im- 
mediate stagnation of trade ; the merchants having no longer their usual 
Flemish customers, could not buy goods from the clothiers ; the clothiers 
in consequence dismissed their workmen, and the starving operatives 
tumultuously demanded " bread or blood." 

Wolsey scarcely knew how to account for these riots ; he tried force 
with the workmen, but hunger was stronger than the law ; he threaten- 
ed the clothiers unless they gave employment, but wages could not be 
paid from empty purses ; at length he sent for the merchants, and com- 
manded them to buy cloth as usual ! The merchants replied, that they 
could not sell it as usual ; and, notwithstanding his menaces, would give 
no other answer. At length the true remedy was discovered ; an agree- 
ment was made that commerce should continue between the two states 
even during war. 

In the reign of Edward VI., an act was passed, by which every one 
was prohibited from making cloth, unless he had served an apprentice- 
ship of seven years ; this law was repealed in the first year of Queen 
Mary, as the preamble of the act states, " because it had occasioned the 
decay of the woollen manufactory, and had ruined several towns." It 
was, however, subsequently restored by Elizabeth. 

The persecution of the protestants in France, but more especially in 
Flanders, drove many eminent manufacturers to seek refuge in England, 
where they were graciously received by Elizabeth. She passed an act 
relieving the counties of Somerset, Gloucester, and Wiltshire, from the 
old oppressive statutes, which confined the making of cloth to corporate 
towns ; and trade, thus permitted to choose its own localities, began to 
flourish rapidly. In a remonstrance of the Hanse towns to the diet of 
the empire, in 1582, it is asserted that England exported annually about 
200,000 pieces of cloth. In this reign, also, the English merchants, 
instead of selling their goods to the Hanseatic and Flemish traders, 
began to export themselves ; and their success so exasperated the 
Hanse towns, that a general assembly was held at Lubeck to concert 
measures for distressing the English trade. But the jealousy of for- 
eigners was far less injurious to British commerce than the monopolies 
which Elizabeth created in countless abundance. An attempt, indeed, 
was made to remove one monopoly ; but the experiment was not fairly 
tried, and its consequent ill-success was used as an argument against 
any similar efforts. By an old patent, the company of Merchant Ad- 
venturers possessed the sole right of trading in woollen goods. This 
monstrous usurpation of the staple commodity of the kingdom was too 



478 MODERN HISTORY. 

bad even for that age of darkness, and Elizabeth opened the trade ; but 
the Merchant Adventurers entered into a conspiracy not to make pur- 
chases of cloth, and the queen, alarmed at the temporary suspension of 
trade, restored the patent. 

In the reign of James I. it was calculated that nine tenths of the 
commerce of the kingdom consisted in woollen goods. Most of the 
cloth was exported raw, and was dyed and dressed by the Dutch, who 
gained, it was pretended, 700,000/. annually by this manufacture. The 
king, at the instigation of Cockayne and some other London merchants, 
issued a proclamation prohibiting" the exportation of raw cloths : the 
Dutch and Germans met this piece of legislation by prohibiting the im- 
portation of English dyed cloth ; the consequence Avas, that our export 
trade was diminished by two thirds, and the price of wool fell from 
seventy to eighty per cent. The king was forced to recall his procla- 
mation. In the year 1622 a board of trade was erected, as the com- 
mission states, " to remedy the low price of wool, and the decay of the 
woollen manufactory." It is recommended to the commissioners to 
examine " whether a greater freedom of trade, and an exemption from 
the restraint of exclusive companies, would not be beneficial." A grati- 
fying proof of the progress of intelligence ; but, unfortunately, it led to 
no practical result. 

English commerce increased greatly under the commonwealth, be- 
cause no regard was paid to the prerogative whence the charters of the 
exclusive companies were derived, and because the progress of demo- 
cratical principles led the country gentlemen to bind their sons appren- 
tices to merchants. But with the restoration came the old rage for pro- 
hibitions and protections ; two thousand manufacturers from Warwick- 
shire, and a great number from Herefordshire, emigrated to the Pala- 
tinate ; and, in 1662, the company of Merchant Adventurers declared, 
in a public memorial, that the white clothing trade had abated from 
100,000 pieces to 11,000 ! In 1668, however, some Walloons were 
encouraged to introduce the manufacture of fine cloths, from Spanish 
wool only, without the admixture of any inferior wool ; but the progress 
of this branch of trade was very slow, owing chiefly to our municipal 
laws, which pressed heavily on foreigners. 

It is not necessary to bring down the history of our great staple 
manufactory to a later date. What has been already stated is suffi- 
cient to illustrate the evils which arose from legislative interference 
with the natural course of commerce, industry, and capital, in past ages. 
It must not, however, be supposed that this impolicy was peculiar to 
England ; on the contrary, English statesmen were generally in ad- 
vance of the rest of Europe, and monopolies were only supported by 
corrupt adventurers. The nobility and the country gentlemen of Eng- 
land resisted the imposing of any unnecessary shackles on trade until 
after the restoration of Charles II., when the system of protection be- 
gan to be introduced ; that system derived its chief support from the 
short-sighted cupidity of the manufacturers themselves, and the entire 
blame must not therefore be attributed to the legislature. 

The extension of English commerce during the period of history we 
have been examining was very slow. The long wars with France, and 
the civil wars of the Roses, diverted attention from the peaceful pursuit 



PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION AND INVENTION. 479 

of trade. It was not until after the accession of Henry VII. that Eng- 
land began to feel the impulse for maritime discovery and commercial 
enterprise which had hitherto been confined to southern Europe ; the 
effects of this change belong, however, to a more advanced period of 
history, and will come under consideration in a future chapter. 

Section IV. — Revolutions of Germany, France, and Spain. 

From the period of the accession of Rodolph, the first emperor of the 
house of Hapsburgh, the German empire began to assume a constitu- 
tional form, and to be consolidated by new laws. Under the govern- 
ment of Albert, the son of Rodolph, an important change took place in 
Switzerland, which, at the commencement of the fourteenth century, 
was divided into a number of states, both secular and ecclesiastical. 
The cantons of Uri, Schwitz, and Underwalden, were immediate de- 
pendancies of the empire, while some minor adjoining districts belong- 
ed to the dukes of Austria as counts of Hapsburgh. Albert, anxious to 
found a new kingdom for one of his younger children, resolved to an- 
nex the imperial to the Austrian cantons ; and in order to reconcile the 
hardy mountaineers that inhabited them to the intended yoke, he sanc- 
tioned and encouraged the cruel tyranny of their German governors. 
Three brave men resolved to attempt the delivery of their country ; 
they secretly engaged a number of partisans, who surprised the impe- 
rial forts on the same day (a. d. 1308), and accomplished a revolution 
without shedding a drop of blood. The Austrians made a vigorous ef- 
fort to recover their supremacy, but they suffered a ruinous defeat at 
Morgarten (a. d. 1315), which secured the independence of the Can- 
tons. Their league of union was renewed at Brunnen, in a treaty that 
became the base of the federative union of Switzerland. Five other 
cantons successively joined the former three, and the Helvetic posses- 
sions of the house of Austria were conquered by the Swiss during the 
interval in which the family of the counts of Hapsburgh ceased to wear 
the imperial crown. 

On the death of Albert (a. d. 1308), Henry VII., count of Luxem- 
burg, was chosen emperor ; he was a brave and politic prince ; taking 
advantage of the pope's absence at Avignon, and the distracted state of 
Italy, he made a vigorous effort to restore the imperial authority in the 
peninsula, and would probably have succeeded but for his premature 
death. 

The troubled reign of the emperor Louis of Bavaria, his contest for 
the empire with Frederic, duke of Austria, and the wars occasioned by 
his efforts to restrain the extravagant pretensions of the popes, led the 
German princes to discover the necessity of having a written constitu- 
tion. On the accession of Charles of Luxemburg (a. d. 1347), the 
calamities of a disputed election to the empire were renewed, and after 
a long series of wars and disorders, a diet was convened at Nuremburg, 
to form a code of laws, regulating the rights and privileges of the spir- 
itual and temporal authorities. The result of the diet's labors was pub- 
lished in a celebrated edict, called a Golden Bull, from the bulla, or 
seal of gold, affixed to the document (a. d. 1356). This bull fixed the 
order and form of the imperial elections, and the ceremonial of the 



480 MODERN HISTORY. 

coronation. It ordained that the crown should be given by the plurality 
of votes of seven electors ; the prince chosen emperor having a right 
to give his suffrage. The right of voting was restricted to possessors 
of seven principalities, called electorates, of which the partition was 
prohibited, and the regularity of their inheritance secured by a strict 
law of primogeniture. Finally, the Golden Bull defined the rights and 
privileges of the several electors, confirming to the princes of the Pala- 
tinate and Saxony the administration of the empire during an interreg- 
num. 

The next reign, nevertheless, evinced the danger of investing the 
electors with such preponderating authority. Wenceslaus, the son and 
successor of Charles, was a supine and voluptuous prince, who paid lit- 
tle attention to the interests of the empire ; he was deposed by a plu- 
rality of votes (a. D. 1400), and Robert, the elector palatine, chosen in 
his stead. Several of the states continued to acknowledge Wences- 
laus, but Robert is usually regarded as the legitimate emperor. On 
Robert's death, the empire returned to the house of Luxemburg, Wen- 
ceslaus having consented to resign his pretensions in favor of his brother 
Sigismond, king of Hungary. • 

A cloud had long hung over the house of Hapsburgh ; it was dis- 
pelled by the fortunate union of Albert, duke of Austria, with Sigis- 
mond's only daughter, queen in her own right of Hungary and Bohe- 
mia. On the death of his father-in-law (a. d. 1437), he succeeded to 
the empire, but survived his elevation only two years. Albert's pos- 
thumous son Ladislaus inherited his mother's realms ; his cousin Fred- 
eric, duke of Stiria, was chosen emperor, and from his posterity the 
imperial dignity never departed until the extinction of his male issue 
(a. d. 1740). 

The wise policy of Philip Augustus, in weakening the power of the 
feudal aristocracy and reuniting the great fiefs to the crown, was vig- 
orously pursued by his successors, but by none more effectually than 
Philip the Fair. On the death of that monarch (a. t>. 1314), the king 
of France was undoubtedly the most powerful sovereign in Europe. 
Philip left three sons, who successively reigned in France ; Louis, 
surnamed Hutin, Philip the Long, and Charles the Fair ; together with 
a daughter named Isabel, married to Edward II., king of England. 
The three French sovereigTis just mentioned, died without leaving male 
issue ; all had daughters, but Philip and Charles asserted that no fe- 
male could inherit the crown of France. The claims founded on this 
law of succession were but slightly questioned ; and on the death of 
Charles IV., Philip, Count de Valois, the nearest male heir, ascended 
the throne without encountering any immediate opposition (a. d. 1328). 
Edward III. of England resolved to claim the Idngdom in right of liis 
mother Isabel, but the distractions of his native dominions long pre- 
sented insuperable obstacles to his projects. He even did liege hom- 
age to Philip for the province of Guienne, and for several years gave 
no sign of meditating such a mighty enterprise as the conquest of France. 

Aided by his son, the celebrated Black Prince, the EngUsh monarch 
invaded France, and, contrary to the opinions of all the contemporary 
princes, was everj' where victorious (a. d. 1338). The. war was main- 
tained by Philip of Valois, and his son and successor John, with more 



PROGRESS OP CIVILIZATION AND INVENTION. 481 

obstinacy than wisdom ; the former suffered a terrible defeat at Crecy, 
the most glorious fiel^ ever won by English valor ; King John was 
taken prisoner at the battle of Poictiers. But these achievements, 
however glorious, could not ensure the conquest of France, the country 
was too large, the French nation too hostile to the invaders, and Ed- 
ward's army too small for such a revolution. Both sides became weary 
of the contest, a treaty was concluded at Bretigni, by which several 
important provinces were ceded to Edward, on the condition of his re- 
nouncing his claims to the French crown (a. d. 1360). A troubled 
period of eight years followed, which can scarcely be called a peace, 
although there was a cessation from open hostilities. 

There is scarcely a calamity by which a nation can be afflicted that 
did not visit France during this disastrous season. A foreign enemy 
was in the heart of the kingdom ; the seditions of the capital deluged 
its streets with blood ; and a treacherous prince of the blood, Charles 
the Bad, king of Navarre, was in arms against the sovereign authority. 
Famine devastated the land, and a plague of unparalleled virulence (a. d. 
1348) consummated the work of hunger and the sword. The compa- 
nies of adventurers and mercenary troops that remained unemployed 
during the truce that followed the victory of Poictiers, spread them- 
selves over the land, in marauding troops, which there was no force to 
withstand. So little scrupulous were they, that they assailed the pope 
in Avignon, and compelled the pontiff to redeem himself by a ransom 
of forty thousand crowns. Finally, the peasantry of several districts, 
impatient of distress, and maddened by the oppressions of their lords, 
broke out into a fearful insurrection. This was named the Jacquerie, 
from the contemptuous phrase, " Jacques bon homme," applied by the 
nobles to their serfs, and it was marked by all the horrors that neces- 
sarily attend a servile war, when men, brutalized by tyranny, and mad- 
dened by wrongs, seek vengeance on their oppressors. 

Edward the Black Prince was intrusted by his father to the govern- 
ment of the French provinces. A brave and adventurous warrior, Ed- 
ward was deficient in the qualities of a statesman. Having exhausted 
his finances by an unwise and fruitless invasion of Castile, he laid 
heavy taxes on his subjects, and they in anger appealed for protection 
to their ancient sovereigns. Charles V., who had succeeded his father 
John on the throne of France, gladly received this appeal, and sum- 
moned Edward to appear before him as his liege lord (a. d. 1368). 
Though enfeebled by sickness, the answer of the gallant prince to this 
summons was a declaration of war, but the tide of fortune was changed, 
and in a few campaigns the English lost all their acquisitions in France, 
with the exception of a few important seaports. 

The weakness of Richard II., and the doubtful title of Henry IV., 
prevented the English from renewing the war with France during their 
reigns ; indeed they would probably have been expelled from all their 
continental possessions, but for the deplorable imbecility of the French 
monarch, Charles VI., and the sanguinary contests of the factions of 
Orleans and Burgundy. The English nation had been long commer- 
cially connected with Flanders, and when that country was annexed to 
ihe dutchy of Burgundy, provision had been made for the continuance 
of trade by separate truces. Encouraged by the promised neutrality, 

31 



482 MODERN HISTORY. 

if not the active co-operation of the Burgundian duke, Henry V. inva- 
ded France, and destroyed the flower of the French chivalry on the 
memorable field of Agincourt (a. d. 1415). The progress of the En- 
glish was uninterrupted until the defection of the duke of Bnrgundy 
(a. d. 14'19), an event which seemed to threaten Henry with ruin ; but 
that prince having been assassinated, his partisans in revenge joined 
the English, and this circumstance, combined with the unnatural hatred 
of the French queen Isabel to her son the dauphin, led to the treaty 
of Troyes, by which Henry, on condition of marrying the princess 
Catharine, was appointed regent of France, and heir to the unconscious 
Charles VI. 

Notwithstanding this arrangement, Charles VII. on the death of his 
father, was recognised as king in the southern provinces of France, 
■while Henry VI., the infant inheritor of the crowns of England and 
France, was proclaimed in the northern provinces, under the reign of 
his uncle, the duke of Bedford (a. d. 1422). At first the fortunes of 
Charles wore the most unfavorable appearance ; and the siege of Orleans 
(a. d. 1428) threatened to deprive him of hope. A simple country girl 
overthrew the power of England. Joan of Arc, called also the Maid of 
Orleans, whether influenced by enthusiasm or imposture, it is not easy 
to determine, declared herself supernaturally inspired to undertake the 
deliverance of her country. The English felt a superstitious awe, and 
lost their conquests one by one, and after a protracted but feeble struggle, 
no memorial of the victories of Edward and Henry remained but the 
town of Calais and an empty title (a. d. 1449). The destruction of the 
French nobility in this long series of wars, enabled Charles VII. to 
mould the government into a despotic form, which was permanently 
fixed by his crafty successor Louis XI. Scarcely a less important 
change was made in ecclesiastical affairs ; Charles VII. secured the 
Galilean church from any future encroachment of the holy see, by 
adopting several decrees of the council of Basil, which were solemnly 
recognised in a national assembly held at Bourges (a. d. 1438), and 
published under the name of the Pragmatic Sanction. 

Spain, during this period, continued to be divided in several king- 
doms ; the Christian monarchies of Navarre, Castile, and Aragon, could 
not be brought to combine against the Moors, whose strength was con- 
centrated in the province of Granada. Alphonso XI. was the only Cas- 
tilian monarch who distinguished himself in war against the Moham- 
medans ; he defeated the combined forces of the kings of Morocco and 
Granada, who had united to besiege Tariffa (a. d. 1340), and by this 
victory, npt only delivered his own frontiers, but acquired several im- 
portant fortresses. The power of Castile was weakened by the unex- 
ampled tyranny of Peter the Cruel. He was dethroned by his illegit- 
imate brother, Henry, count of Trastamare, but was subsequently re- 
stored by Edward the Black Prince. Proving ungrateful to his bene- 
factor, he provoked a second contest, in which he lost his kingdom and 
life. The kingdom now passed to the house of Trastamare (a. d 1368),. 
and for a considerable period enjoyed peace and prosperity Though 
the kingdom of Aragon was inferior in extent to that of Castile, yet the 
advantages of a better government, and wiser sovereign, with those of 
industry and comnierce, along a line of seacoast, rendered it almbst 



PROGRESS OP CIVILIZATION AND INVENTION. 483 

equally important. The Aragonese kings acquired the kingdom of the 
two Sicilies, the Balearic islands, Sardinia, and the county of Barcelona, 
with several other Catalonian districts. They would probably have 
struggled for the supremacy of Spain, had not the crowns of Aragon 
and Castile been united by the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella 
(a. d. 1469). 

A similar event had nearly united the crowns of Castile and Portugal. 
Ferdinand, king of Portugal, having no male heir, wished to secure the 
succession for his daughter Beatrice, and married her, at the early age 
of eleven, to John I., king of Castile. On the death of Ferdinand, his 
illegitimate brother, Don Juan, commonly called John the Bastard, 
profiting by the national hatred between the Portuguese and Castilians, 
usurped the regency. A fierce war ensued, the Castilians were over- 
thrown in the decisive battle of Aljubarota (a. d. 1385), and John was 
proclaimed king by the states of Portugal. The war was continued for 
several years, but finally a treaty was concluded, by which the Castilian 
monarchs resigned all clairn to the inheritance of Beatrice. 

Section V. — The State of England and the Northern Kingdoms in the 
Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. 

The inglorious reign of Edward II. in England was not on thewhole 
unfavorable to the progress of constitutional liberty. After the weak- 
ness of the king and profligacy of his favorites had for four years dis- 
gusted the nations, the barons compelled the monarch to grant a reform 
of abuses in full parliament (a. d. 1311). The Great Charter was re- 
newed, and a fresh clause added, of too much importance to be omitted 
even in this scanty page : " Forasmuch as many people be aggrieved 
by the king's ministers against right, in respect to which grievances no 
one can recover without a common parliament ; we do ordain that the 
king shall hold a parliament once in the year, or twice, if need be." 
But this security against mis-government proved inefficacious, the mon- 
arch was deposed, and soon after murdered (a. d. 1327). Edward III. 
was proclaimed king ; and during his minority, the administration was 
intrusted to Queen Isabella. After the lapse of three years, Isabella, 
who had disgraced herself by a criminal intrigue with Mortimer, earl 
of March, was stripped of power, and her paramour beheaded. 

Edward III. rendered his reign illustrious, not more by his splendid 
achievements in France, than by the wise laws he sanctioned in Eng- 
land. These, perhaps, must be ascribed less to the wisdom of the 
sovereign than the increasing spirit of the commons. It was during 
this long and prosperous reign that parliament established the three 
fundamental principles of our government — the illegality of raising money 
without the consent of parliament ; the necessity of both houses con- 
curring in any alteration of the laws ; and the right of the commons to 
investigate public abuses, and impeach the royal ministers for mal-admin- 
istration. While in the midst of victory, able to boast of his queen 
having conquered and captured the king of Scotland, and of his son hav- 
ing taken the king of France prisoner, Edward found his parliaments 
well-disposed to second all his efforts, and gratify all his wishes ; but, 
when the tide of fortune turned, he had to encounter the hostility of a 



484 MODERN HISTORY. 

constitutional opposition, at the head of which appeared the prince of 
Wales. On the death of the heroic Black Prince, the royal favorite, 
the duke of Lancaster became supreme in parliament, but the fruits of 
the victories acquired by the patriots were not lost, the statute law of 
the realm was improved, the administration of justice improved, and the 
great security of ministerial responsibility established. English litera- 
ture began to assume a settled form ; Chaucer, the greatest poet that 
modern Europe had produced, with the exception of Dante, flourished 
in the time of Edward ; and the language had become so far perfect, 
that it was resolved to have all laws written in English, instead of the 
Norman French, which had been used since the time of the conquest. 

Richard II., son of the Black Prince, succeeded his grandfather (a. d. 
1377), ere he had attained his twelfth year. The early part of his 
reign was troubled by the contests of his ambitious uncles for the regency, 
and by a dangerous insurrection of the peasants, headed by the celebra- 
ted blacksmith, Wat Tyler. About the same time, the zeal with which 
Wickliff e denounced the corruptions of the church, provoked the hostili- 
ty of the clergy ; his doctrines were condemned by a national synod 
(a. d. 1382), but they had taken fast hold of the people, and some of his 
disciples carried them to the continent, more especially into Bohemia, 
where they continued to flourish in spite of persecution. The continued 
misgovernment of Richard provoked a revolution, while he was absent 
in Ireland. Henry of Lancaster, duke of Hereford, enraged at the for- 
feiture of his paternal estate, headed the revolt ; Richard, on his return, 
finding the royal cause hopeless, surrendered to his haughty cousin, and 
was forced to abdicate the crown (a. d. 1399). 

The throne, thus vacated, was claimed by Henry, as representative 
of the duke of Lancaster, the third son of Edward III., but the hered- 
itary right belonged to Edmund Mortimer, earl of March, the lineal 
descendant of Lionel, duke of Clarence, second son of Edward III. 
The Mortimer claim, at a later period, was vested by marriage in the 
family of York, descended from the fourth son of Edward. Henry of 
Lancaster, however, was the idol of the people, and the master of the 
parliament ; his demand passed without question, and the first acts of 
his reign were well calculated to make the nation acquiesce in his title. 
The' efforts of some discontented nobles to restore Richard, were 
crushed by the spontaneous exertions of the populace, and the death 
of the deposed monarch seemed to secure tranquillity. But the fourth 
Henry found that discontented friends were the most dangerous ene- 
mies ; the proud Percies, to whom he owed his elevation, dissatisfied 
with the scanty reward of their services, took up arms, and involved 
the country in civil war. The Percies were overthrown at Shrewsbury 
(a. d. 1403), but their Welsh ally, Owen Glendower, maintained a stem 
resistance to the house of Lancaster for several years. 

On the death of Henry IV., his son, Henry of Monmouth, ascended 
the throne (a. d. 1413). His dissipation in youth gave little promise 
of a glorious reign, but immediately after his accession he resigned all 
his follies, and having secured the tranquillity of England by judicious 
measures of reform, he revived the claims of £]dward to the throne of 
France. The glorious battle of Agincourt left him master of the opea 
field, the crimes and follies of the French court gave him possession 



PROGEESS OF CIVILIZATION AND INVENTION. 485 

of Paris; he died in the midst of victory (a. d. 1422), leaving a son 
only nine months old to inherit his kingdoms. 

The early part of Henry VI. 's reign is occupied by the series of 
wars that ended in the expulsion of the English from their continental 
possessions. The loss of trophies so gratifying to popular vanity, alien- 
ated the affections of the nation from the house of Lancaster, and this 
dislike was increased by the haughtiness of Henry's queen, Margaret 
of Anjou, and the ambition of unprincipled favorites. Richard, duke 
of York, sure of succeeding to the crown, would probably not have 
asserted the claims of his house, but for the unexpected birth of a prince, 
on whose legitimacy some suspicion was thrown. Encouraged by 
many powerful nobles, he took up arms ; the cognizance of the Yorkists 
was a white rose, that of the Lancastrians, a red rose, and the fierce 
contests that ensued are usually called the " wars of the roses." After 
a sanguinary struggle, marked by many vicissitudes of fortune, the 
white rose triumphed, and Edward IV., son of Richard, duke of York, 
became king of England (a. d. 1461). Ten years afterward, his tri- 
umph was completed, and his rights secured, by the battle of Tewkes- 
bury, in which the Lancastrians were decisively overthrown. Ed- 
ward's reign was sullied by cruelty and debauchery ; after his death 
(a.d. 1483), the crown was usurped by Richard, duke of Gloucester, 
who endeavored to secure himself by the murder of his nephews. But 
the claims of the Lancastrian family were now revived by Henry Tudor, 
earl of Richmond, the heir to that house by right of his mother, and a 
proposal, favored by the principal nobles, was made for uniting this 
nobleman in marriage to the princess Elizabeth, daughter of Edward 
IV., and thus for ever extinguishing the hostility between the rival 
houses. At the decisive battle of Bosworth field, Richard was defeated 
and slain (a. d. 1586) ; Henry became king of England, and his mar- 
riage with Elizabeth united the rival claims of York and Lancaster in 
the Tudor family. 

The wars excited by disputed successions in Scotland, were termin- 
ated by the transfer of the crown to the family of the Stuarts (a. d. 1371). 
Under this dynasty, the royal authority, which had been almost annihi- 
lated by the nobles, was greatly extended, and judicious laws enacted 
for restraining the turbulence of the aristocracy. 

Intestine wars long harassed the northern kingdoms, but their tran- 
quillity was restored by Queen Margaret, commonly called the Semi- 
ramis of the North, who united Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, into 
one state, by the treaty of Calmar (a. d. 1397). The predilection 
shown by Margaret's successors for their Danish subjects, displeased 
the Swedes, and on the death of King Christopher, without issue, they 
separated from the union, and chose Charles VIII., one of their native 
nobles, to be their sovereign. The Danes conferred their crown on 
Christian I., count of Oldenberg (a. d. 1450), and it has ever since 
continued in his family. 

During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Russia was divided 
into several principalities, all of which were under the Mongolian yoke, 
while the western provinces had the additional misery of being ravaged 
by the Poles and Lithuanians. A diversion in their favor was made by 
the Teutonic knights, who added several rich provinces to their Prus- 



486 MODERN HISTORY. 

sian dominions, but the oppressive government of the order provoked, 
insurrections, of which the Poles took advantage, not only to regain 
their former provinces, but also to acquire a considerable portion of 
Prussia, which was ceded to them by the peace of Thorn (a. d. 1466). 
A great revolution in the Polish form of government roused the martial 
enthusiasm, but proved fatal to the tranquillity of the Poles. Casimir 
the Great, having no male issue, wished to secure the succession for 
his nephew, Louis, king of Hungary, and convoked a general assembly 
of the states (a. d. 1339). The nobles, to whom an appeal was thus 
made, took advantage of the circumstance to render the throne elective, 
and to place great restrictions on the royal authority. When Louis of 
Hungary became king of Poland (a. d. 1370), he was obliged to swear 
fealty to a constitution which changed the monarchy into a republican 
aristocracy. On his death, the crown of Poland was given to Jagellon, 
duke of Lithuania (a. d. 1382), who renounced paganism on hi? elec- 
tion, and established the Christian religion in his hereditary estates. 
Though the crown continued elective, the Polish kings were always 
chosen from the Jagellon family, until its extinction in the sixteenth 
century. 

Section VL — Rise and Progress of the Ottoman Empire. 

Under the administration of the Paleeologi, the Byzantine empire 
sunk into hopeless decay ; its history presents an unvaried picture of 
vice and folly ; the weakness of the sovereigns, the exorbitant power 
of the patriarchs and monks, the fury of theological controversy, the 
multiplication of schisms and sects, would have ruined the state, but for 
the external pressure of the Mohammedan dynasties ; while, on the 
other hand, the triumph of these enemies was delayed by the revolu- 
tions in the sultanies of Anatolia, and the difficulties that the siege of a 
maritime capital presents to hordes ignorant of navigation. But when 
the power of the Ottoman Turks became consolidated, it was manifest 
that the fate of Constantinople could not be averted, though its fall was 
long delayed. 

The power of the Ottoman Turks commenced in Asia Minor ; when 
the Mongolian hordes overthrew the Seljukian dynasties, a small wan- 
dering tribe of Turks sought refuge in Armenia, but after seven years 
of exile, seized what they deemed a favorable opportunity of returning 
to their ancient possessions. While fording the Euphrates, the leader 
of the Turks was drowned, and the tribe was divided into four, by his 
sons. Ertogrul, the warlike leader of one division, resolved to return 
into Asia Minor : the sultanies into which the Seljukian empire had 
been divided, were harassing each other with mutual wars, and could 
not be persuaded to combine against either the Mongols or the crusaders, 
and consequently a band of adventurous warriors might reasonably hope 
to obtain fame and fortune in such a distracted country. During Erto- 
grul's retrograde march, he met two armies engaged in mortal combat, 
and without giving himself the trouble of investigating the cause, he 
took the chivalrous resolution of joining the weaker party. His unex- 
pected aid changed the fortunes of the day, and he was rewarded by 
the conqueror, who proved to be a chief of the Seljukians, with the gift 



PROGHESS OP CIVILIZATION AND INVENTION. 487 

*of a, mountainous district, forming the frontiers of ancient Bithynia and 
Plirygia. 

Othman, or Ottoman, usually regarded as the founder of the Turkish 
empire (born a. d. 1258), succeeded his father Ertogrul at an early age. 
He was fortunate in winning the friendship of a young Greek, who 
embraced Islamisin to please his patron, and instructed the Turkish 
prince in the art of government. . From this renegade descended the 
family of Mikal-ogli,* which so often appears conspicuous in Turkish 
history. To the information obtained from this Greek, Othman owed 
the supremacy which he speedily acquired over his Seljukian rivals ; 
aided by the surrounding emirs, he wrested several important places 
from the Byzantine empire, particularly Prusa, the ancient capital of 
Bithynia, which under the slightly altered name of Bfusa, became his 
■metropolis (a. d. 1327). The new kingdom, thus formed at the expense 
of the sultans of Iconium and the Greek emperors, increased rapidly, 
and soon became one of the most flourishing states in the east. 

Orkhan, the son and successor of Othman, instituted the military 
force of the Janissaries, to which the Turks owe the chief part of their 
success. Having greatly enlarged his dominions, he took the title of 
sultan and began to expel the Greeks from Anatolia. While Orkhan 
pursued his victorious career in Asia, his son Soliman crossed the Hel- 
lespont (a. d. 1358), captured Gallipoli, and thus laid the first founda- 
tion of the Turkish power in Europe. 

Amurath, or Morad I., steadily pursued the policy of his father and 
brother. He captured Adrianople (a. d. 1360), which he made his 
capital. He subdued Thrace, Macedon, and Servia, but fell at the bat- 
tle of Cossova, one of the most sanguinary ever fought between Turks 
and Christians. 

Bayezid, surnamed Ilderln, or the Thunderer, put an end to all the 
petty Turkish sovereignties in Asia Minor ; he subdued Bulgaria, and 
maintained his conquest by the decisive victory that he gained at Ni- 
copolis over Sigismond, king of Hungary. The pride, the cruelty, and 
the bravery of Bayezid have been celebrated in history and romance. 
Southern Greece, the countries along the Danube, and the western dis- 
tricts of Thrace, submitted to his arms ; the empire of Constantinople 
was bounded by the walls of the city ; even this was held blockaded for 
ten years, and must eventually have fallen, had not Bayezfd's attention 
been directed to Asia, by the rapid successes of a conqueror, more sav- 
age than himself. 

Timur Lenk, that is to say, " Lame Timur," a name commonly cor- 
rupted into Tamerlane, was the son of a Jagatay Turk, who ruled a 
horde, nominally subject to the descendants of Jenghiz Khan. His ama- 
zing strength, exhibited even in early infancy, procured him the name 
Timur, which signifies " iron." While yet a youth, he resolved to de- 
liver his country from the Mongolian yoke, but at the same time, aware 
of the high value placed upon illustrious birth, he pretended to be de- 
scended Irom Jenghiz, and on this account he is frequently called Timur 
the Tartar ; and this error was perpetuated in India, where his descend- 
ants, the emperors of Delhi, have been denominated the Great Moguls, 

* Sons of Michael. 



488 MODERN HISTORY. 

His empire was rapidly extended from the wall of China to the Medit- 
erranean sea ; India in the south, and Russia in the north, acknowledged 
his sway, and his determination to wrest Syria and Anatolia from the 
Turks, compelled Bayezid to abandon the siege of Constantinople, and 
hasten to the defence of his Asiatic dominions (a. d. 1403). Before he 
could reach the scene of action, Sivas (the ancient Sebaste) had fallen, 
and the bravest warriors of the garrison had been buried alive by the 
ferocious victor. Damascus soon after shared the same fate ; it was 
laid waste by fire and sword, and a solitary tower alone remained to 
mark the spot that had once been a city. 

Bayezid encountered Timur in the plains of Angora ; he was defeated 
with great loss, and taken prisoner. The Turkish historians assert that 
Bayezid was confined by the conqueror in an iron cage, but Timur's 
own companion and historian asserts that the conqueror treated his cap- 
tive with great lenity ; all that can be determined with certainty is that 
the sultan died in the enemy's camp. Timur himself fell a victim to 
disease, while preparing to invade China (a. d. 1405). His empire was 
dismembered after his death, but Baber, one of his descendants, estab- 
lished an empire at Delhi, in northern India (a. d. 1526), which, sadly 
shorn of its ancient glories, subsisted almost to our own times, under the 
name of the empire of the Great Moguls. ' 

After a long fratricidal war, Mohammed I., the youngest of Bayezid's 
sons, succeeded to his father's dominions. The greater part of his reign 
was spent in restoring the Ottoman power in western Asia, and thus 
the Byzantines obtained a respite, by which they knew not how to 
profit. Morad, or Amurath II., raised the glory of the Ottomans to a 
height greater than it had yet attained. He deprived the Greeks of all 
their cities and castles on the Euxine sea, and along the coasts of 
Thrace, Macedon, and Thessaly ; he even stormed the fortifications that 
had been constructed across the Corinthian isthmus, and carried his vic- 
torious arms into the midst of the Peloponnesus. The Grecian empe- 
rors acknowledged him as their superior lord, and he, in turn, accorded 
them protection. Two Christian heroes arrested the progress of the 
sultan — John Hunniades, and George Castriot, better known by the 
name of Scanderbeg. Hunniades was a celebrated Hungarian general ; 
he drove the Turks from Servia, whose possession they eagerly coveted, 
and long impeded their progress westward. Scanderbeg was an Alba- 
nian prince, possessing a small district in the Epirote mountains, of 
which Croia was the capital. At the head of a small but faithful band . 
of followers, he long resisted the mighty armies of the Ottomans, and 
compelled Amurath himself to raise the siege of Croia. 

At length Mohammed II. ascended the Ottoman throne (a. d. 1451), 
and from the moment of his accession, directed all his efforts to the 
capture of Constantinople. At the head of an army of three hundred 
thousand men, supported by a fleet of three hundred sail, he laid siege 
to this celebrated metropolis, and encouraged his men by spreading re- 
ports of prophecies and prodigies, that portended the triumph of Islam- 
ism. Constantine, the last of the Greek emperors, met the storm with 
becoming resolution ; supported by the Genoese, and a scanty band of 
followers from western Europe, he maintained the city for fifty-three 
days, though the fanaticism of his enemies was raised to the highest 



PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION AND INVENTION. 48& 

pitch by their confident reliance on the favor of Heaven, while prophe- 
cies of impending wo and desolation proportionably depressed the in- 
habitants of Constantinople. At length, on the 29th of May, a. d. 1453, 
the Turks stormed the walls, the last Constantino fell as he boldly dis- 
puted every inch of ground, multitudes of his subjects were massacred 
in the first burst of Turkish fury, the rest were dragged into slavery, and 
when Mohammed made his triumphal entry, he found the city a vast 
solitude. 

The conquest of Constantinople was followed by that of Servia, Bos- 
nia, Albania, Greece, including the Peloponnesus, several islands of the 
Archipelago, and the Greek empire of Trebizond. All Christendom 
was filled with alarm ; Pope Pius II. convened a council at Mantua, for 
the purpose of organizing a general association to resist the progress of 
the Turks (a. d. 1459). A crusade was preached by his order, and he 
was about to undertake the command of the expedition in person, when 
death cut short his projects at Ancona (a. d. 1464). The Christian 
league was dissolved by his death, the Turks were permitted to estab- 
lish their empire in Europe, and this received a great increase, both of 
security and strength, by the voluntary tender of allegiance which the 
khans of the Crimea made to Mohammed II. (a. d. 1478). After the 
first burst of fanaticism was over, Mohammed granted protecticfi to his 
Christian subjects, and, by his wise measures, Constantinople was re- 
stored to its former prosperity. 



490 MODERN HISTORY. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE REFORMATION, AND COMMENCEMENT OF 
THE STATES-SYSTEM IN EUROPE. 

Section I.— Progress of Maritime Discovery. 

The scene of the earliest-known navigation was the Mediterranean 
sea, which naturally seemed to the ancients to be situated in the middle 
of the earth; as is implied by its name. As navigation advanced only 
at a creeping pace, and as but a small amount of fresh experience was 
laid up h^ one generation for the benefit of the next, it took very many 
ages to explore the Mediterranean, Tyrrhene, Hadriatic, and jiEgean 
seas. 

The great natural relief, given to ancient navigation, was the discov- 
ery of the trade-winds which prevail in the Indian ocean. These peri- 
odical changes of winds, if noticed by the Arabians, were not made to 
serve their maritime trade, until the keener enterprise of the West, in 
the person of Hippalus (about a. d. 50), first ventured to steer off from 
the Arabian and Persian shores, and to be impelled eastward, in the 
direction of the wind. A voyage which had consumed years, now took 
up but as many months, by a conformity on the part of the mariner with 
this invariable law of nature. The means of profit and information were 
now less monopolized, and the west became better acquainted with the 
inhabitants and produce of the east. 

The navigation to the Indies was continued, when the Romans be- 
came masters of Egypt, by sailing down the Arabian gulf, and thence 
to the mouth of the river Indus, along the southern coasts of Arabia and 
Persia. But under the emperor Claudius this route was so far changed, 
that after emerging from the Arabian gulf, they cut across the Indian 
ocean directly to the mouth of the Indus, by noticing, and taking advan- 
tage of, the time when the southwest trade- wind blew. 

When the Arabians, in their rapid career of conquest, had reached 
the Euphrates, they immediately perceived the advantages to be de- 
rived from an emporium situated upon a river which opened on the one 
hand a shorter route to India than they had hitherto had, and on the 
other, an extensive inland navigation through a wealthy country ; and 
Bassora, which they built on the west bank of the river (a. d. 636), 
soon became a great commercial city, and entirely cut off the indepen- 
dent part of Persia from the oriental trade. The Arabian merchants 
of Bassora extended their discoveries eastward, far beyond the tracks 
of aU preceding navigators, and imported directly from the place of their 



THE STATES-SYSTEM OF EUROPE. 491 

growth, many Indian articles, hitherto procured at second hand in Cey- 
lon ; w hich they accordingly furnished on their own terms to the nations 
of the west. 

As an instance of the depressed state of human knowledge during 
the middle ages, we may mention that Cosmas, a Greek merchant of 
the sixth century, wrote a book called " Christian Topography" the 
chief intent of which was to confute the heretical opinion of the earth 
being a globe, together with the pagan assertion that there was a tem- 
perate zone on the southern side of the torrid zone. He informed his 
readers that, according to the true orthodox system of cosmography, the 
-earth was a quadrangular plane, extending four hundred courses, or days' 
journeys, from east to west, and exactly half as much from north to 
south, enclosed by lofty mountains, iipon which the canopy or vault of 
the firmament rested ; that a huge mountain on the north side of the 
earth, by intercepting the light of the sun, produced the vicissitudes of 
day and night ; and that the plane of the earth had a declivity from 
north, by reason of which the Euphrates, Tigris, and other rivers run- 
ning southward, are rapid ; whereas the Nile, having to run up-hill, has 
necessarily a very slow current. 

The Feroe islands had been discovered about the latter end of the 
ninth century, by some Scandinavian pirates ; and soon after this, Ice- 
land was colonized by Flok, the Norwegian. Iceland, it appears, had 
been discovered long before the Norwegians settled there ; as many 
relics, in the nature of bells, books in the Irish language, and wooden 
crosses, were discovered by Flok, in different parts of the island : so 
that the Irish seem first to have set foot upon that isle. The Icelandic 
■chronicles also relate that, about these times, the Northmen discovered 
a great country to the west of Ireland, which account has by many 
been deemed apocryphal : for, if . true, they must be held to be some 
of the early discoverers of America ; but it seems pretty clear that they 
made their way to Greenland in the end of the tenth century. The 
settlement effected in Greenland, though comprising but a small popu- 
lation, seems to have been very prosperous in these early times in 
mercantile affairs. They had bishops and priests from Europe ; and 
paid the pope, as an annual tribute, twenty-six hundred pounds of wal- 
rus-teeth, as tithe and Peter's pence. The voyage from Greenland to 
Iceland and Norway, and back again, consumed five years ; and upon 
one occasion the government of Norway did not hear of the death of 
the bishop of Greenland until six years after it had occurred ; so that the 
art of navigation, after all, must have been in these times but at a very 
low pitch. 

Greenland seems to have been called Viinland, or Finland, from the 
vijjes which were discerned by the early discoverers as abounding in 
this country ; and, in fact, wild vines are found growing in all the nor- 
thern districts of America. This Viinland is, however, •supposed by 
some persons to have been Newfoundland ; and if so, America must in 
reality have been discovered as much as five centuries before Columbus 
sailed so far as the West Indies ; and moreover, it has been supposed 
that the many traditions about the west, existing in the time of Co- 
lumbus, first set him to prosecute the idea of discovering another 
world. 



492 MODERN HISTORY. 

The impulse which the cultivation of ancient learning had received 
in Europe was greatly strengthened by the downfall of Constantinople, 
■which drov^e the most learned Greeks into exile ; they sought refuge for 
the most part in Italy, and the libraries of that peninsula became the de- 
positories of what remained of the ancient treasures of Greek literature 
and philosophy. It was hence that the first stimulus was given to the 
study of the Greek language in Europe. Translators of the Greek au- 
thors, and commentators upon them, began to multiply ; and the rapid 
progress of the art of printing gave an additional impulse by the facili- 
ties it aflbrded for the dissemination of learning. The belief that there 
existed a fourth division of the globe, larger than any yet discovered, 
had been encouraged by some of the ancient philosophers ; and it had 
been so generally received, that two eminent fathers of the church, St. 
Augustine and Lactantius, had zealously labored to refute the theory, 
believing it inconsistent with the doctrines of Christianity. With the 
cultivation of Greek literature the old notion was revived, and at the 
same time the rapid development of the spirit of maritime discovery in- 
duced several nations, but especially the Portuguese, to search out new 
and unknown lands. 

The Canaries, or Fortunate islands, were the first discovery that fol- 
lowed the introduction of the mariner's compass ; they became known 
to the Spaniards early in the fourteenth century, but no regular attempt 
was made for their colonization. 

In the early part of the fifteenth century, John I., king of Portugal, 
had effected some very important conquests over the Moors ; in which he 
had been very materially assisted by his son, Prince Henry, who being an 
able and active-minded cavalier, took delight rather in the more solid 
glories of learning and science, than in the fame of war, in which he 
had, however, of late so highly distinguished himself. Upon the cessa- 
tion of hostilities he retired to the promontory of St. Vincent, and lived 
at the seaport town of Sagres, which he had himself founded, where he 
cultivated the science of astronomy, for the purpose of making it avail- 
able to the mariner, in guiding him over the ocean, when he had quitted 
the servile tracking of the shore. He, in fact, established a naval col- 
lege, and an observatory. He engaged to his assistance all the best- 
informed men of his time ; and the point to which he especially directed 
his attention, was the practicability of sailing round Africa, and of thus 
reaching the East Indies. Prince Henry did not live to see the whole 
of his views accomplished ; but the many minor discoveries which were 
effected under his auspices, laid up a fund of knowledge and experience 
for succeeding generations to profit by. Maps Avere formed under his 
superintendence : by which means all the geographical knowledge re- 
specting the earth was brought together ; the different parts were marked 
out ; and the rocks, coasts, and quicksands, to be avoided, were all noted 
down. - 

The southernmost cape of Africa known in those days was Cape Non, 
which received this appellation from the idea that it was utterly impos- 
sible to get beyond this cape ; but the officers of Henry having at length 
doubled it, found Cape Bojador in the distance, whose violent currents 
and raging breakers, running for miles out to sea, seemed a barrier 
which could not even be approached with safety by mariners, who were- 



THE STATES-SYSTEM OF EUROPE. 493 

in the habit of coasting along the shore. Seamen now began to be 
more alarmed than ever at the idea of the torrid zone, and to propagate 
the notion, that he who should double Cape Bojador would never re- 
turn. At length this awful cape was passed by ; the region of the 
tropics was penetrated, and divested of its fancied terrors ; the river 
Senegal was observed, the greater part of the African coast, from Cape 
Blanco to Cape de Verde, was explored, and the Cape de Verde and 
the Azore islands were discovered ; the Madeiras and Canaries having 
been visited for the first time by the Spaniards some years before. This 
prince died in the year 1473, after having obtained a papal bull, investing 
the crown of Portugal with sovereign authority over all the lands it 
might discover in the Atlantic, to India inclusive. 

The passion for discovery languished after the death of Prince Henry, 
but it was revived by his grand-nephew. King John II., with additional 
ardor (a. d. 1481). In his reign, the Portuguese, for the first time, 
crossed the equator, and for the first time beheld the stars of a new 
hemisphere. They now discovered the error of the ancients, respect- 
ing the torrid zone, and practically refuted the common belief that the 
continent of Africa widened toward the south, for they beheld it sensibly 
contracting and bending toward the east. The hopes inspired by this 
discovery, induced the Portuguese monarch to send ambassadors in 
search of an unknown potentate supposed to profess the Christian re- 
ligion, by whose aid it was hoped that a lucrative trade might be opened 
with India, and the progress of the true faith secured. 

Early in the thirteenth century, reports were prevalent in Europe of 
some great potentate in a remote part of Asia having embraced the 
Christian faith.* In consequence, the pope. Innocent IV., sent two 
monks to preach Christianity in the Mongolian court (a. d. 1246) ; and 
soon after, St. Louis of France employed the celebrated Rubruquis to 
seek the aid of the supposed Christian sovereign, who was commonly 
called Prester John, in the crusade that he contemplated. A Venetian, 
named Marco Polo, visited the most distant parts of Asia (a. d. 1263), 
and penetrated to Pekin, the capital of China. He was followed by 
Sir John Mandeville,'an Englishman (a. d. 1322), and the narrations 
of both, though deficient in accuracy of information, contributed to keep 
alive the feelings of interest and curiosity which had been excited in 
Europe. 

While the Portuguese monarch's emissaries were engaged in a hope- 
less search for Prester John, and the more useful task of investigating 
the state of navigation in the Indian seas, an expedition from Lisbon, 
conducted by Bartholomew Diaz, had actually discovered the southern 
extremity of the African continent (a. d. 1483). A storm preventing 
him from pursuing his career, he named the promontory that terminated 
his voyage " the cape of Tempests ;" but King John, aware of the vast 
importance of the discovery, called it " the cape of Good Hope." At 
the same time letters were received from the monks who had been sent 
overland, in which the practicability of reaching the East Indies, by 
sailing round Africa, was strenuously maintained. But the intervening 

* It is probable that this error arose from some inaccurate description of Budd- 
hism. Most persons are aware that the rituals and ceremonials of the Buddhist 
priests bear a striking resemblance to those of the Roman Catholic church. 



494 MODERN HISTORY. 

discovery of America diverted, for a season, men's minds from this 
voy-dgc round Africa ; and fifteen years had nearly elapsed before Vasco 
de Gama, having rounded the cape of Good Hope, reached India, and 
anchored in the harbor of Calicut, on the coast of Malabar (May 22, 
A. D. 1498). 

Among the adventurers who flocked to join the Portuguese from 
every part of Europe was Christopher Colon, or Columbus, a native of 
Genoa. The narrative of Marco Polo had led to the belief that the 
extent of India, beyond the Ganges, was greater than that of the rest 
of Asia ; and, as the spherical figure of the earth was known, he was 
naturally led to the conclusion that India might more easily be reached 
by sailing westward, than by the long and tedious circumnavigation of 
Africa. After enduring many disappointments, Columbus obtained a 
small armament, from Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain ; and, on the 
third of August, a. d. 1492, sailed from the little port of Palos, in An- 
dalusia, to discover a new world. 

During the long voyage, the crew of Columbus was more than once 
on the point of mutinying and turning back in despair ; at length land 
was discovered on the twelfth of October, and Columbus found himself 
soon in the midst of that cluster of islands, which, in consequence of 
the original error about the extent of India, were named the West 
Indies. On his return to Europe, he was received by Ferdinand and 
Isabella with the highest honors ; a second expedition was prepared 
to extend and secure his discoveries, but, before his departure, applica- 
tion Avas made to the pope for a grant of these new dominions, and 
Alexander VI. shared all the unknown regions of the earth inhabited 
by infidels between the Spaniards and Portuguese, fixing as their com- 
mon boundary an imaginary line drawn from pole to pole, one hundred 
leagues to the west of the Azores, and assigning all west of that line to 
Spain, and all east of it to Portugal. 

The colonies established by the Spaniards differed from those 
founded by other European countries. The Spaniards were not a tra- 
ding people, indeed ignorance of the advantages that result from com- 
merce has been always a characteristic of that nation ; the precious 
metals were the only objects that excited their attention, and for a series 
of years they devoted themselves exclusively to the exploration of 
mines. It was only when the augmentation of the European popula- 
tion, and the diminished returns from the mines, forced their attention 
to agriculture, that they began to pay any attention to raising colonial 
produce. In consequence of these restricted views, the commercial 
and colonial policy of Spain was always the worst possible ; it was 
fettered by monopolies, exclusions, and restrictions, equally injurious 
to the parent state and its dependancies ; and perseverance in this erro- 
neous system is a principal cause of the low state of civilization both 
in Spain and its late colonies. 

Not only the Dutch, but the English and French, were roused to 
emulation by the success of the Spaniards and Portuguese. In the 
reign of Henry VII., Cabot, a mariner of Bristol, made some consid- 
erable additions to maritime knowledge ; but it was not until the time 
of Elizabeth that regular plans of colonization were formed. 

The growth of commerce in this age was very rapid, but there ap- 



THE STATES-SYSTEM OF' EUROPE. 495 

peared still room for further discoveries until the globe was circumnav- 
igated by Magellan (a. d. 1521). From that time the attention of na- 
tions began to be directed more to completing old discoveries than to 
the search for new lands. The navies of Europe began to assume a 
formidable aspect ; manufactures multiplied, and states, previously 
poor, became suddenly rich. Sovereigns and governments began to 
direct their attention to commerce, justly persuaded that mercantile 
wealth is equally the source of the prosperity and glory of nations. 

Section II. — Origin of the Reformation. 

The extravagant claims of the popes to temporal, as well as spirit- 
ual supremacy, had been resisted by several men of learning, whose 
works did not die with them, but continued to exercise a powerful, 
though secret effect, on succeeding generations. This repugnance to 
ecclesiastical domination was greatly increased by the scandalous 
schism at the close of the fourteenth and commencement of the fifteenth 
century. Two or three popes reigning at the same time, excommuni- 
cating each other, appealing to the laity for support, compelled men to 
exercise the right of private judgment, and directed attention to the 
ecclesiastical abuses that had produced such unhappy fruits. The par- 
tial reforms, or rather attempts at reformation, made by the councils of 
Constance and Basil, spread the disrespect for the Romish see still 
wider ; their deposition of contending pontiffs taught men that there 
was a jurisdiction in the church superior to the papal power, their fee- 
ble efforts to correct abuse brought the. evils prominently forward, and 
left them unamended to meet the public gaze. While this dissatisfac- 
tion was hourly increasing, the papal chair was filled successively by 
two pontiffs, whose career of unscrupulous guilt was sufficient to dis- 
gust even a less enlightened age. Alexander VI., profligate in private 
life, cruel and tyrannical in his public administration, was followed by 
Julius II., whose overbearing ambition led him to trample on the very 
semblance of justice and moderation when they interfered with the 
success of his schemes. The sovereigns of France and Germany, 
alternately engaged in active hostilities with these heads of the church, 
could not prevent their subjects from ridiculing papal pretensions, and 
assailing papal vices. Nor were these scandals confined to the papa- 
cy ; the licentious lives of the ecclesiastics in Italy and Germany, the 
facility with which they obtained pardons for enormous crimes, their 
exorbitant wealth, their personal immunities, and their encroachments 
on the rights of the laity, had given just offence ; and this was the 
more sensibly felt in Germany, because most of the great benefices 
were in the hands of foreigners. 

When men's minds were everywhere filled with disgust at the exist- 
ing administration of ecclesiastical affairs, and eager for some change, 
a dispute, trivial in its origin, kindled a flame, which rapidly spread 
over Europe, destroying all the strongholds that had been so laboriously 
erected for the security of tyranny and superstition. Leo X., on his 
accession to the papal chair, found the treasury of the church exhausted 
by the ambitious projects of his predecessors, Alexander VI. and Ju- 
lius II Generous in his disposition, magnificent in his habits of life, 



496 MODERN HISTORY. 

eager for the aggrandizement of his family, the princely Medicis, he 
could not practise the economy necessary to recruit his finances, and 
he therefore had recourse to every device that his ingenuity could sug- 
gest to raise money for the splendid designs he contemplated. Among 
these he introduced an extensive sale of indulgences, wliich often had 
proved a source of large profits to the church. 

The origin of indulgences has been sometimes misrepresented by 
eminent writers ; and as we have now reached a period when their 
abuse produced the most decisive blow which the papacy had yet re- 
ceived, it will be necessary to take a brief survey of their history. In 
the primitive church it was customary that those who had committed 
any heinous ofl'ence should perform a public penance before the con- 
gregation, " that their souls might be saved in the day of the Lord ; 
and that others, admonished by their example, might be the more 
afraid to offend." In process of time rich and noble offenders became 
anxious to avoid public exposure, and private penances or a pecuniary 
compensation were substituted for the former discipline. On this 
change the popes founded a new doctrine, which, combined Avith the 
commutation of indulgences, opened the way for profitable traffic. 
They taught the world that all the good works of the saints, over and 
above those which were necessary to their own justification, are de- 
posited, together with the infinite merits of Jesus Christ, in one inex- 
haustible treasury. The keys of this were committed to St. Peter and 
his successors the popes, who may open it at pleasure, and by trans- 
ferring a portion of this superabundant merit to any particular person 
for service in a crusade, or for a sum of money, may convey to him 
either the pardon of his own sins, or a release for any one, in whose 
happiness he is interested, from the pains of purgatory. These indul- 
gences were first issued to those who joined personally in the expedi- 
tions for the recovery of the Holy Land ; subsequently to those who 
hired a soldier for that purpose ; and finally to all who gave money for 
accomplishing any work Avhich it pleased the popes to describe as good 
and pious. . Julius II. bestow^ed indulgences on all who contributed to 
the building of St. Peter's at Rome, and Leo continued the traffic under 
the same pretence. 

Different orders of monks derived considerable profit from the sale 
of indulgences, and great indignation was excited among the Augus- 
tinian friars when the monopoly of the trade in Germany was granted 
to their rivals, the Dominicans. Tetzel, the chief agent in retailing 
them, was a man of licentious morals, but of an active spirit, and re- 
markable for his noisy and popular eloquence.* He executed his com- 

• The following is the form of absolution used by Tetzel : — " May our Lord 
Jesus Christ have mercy upon thee, and absolve thee by all the merits of his most 
holy passion ; and I, by his authority, that of his blessed apostles, Peter and 
Paul, and of the most holy pope, granted and committed to me in these parts, do 
absolve thee first from all ecclesiastical censures, in whatever manner they haA-e 
been incurred, and then from all thy sins, transgressions, and excesses, how enor- 
mous soever they may be, even from such as are reserved for the cognizance of 
the holy see : and as far as the keys of the holy church extend, I remit to you all 
punishment which you deserve in purgatory on their account ; and I restore you 
to the holy sacraments of the church, to the unity of the faithful, and to that in- 
nocence and pvirity which you possessed at baptism ; so that Avhen you die, the 



THE STATES-SYSTEM OF EUROPE. 497 

mission with little regard to discretion or decency, describing tlie merits 
of the indulgences in such a blasphemous style of exaggeration, that 
all men of sense were disgusted, and even the ignorant began to sus- 
pect the worth of pardons for sins dispensed by men whose profligacy 
was notorious and disgusting. The princes and nobles of Germany 
were enraged by witnessing the large sums of money drained from 
their vassals to support the lavish expenditure of the pontiff", and many 
of the higher ranks of the clergy viewed with* jealousy the favor dis- 
played to the monastic orders. 

Martin Luther, an Augustinian friar of great learning and indom- 
itable courage, had prepared his mind for the noble career on which he 
was about to enter by a diligent study of the Holy Scriptures ; the 
question of indulgences early engaged his attention, and he convinced 
himself that the Bible, which he began to consider as the great stand- 
ard of theological truth, afforded no countenance to a practice equally 
subversive of faith and morals. Having vainly sought to procure the 
suppression of the traffic from the archbishop of Magdeburgh, he ap- 
pealed to the suffrages of men of letters, by publishing ninety-five 
theses condemning the sale of indulgences as contrary to reason and 
Scripture. 

Much has been written respecting the personal character of this 
daring reformer ; his boldness frequently degenerated into violence, his 
opposition to the corrupt discipline of the church sometimes passed the 
bounds of decency ; but these errors arose from the circumstances of 
his position ; he was in fact the representative of the public opinion of 
his age ; and before we pass too severe a censure on the aberrations 
that sully his career, we must remember that the age had scarcely 
emerged from barbarism, and that the human mind, as yet unaccustomed 
to freedom, when suddenly delivered from habitual restraint, necessarily 
rushed into some extravagances. While hostile writers describe Luther 
as the vilest of sinners, or the purest of saints, they forget that there 
is a previous question of some importance, the standard by which his 
conduct must be measured. We have no right to expect that Luther, 
engaged in a struggle for life and death, should display the moderation 
of a modem controversialist, or to look for the intelligence of the nine- 
teenth century at the commencement of the sixteenth. Remembering 
the school in which he was educated, it is reasonable to believe that 
many monkish absurdities must long have been perceptible in his words 
and actions ; we need not, therefore, deny that he was sometimes 
wrong, we need not disguise nor palliate his errors, for the cause which 
he promoted depends not on the character of him or of any other per- 
son. His adversaries, however, have never ventured to deny his cour- 
age, his sincerity, his integrity of purpose, and his superiority to all 
pecuniary considerations. He lived and died poor, though Rome would 
have purchased his return by wealth and dignity, though the leading 
reformers were ready to reward his perseverance by any grants he 
might have required. 

gates of punishment shall be shut, and the gates of the paradise of delight shall 
be opened ; and if you shall not die at present, this grace shall remain in full 
force when you are at the point of death. In the name of the Father, and of the 
Son, and of the Holy Ghost." 

32 



498 MODERN HISTORY. 

Lutlier comprehended the state of public opinion ; his publications 
were the manifestation of the revolt of reason against authority, rather 
than a thesis in his theology. Ilis perseverance^ the very violence and 
grossness of his invectives, showed that he felt human reason to be on 
his side. If he had not at first calculated the effect of his first blow, 
he showed great sagacity in measuring its results. Numerous echoes 
responded to his summons ; Zuinglius began to preach in Switzerland, 
and the reform engaged the attention of enlightened men of letters ; 
among others, the celebrated Erasmus pointed out corruptions in the 
church, though he had not moral courage enough to separate himself 
from it openly. The papal party accepted Luther's challenge, fully 
believing that the slightest exertion of power would at once stifle op- 
position (a. d. 1520). Leo X., too indolent to examine the state of the 
public mind, and too proud to trouble himself about the opposition of a 
simple friar, published a bull condemning the theses of Luther as he- 
retical and impious (a. d. 1520). The bold reformer at once declared 
open war against the papacy, by appealing to a general council, and 
burning the bull of excommunication in presence of a vast multitude at 
Wittemberg. He treated the volumes of the canon law with the same 
contumely, and justified his action in a manner more offensive to the 
advocates of the papacy than the action itself. Having collected from 
the canon law some of the most extravagant propositions v^ith regard to 
the plenitude and omnipotence of the papal power, as well as the sub- 
ordination of all secular jurisdiction to the authority of the holy see, he 
published these, with a commentary, pointing out the impiety of such 
tenets, and their evident tendency to subvert all civil governments. 
From this time, the interests of princes were even more deeply en- 
gaged on the side of Luther than popular reason. In fact, as a Romish 
historian has remarked, "policy became more Lutheran than religous 
reform !" Sovereigns naturally received with enthusiasm a doctrine 
which placed at their disposal the enormous wealth of the clergy, and 
gave them mastery over more riches than could be acquired by the 
most formidable force, or the most sanguinary combats. Thus, in Ger- 
many, Luther, who could at first with difficulty procure a horse when 
he had to appear before the diet, soon counted princes and entire nations 
among his disciples. Frederick the Wise, duke of Saxony, was the 
first among his converts, and the most powerful of his protectors. 

It is assuredly very inconsistent in the advocates of the Romish 
■church, to expose the mixture of secular and religious motives in the 
active supporters of the Reformation ; for the abuses which they con- 
demned were equally temporal and spiritual. Indeed, it is very obvi- 
ous, that the corruptions of doctrine were introduced to serve the politi- 
.cal purposes of the papacy ; a sordid desire for wealth was the founda- 
tion of the system of indulgences, which first provoked the revolt ; an 
ambitious lust for power had caused the subversion of the independence 
of the national churches, which it was the earliest object of the Luther- 
ans to restore. Politics influenced the enemies of the papacy only be- 
cause popery was itself a political system, and because in the struggle 
that now menaced its existence, it had at once recourse to secular aux- 
iliaries. 

John Calvin, another reformer, was a follower of Zuinglius ; he was 



• • 



THE STATES-SYSTEM OF EUROPE. 



499 



a native of Noyon, in Picardy, and began first to publish his opinions 
at Paris (a. d. 1532). Driven thence by the persecutions of the French 
clergy, he removed to Strasburgh, where he soon rendered himself so 
eminent by his talents as a writer and a preacher, that the name of 
Calvinists were given to that section of the reformed congregations 
which had at first been named Zuinglians. 

Calvin was subsequently invited to Geneva, where he organized a 
system of church-government on the presbyterian principle ; and under 
the pretence of providing for purity of morals and the continuance of 
sound doctrine, he contrived to transfer no small portion of the power 
of the state to the ecclesiastical courts. Unfortunately, these courts 
soon began to emulate the tyranny of the Romish inquisition, by per- 
secuting those who differed from the standard of religious opinion 
adopted by the church of Geneva, and an unfortunate Spaniard, named 
Servetus, was burned alive for publishing some obnoxious doctrines on 
the subject of the Trinity. The differences which arose between the 
followers of Luther and Calvin, the obstinacy manifested by each of 
the parties in support of their own opinions, and the virulence with 
which they inveighed against each other, sadly checked the progress 
of the Reformation, and produced a reaction which enabled the court 
of Rome to recover several countries which it had very nearly lost. 

Although much of the early success of the Reformation was owing 
to the general progress of intelligence and scientific research, there 
were many among the leading reformers who viewed all secular learn- 
ing with suspicion, and thus enabled their adversaries to identify their 
cause with ignorance and barbarism. This was a serious injury to the 
progress of improvement, for there were many like Erasmus who would 
gladly have joined in overthrowing the monkish corruptions which had 
defaced Christianity, but who were alarmed at the prospect of being 
subjected to the bigoted caprice of the presbyteries and other bodies 
which began to claim and exercise a power of control over opinion in 
most of the cities where the reformed religion was established. 
Whether the Romish church would have displayed a greater spirit of 
concession, had the reformers exhibited more moderation in their de- 
mands for innovation, may be questioned, but it is certain that the papal 
party could not have made so effectual a struggle as it maintained, had 
it not taken advantage of the violence, the imprudence, and the dissen- 
sions of the reformers themselves. 

The rapid progress of the new doctrines was attempted to be check- 
ed by the diet of Spires (a. d. 1529), where a decree was promulgated, 
forbidding any innovation until the assembling of a general council. 
Luther's friends and followers protested against this decree, and hence 
the professors of the reformed religion received the common name of 
Protestants. Soon afterward they presented a general confession of 
their faith to the emperor at Augsburgh ; but unfortunately this cele- 
brated document showed that there were irreconcilable differences be- 
tween the Calvinistic and Lutheran sections of the reformers. 

As the struggle, once begun, was maintained with great obstinacy, 
it soon led to serious political convulsions. Half of Germany, Den- 
mark, Sweden, Norway, Prussia, and Livonia, adopted the doctrines of 
Liither, as taught in the. confession of A.ugsbiirg. England, Scotland, 



Kao 



MODERN HISTORY. 



Holland, and Switzerland, embraced the tenets of Zuinglius and Cal- 
vin ; while efforts to establish similar principles were made in France, 
Bohemia, Hungar}', and Poland. 

The means taken to end the controversy only aggravated the evil. 
It was proposed that the entire matter of dispute should be submitted 
to a general council, but it was impossible to determine the basis on 
which it should be convoked. After much delay, a council was assem- 
bled at Trent (a. d. 1545), whose sittings were continued, with some 
interruption, for several years ; but when at the close (a. d. 1563), its 
decrees were published, they were rejected, not only by the protestants, 
but by many catholic princes, especially the king of France, as subver- 
sive of the independence of national churches, and destructive of the 
lawful authority of sovereigns. 

Section III. — History of the Negotiations and Wars respecting Italy. 

In the midst of the civil and ecclesiastical changes produced by the 
progress of intelligence, a system of policy for regulating the external 
relations of states was gradually formed, and attention began to be paid 
to what was called the Balance of Power ; that is, the arrangement of 
the European states in such a system that the weak might be protected 
from the aggressions of the powerful and the ambitious. This system 
first began in Italy, which was divided into a number of petty states ; 
its chief members were the dutchy of Milan, and the republic of Venice, 
in the north ; the republic of Florence, and the states of the church, in 
the centre ; and the kingdom of Naples, in the south. Encouraged by 
the distracted condition of the peninsula, foreigners were induced to 
attempt its conquest ; and the kings of France and Spain, and the em- 
perors of Germany, made this country the battle-field of rival ambition. 
After the expulsion of the house of Anjou from Italy, it was estab- 
lished in the petty principality of Provence, where the graces of courtly 
refinement and light literature were more sedulously cultivated than in 
any other part of Europe. Rene, the last monarch of the line, the 
father of the heroic English queen, Margaret of Anjou, had the prudence 
not tp hazard his security by mingling in the troubled politics of France 
and Burgundy, but amused himself and his subjects by floral games 
and poetic contests, heedless of the sanguinary wars that convulsed the 
surrounding states. 

On Rene's death Provence became a county under the French crown, 
and was justly deemed a most important acquisition (a. d. 1481). But 
with the substantial dominions of the house of Anjou, the French mon- 
archs also inherited its pretensions to the thrones of Naples and Sicily. 
Louis XI. was far too prudent a monarch to waste his strength on the 
assertion of such illusory claims ; he directed his attention to a far 
more useful object, the establishment of the royal power over the great 
vassals of the crown, several of whom possessed greater real power 
than the nominal sovereign. 

Charles VIII. departed from his father's prudent line of policy; in- 
stead of securing the royal authority at home, he directed his attention 
to foreign conquests, and resolved to assert his imaginary claims to the 
throne of Naples. He was instigated also by the invitations of Ludov- 



THE STATES-SYSTEM OF EUROPE. 501 

ico Sforza, duke of Milan, and by some romantic hope of overthrowing 
the Turkish empire. A French army crossed the Alps (a. d. 1494), 
and marched through the peninsula without encountering any effective 
opposition. Rome, Florence, and Naples, submitted to the conqueror, 
and Ferdinand II. fled to the island of Ischia. But during the progress 
of the expedition, a league was formed for the expulsion of all foreign- 
ers from Italy ; the Venetian republic was the moving power of the 
confederacy, in which the pope and even Sforza were associated, while 
the emperor Maximilian, and Ferdinand of Spain, secretly favored its 
designs. Alarmed by the coming danger, Charles, leaving half his 
army to protect his conquests, led the remainder back to France. He 
encountered the Venetians on his road, and gained a complete victory ; 
but the forces he left in Italy were compelled to capitulate, and Fer- 
dinand II. was restored to the throne of Naples. 

Charles VIII. was bent on vengeance, and the distracted state of the 
peninsula gave him hope of success ; but before he could complete his 
arrangements for a second expedition, he was snatched away by a sud- 
den death (a. d. 1498). The duke of Orleans, Louis XII., in addition 
to his cousin's claims on Naples, inherited from his grandmother a title 
to the dutchy of Milan. But the French monarch, before undertaking 
such an extensive conquest, deemed it necessary to. strengthen himself 
by alliances with the republic of Venice, Pope Alexander VI., and 
Ferdinand, king of Spain. Thus strengthened, he found little difficulty 
in overrunning Italy; Milan was captured (a. d. 1499), and the turbu- 
lent Sforza, after vain attempts to re-establish his power, died in cap- 
tivity. Naples was next attacked ; Ferdinand of Spain had entered 
into alliance with the Neapolitan monarch Frederick ; and his invader, 
Louis, secretly determined to cheat both. By his aid the kingdom of 
Naples was subdued, and the dupe Frederic imprisoned for life (a. d. 
1501) ; but no sooner was the conquest completed, than the Spaniard 
prepared to secure the whole of the spoil. Aided by the abilities of 
Gonsalvo de Cordova, Ferdinand succeeded in expelling the French 
from Naples ; and the kingdom was finally confirmed to him on his 
marriage with Germaine de Foix, niece of Louis XII., with whom the 
French monarch on the receipt of a million of ducats, assigned over 
his claims on Naples as a dowry (a. d. 1505). 

Italy, however, was soon destined to have its tranquillity disturbed 
by the grasping ambition of Pope Julius II. Anxious to recover the 
dependencies of the holy see which had been seized by Venice, he 
organized a confederacy against that republic, of which he was himself 
the head ; while Louis, Maximilian, and Ferdinand, were active mem- 
bers (a. d. 1509). The republic would have been ruined, had the 
union of the confederates been sincere and permanent ; but, owing to 
the mutual jealousies of its enemies, it escaped when brought to the 
verge of destruction. The impetuous valor of the French disconcerted 
all the measures the Venetians had taken to preserve their territories ; 
and the total ruin of their army at Aguadello (a. d. 1509), left them 
wholly without defence. Julius seized all the towns which they held 
in the ecclesiastical territories ; Ferdinand added all their seaports in 
Apulia to his Neapolitan dominions ; but at the moment when the dis- 
memberment of the republic seemed inevitable, the mutual jealousies of 



502 MODERN HISTORY. 

Louis and Maximilian dissolved the confederacy. The Venetians ap- 
peased the pope and Ferdinand, by large concessions, which were the 
more readily accepted, as Julius had now formed the design of expel- 
ling all foreigners from Italy, especially the French, of whose valor and 
anil)ition he was justly afraid. 

From the fragments of the league of Cambray, a new and stronger 
confederacy was formed against France, and Henry VIII., who had 
just ascended the throne of England, was engaged to divert the atten- 
tion of Louis from Italy, by an invasion of his dominions (a. d. 1511). 
The master-stroke, however, of the pope's policy was winning over the 
Swiss, whose mercenary infantry was the best body of troops then used 
in war. Louis XII. resisted all the efforts of this formidable conspir- 
acy with xmdaunted fortitude. Hostilities were carried on during sev- 
eral campaigns in Italy, on the frontiers of Spain, and in Picardy, with 
alternate success. But weakened by the loss of his allies, Florence 
and Navarre, of which the former having been subjected to the Medicis, 
joined the league (a. t>. 1512), and the latter was conquered and annex- 
ed to Spain, Louis would probably have been reduced to great distress, 
had not the death of Pope Julius (a. d. 1513) come to his relief. Leo, 
of the princely house of the Medicis, succeeded to the papacy, and im- 
mediately made peace with France. Spain, England, and the empire, 
followed this example, and the war terminated with the loss of every- 
thing which the French had acquired in Italy, except the castle of 
Milan and a few inconsiderable towns in that dutchy. 

Section IV. — The History of Burgundy under the Princes of the House of 

Valois. 

No feudal state was more important in the middle ages than the 
dutchy of Burgundy, and its history is the best calculated to illustrate 
the political condition of states, and the relations between powerful 
princes and their sovereign, produced by the institutions of feudalism. 
At the same time, the history of Burgundy must in some degree be 
regarded as an episode in the general annals of Europe, for though its 
existence was brilliant, it left no permanent trace behind, save the re- 
sentment between the houses of France and Austria, arising from the 
division of its spoils. 

The dutchy of Burgundy lapsed to the crown of France soon after 
the liberation of King John from the captivity in which he had been 
detained by the English after the battle of Poictiers. He resolved to 
bestow this rich inheritance upon his third son, Philip, sumamed the 
Hardy, who had fought gallantly by his side in the unfortunate battle 
of Poictiers, though only sixteen years of age, and who when John was 
taken prisoner had accompanied him to England to share his captivity. 
John's bequest was honorably executed by his son and successor, 
Charles V. of France ; he gave to Philip the investiture of the dutchy 
with all legal forms, and on the 2d of June, 1364, the new duke entered 
upon his inheritance ; he soon afterward married the only daughter of 
the count of Flanders, and thus became involved in the wars which that 
nobleman waged against the insurgent citizens of Ghent, and at the 
same time he actively assisted his brother against the Enghsh. 

After a long war, in which the burgesses of the free cities of Flan- 



THE STATES-SYSTEM OF EUROPE. 503 

ders sustained witli great bravery their municipal franchises against the 
feudal chivalry of their count and his allies, the insurgents suffered a 
severe defeat at Rosebecque, in wrhich their gallant leader, the younger 
Artavelde, was slain. Philip took advantage of the crisis to mediate a 
peace betvi^een the count of Flanders and the revolted cities, which was 
finally concluded oq very equitable conditions. When tranquillity was 
restored, the duke directed his whole attention to the affairs of France, 
and during the reign of his unfortunate nephew, Charles VI., took a 
principal share in the government of that kingdom. While he was thus 
engaged, ambassadors arrived from the king of Hungary to announce 
that the Turks not only menaced his territories with ruin, but avowed 
their determination to subdue the whole of Christendom. Sultan Ba- 
yezld openly vaunted that his cavalry should trample on the cross in 
every European city, and that he would, himself feed his horses on the 
altar of St. Peter's in Rome. 

Duke Philip eagerly seconded the solicitations of the Hungarian am- 
bassadors : under his auspices a crusade was proclaimed ; the great 
body of French chivalry and all the young nobility embraced the proj- 
ect with the greatest ardor, and the young count de Nevers, heir of 
Burgundy, was appointed to command the expedition (1396). 

Sigismund of Luxemburg, king of Hungary, was far from being grat- 
ified by the arrival of such auxiliaries. Bayezld, engaged in suppres- 
sing some petty insurrections in his Asiatic dominions, had concluded^ 
a truce with the Hungarians, and the prudent king was far from being 
disposed to revive a war with so dangerous an enemy. His remon- 
strances were wasted on the proud chivalry of France ; the count de 
Nevers at once crossed the Turkish frontier, and after capturing some 
places of minor importance, laid siege to Nicopolis. In the hurry of 
their advance the French had left their battering artillery behind ; they 
were therefore compelled to blockade the place in the hope of reducing 
it by famine. 

So little vigilance was exhibited by the Christians, that the garrison 
of Nicopolis had intelligence of the near approach of Bayezid before 
the Christians knew that he had commenced his march. The news 
that the sultan was close at hand fiUed their camp with confusion ; the 
siege of NicopoUs was precipitately raised, and in the first alarm the 
knights massacred all their prisoners, forgetting that the chances of war 
might expose them to a terrible retribution. They, however, were all 
eager to come to an immediate engagement ; the Hungarians vainly 
advised them not to hazard a battle until they had ascertained the num- 
ber of the Turks, and the tactics which the sultan intended to employ. 
Some of the more aged and experienced warriors seconded this advice, 
but they were overborne by the clamors of the young knights, whose 
ardor was far too great to be moderated by prudence. 

Bayezid had arranged his troops in the form of a crescent, with the 
convex side turned toward the enemy : he expected thus to induce the 
Christians to attack his centre, by gradually withdrawing which he 
might reverse the form of his line, and thus getting his enemies into 
the concavity of the crescent, avail himself of his vast superiority of 
numbers to overwhelm them on both flanks. The Christians fell into 
the snare, and were surroimded. The Hungarian infantry, left exposed 



504 MODERN HISTORY. 

by the rapid advance of the French knights, was broken by a charge 
of a select body of the Turkish cavalry ; Sigismund and the grand mas- 
ter of Rhodes escaped in a small boat, leaving their allies to their fate ; 
the palatine of Hungary alone remained with a small body of his coun- 
tr}Tnen to rescue the French from the consequences of their rashness. 

Friends and foes have equally celebrated the desperate valoi of the 
French knights on this fatal day. The Turks at first gave no quarter ; 
it was late in the day before Bayezid commanded them to make pris- 
oners, and even then he was induced to do so by no feelings of mercy, 
but by his desire to have an opportunity of revenging the fate of the 
Turks Avho had been slaughtered in the camp before Nicopolis. 

Bayezid recognised Sir .Tames de Helly (one of the prisoners) as one 
of his old companions in arms, and ordered him to be set at liberty by 
his captors. He then commanded him to point out Avho were the 
greatest lords among the Christian captives, that they might be spared 
for the sake of their ransoms. The count de Nevers and several other 
princes were pointed out to the sultan as " of the noblest blood in 
France, nearly related to the king, and willing to pay for their liberty a 
great sum of" money." The sultan said, " Let these alone be spared, 
and all the other prisoners put to death, to free the country from them, 
and that others may take example from their fate." 

Heaiy taxes were laid on the states of Burgundy to raise the enor- 
mous sum which the sultan demanded as a ransom for the heir of the 
dutchy. To increase the difficulty of the transaction, the king of Hun- 
gary refused to allow such rich treasures to pass through his dominions 
for the purpose of strengthening his enemies. It was not until after the 
lapse of several months that a Genoese merchant, named Pellegrini, in 
the island of Chios, undertook to arrange the terms of ransom ; and the 
sultan more readily accepted the security of a commercial house, which 
could only exist by credit, than the plighted oaths of kings and princes, 
which he knew were too often most flagrantly and shamelessly violated. 

While the count de Nevers was thus engaged in the east, his brother- 
in-law, the count of Ostrevant, aided by his father, Albert, duke of Ba- 
varia, was carrying on a war scarcely less destructive against the Pris- 
ons . These barbarous tribes sent out piratical expeditions, which rav- 
aged the coasts of Holland, Flanders, and sometimes of France ; the 
naval forces maintained to keep them in check were found very expen- 
sive, and not always efficacious, so that the Flemings and Hollanders 
supplicated their princes to attack the Prisons in their native fastnesses. 
An immense armament was prepared for this hazardous enterprise ; 
auxiliaries Avere obtained from England, France, and western Germa- 
ny, while crowds of Hollanders and Flemings hastened to volunteer 
their sendees against enemies who had been their constant plague. 

In about five weeks after the landing, winter set in with unusual se- 
verity, and at an earlier period than had been known for many years 
before. The duke was forced to evacuate the country and disband his 
army ; but about three years after he took advantage of the civil dissen- 
sions among the Prisons to reduce the entire country to obedience. 

The administration of the government of France by Philip, duke of 
Burgundy, was on the whole advantageous to the nation. It was chiefly 
owing to his prudence that the insanity of Charles VI. did not produce 



THE STATES-SYSTEM OF EUROPE. ' 505 

the calamities of civil war. He had, however, one great fault ; his ex- 
penditure, both public and private, was most extravagant, and at his 
death his sons were forced to sell his plate in order to defray the ex- 
penses of his funeral. He died of fever (April 27th, 1404), generally 
regretted, for it was not difficult to foresee the commotions that would 
ensue when the conduct of the state, which had taxed his talents and 
energies to the utmost, should be intrusted to a feebler hand. 

Section V. — The History of Burgundy (continued). 

John the Fearless succeeded Philip the Hardy, and immediately be- 
gan to take measure for procuring to himself the same influence in the 
government of France which his father had possessed ; he was opposed 
by the queen and the duke of Orleans, who justly dreaded his ambition. 
In the fury of civil contest he hired assassins to murder the duke of 
Orleans ; and this atrocious crime was perpetrated in the very midst 
of Paris. Such, however, were the power of the duke and the apathy 
of the times, that he would probably have obtained a justification of his 
conduct from the court, had he not been obliged to retire to his territo- 
ries to quell an insurrection of the citizens of Liege ; the partisans of 
Orleans took advantage of his absence to raise a cry for justice, and 
being joined by all the enemies of Burgundy, they soon formed a very 
powerful faction. 

The general belief that the duke had committed treason against the 
state, enabled the faction of Orleans to persuade the dauphin that his 
death was necessary for the safety of the kingdom, and to join in a 
perfidious plot for his assassination. Ambassadors were sent to invite 
John the Fearless to an interview with the dauphin on the bridge of 
Montereau, in order that they might in common concert measures for 
the defence of the kingdom. He went to the appointed rendezvous 
with a very scanty train, armed only with such weapons as gentlemen 
of the period usually wore on visits of ceremony. So soon as he came 
into the dauphin's presence, he took off his velvet cap, and bent his 
knee in token of homage ; but before he could rise, he was struck down 
by the axes and swords of the royal guards, and butchered with such 
of his train as had entered the saloon (a. d. 1419). The murder of 
the duke of Orleans was almost the only stain upon the memory of 
John the Fearless ; his Flemish subjects, whose franchises he had 
protected, and whose trade he had fostered, were most grieved for his 
loss ; but they respected his memory most for his having intrusted the 
education of his eldest son to the magistrates of the free cities, and in 
fact the young prince had been educated as a Fleming rather than as a 
Burgundian. 

Philip the Good, immediately after his accession, prepared to take 
vengeance for the murder of his father ; his Flemish education had 
prevented him from having any very strong sense of the feudal obliga- 
tions which bound the dutchy of Burgundy to the crown of France, he 
therefore did not hesitate to enter into alliance with Henry V. of Eng- 
land, and recognised him as the legitimate heir to the crown of France, 
on condition that Charles VI. should not be deprived of his regal dig- 
nity during the remainder of his unhappy existence. 



506 MODERN HISTORY. 

The war between the English and French now became identified 
with the struggle between the Burgundians and Armagnacs, as the fa- 
vorers of Orleans were called ; the virulence of private animosities 
was thus added to the horrors of open war, and the atrocities committed 
on both sides were shocking to human nature. 

The death of Henry V. of England, followed speedily by that of 
Charles VI. of France, produced a great change in the aspect of the 
war. Henry VI., who was proclaimed king of England and France, 
was an infant in the cradle, while the dauphin was in the very prime 
of life, surrounded by the greater part of the French nobility, and 
warmly supported by the bulk of the nation. Though severely defeat- 
ed, and apparently brought to the brink of ruin, when his chief city 
Orleans was besieged, a deliverer suddenly appeared in the person- of 
Joan of Arc, the tide of prosperity which had hitherto flowed in favor 
of the English, suddenly turned, and the duke of Burgundy opened 
negotiations with the dauphin. It was at this crisis that Philip insti- 
tuted the order of the Golden Fleece, on the occasion of his marriage 
with Isabella of Portugal (a. d. 1430), an order of knighthood which 
soon became the most illustrious in Europe. Soon after his marriage, 
the alienation of the duke from the English interest continued to in- 
crease, and finally, under the auspices of the pope, he concluded a 
treaty with Charles VII., whom he consented to recognise as legitimate 
sovereign of France. 

Having disengaged himself from the French wars, the duke of Bur- 
gundy devoted himself to the improvement of his dominions in the Low 
Countries. His brilliant court realized the visions of chivalry ; the 
jousts and tournaments given under his sanction surpassed in magnifi- 
cence any that had yet been witnessed in Europe ; the wealth of the 
commercial cities in Flanders was freely poured forth to defray the ex- 
penses, and noble knights from all parts of Europe flocked to the court 
of Burgundy to prove their valor in the lists. Philip encouraged this 
taste for display among his subjects from political motives ; he found 
that luxury diverted the attention of the turbulent municipalities and 
their magistrates from affairs of state, and suspended, if it did not erad- 
icate, the ancient jealousies between commercial freedom and feudalism. 

Nearly a century and a half had now elapsed since the Swiss can- 
tons had emancipated themselves from the yoke of the house of Aus- 
tria ; the free states had become jealous of each other, some leagued 
with their ancient enemies, others sought alliances with the petty prin- 
ces of Germany, and the feudal powers, to whom the example of Swiss 
independence seemed fraught with dangerous consequences, believed 
that an opportunity was offered for reducing the mountaineers to their 
former bondage. A league for the purpose was formed by the poten- 
tates of western Germany under the direct sanction of the emperor, 
and application was made to the duke of Burgundy for assistance. He 
received the proposal very coolly, upon which the imperiaUsts sought 
the aid of the king of France, who was very anxious, now that the 
wars were over, to get rid of the Armagnacs, and other companies of 
soldiers, who lived at free quarters on the peasantry, and prevented the 
country from enjoying the blessings of tranquillity. An immense army 
was soon raised and placed under the command of the dauphin. 



THE STATES-SYSTEM OF EUROPE. 507 

On the morning of the 24th. of August, 1444, Switzers and French- 
men met for the first time in mortal combat. The advanced guard of 
the French, which alone was ten times more numerous than the entire 
Swiss army, occupied the heights on the right bank of the river Pirse, 
while the main body remained on the left bank, urging forward the 
siege of Basle. The Swiss were routed, but the dauphin's victory was 
obtained with the loss of eight thousand of his best soldiers. The 
French were not willing to fight a second battle with such fearless war- 
riors ; in spite of the remonstrances of the Germans, the dauphin re- 
solved to act the part of mediator, and a peace was concluded under 
his auspices, by which the liberties of the Swiss cantons were formally 
recognised. The duke of Burgundy took no share in this war ; he 
was too deeply engaged by the troubles of Flanders, vi^here a formida- 
ble revolt had been raised by the citizens of Ghent. After a sanguin- 
ary struggle, the insurgent Flemings were subdued, and Ghent was de- 
prived of most of its municipal privileges. 

The dauphin of France, afterward Louis XL, having provoked his 
father to war, was obliged to fly from his estates and seek shelter with 
the duke of Burgundy, who was at the time rendered uneasy by the 
turbulent disposition of his own son, the count of Charolais, subse- 
quently known in history as Charles the Bold. These family disturb- 
ances embroiled the courts of France and Burgundy for several years, 
but at length the death of Charles VII . rendered the dauphin king of 
France ; the duke escorted him safely to his dominions, rendered him 
homage as his sovereign, and assisted in the ceremonies of his corona- 
tion. Louis was far from being grateful for these benefits ; he formed 
several plots to seize the person of the count of Charolais, foreseeing 
that he would become his most formidable rival, and he broke all the 
engagements he had made to restore the towns which had at various 
times been wrested from the dukes of Burgundy by the monarchs of 
France. The count of Charolais was not disposed to endure these 
wrongs with patience ; contrary to the wishes of his father, he support- 
ed the nobles of France in their revolts against their sovereign, and had 
just organized a formidable league against Louis, when the death of 
Duke Philip compelled him to adjourn his warlike designs, until he had 
secured to himself his inheritance of the dutchy of Burgundy. 

Few sovereigns were more generally and justly lamented than Philip 
the Good ; during the fifty years of his reign. Burgundy was the most 
wealthy, prosperous, and tranquil of all the states of Europe ; and had 
he pleased to assert his independence, he might have become a more 
powerful sovereign than the king of France himself. The general 
grief for his loss was increased by the dread which the character of 
his successor inspired ; the rashness, the pride, the obstinacy, and the 
cruelty of Charles the Bold had stained his entire career as count of 
Charolais ; his subjects and his neighbors were equally filled with 
alarm, lest the same qualities should be still more signally manifested 
in the duke of Burgundy. 

Section VL — Tke History of Burgundy (concluded). 
Immediately on the installation of Charles the Bold, as duke of 
Burgundy, an insurrection was organized in Ghent. The duke was 



508 MODERN HISTORY. 

forced to yield to the popular demands, but in doing so, he made a se- 
cret \o\v tluit he would exact deadly vengeance for the insult which 
had been offered to his authority. His indignation was increased by 
similar revolts in the cities of Brabant and in Liege, Avhich he justly 
attributed to the example of Ghent, aided by the secret intrigues of 
French emissaries. 

The troubles of Brabant were easily quieted ; but the citizens of 
Liege, relying on the indistinct promises of aid made by the king of 
France, not only raised the standard of revolt, but committed such 
atrocious crimes, that Charles determined to destroy the city. With 
some difficulty his councillors dissuaded him from executing his design. 
In revenge for the incentives to rebellion which the king of France 
was more than suspected of having supplied to the people of Liege, 
Charles entered into a close league with the discontented French prin- 
ces who had taken up arms against Louis XL, while that monarch re- 
newed his intrigues with the discontented burgesses in all the cities 
subject to the duke of Burgundy. Louis was, however, far the more 
successful in this species of unavowed warfare ; cold, cautious, and 
cunning, he was able to conduct complicated intrigues, and to await their 
success with patience, while the violent temper of Charles frequently 
led him to frustrate the plans on which he had bestowed the most care 
and attention. In one memorable instance, the reliance of Louis on 
his own craft had nearly proved his destruction ; finding that his envoys 
did not produce the effect he desired on the mind of his rival, he re- 
solved to try the effect of a personal interview, and unexpectedly pre- 
sented himself at the duke of Burgundy's court in Peronne, escorted 
by a feeble company of his personal retainers. The interview be- 
tween the king and the duke was far from satisfactory ; their mutual 
jealousies soon began to threaten a rupture, when the intelligence of a 
new revolt in Liege, and the massacre of all the partisans of Burgundy 
in that city, including the prince-bishop, so roused the fury of Charles, 
that he made his sovereign a prisoner, and would probably have pro- 
ceeded to further extremities, but for the interference of his council. 

Louis, taken in his own toils, was obliged to submit to the terms of 
peace dictated by Charles ; the most mortifying condition of his libera- 
tion was that he should lead an army against the insurgent citizens of 
Liege, and thus aid his vassal in suppressing a revolt which he had 
himself secretly instigated. The ducal and royal armies were soon 
assembled, and they marched together against the devoted citizens of 
Liege, who had never imagined the possibility of such a combination. 
They did not however despair, but defended themselves with great 
courage, until the advanced guard of the Burgundians had forced its way 
through the breaches of the walls, and made a lodgement in the princi- 
pal street. All resistance was then at an end ; the city became the 
prey of the barbarous soldiers ; it was cruelly pillaged for several days, 
and those citizens who escaped the sword either perished of hunger 
as they wandered through the woods and fields, or were delivered over 
to the executioner. After this scene of massacre had lasted eight days, 
Charles left the city, after having given orders that every edifice in 
Liege should be destroyed, except the churches, and the houses belong- 
ing to the clergy. As Liege was an episcopal city, the clergy pos- 



THE STATES-SYSTEM OP EUROPE. 509 

sessed or claimed a very considerable portion of it, and the exception 
made in their favor saved it from ruin. 

liOuis never forgave the indignities which he had endured at Pe- 
ronne, and in his forced march to Liege ; without openly declaring war 
against Burgundy, he secretly raised up enemies against the duke in 
every quarter, and Charles, by the violence of his passions, constantly 
exposed himself at disadvantage to the machinations of his rival. Ren- 
dered insolent by continued prosperity, he alienated from him the brave 
chivalry of Burgundy, by bestowing all his confidence on a foreign fa- 
vorite, the count of Campo-Basso, who flattered his vanity by an ab- 
solute submission to his caprices. Louis had the good fortune to win 
the friendship of the Swiss, whom his rival had changed from friends 
into foes by the most wanton violation of treaties ; and Charles, to 
whom the very name of freedom was odious, on account of the revolts 
of Ghent and Liege, resolved to bring the independent mountaineers 
once more under the yoke of feudal bondage. 

Rarely had Europe seen so splendid an army as that which Charles 
led to the invasion of Switzerland ; it consisted of thirty-six thousand 
soldiers, long inured to military exercises, accompanied by the most 
formidable train of artillery that had ever yet been brought into the 
field. The duke advanced to besiege Granson ; it was bravely de- 
fended, but the walls soon began to crumble under the heavy fire of 
the Burgundian artillery, and several of the citizens, seduced by prom- 
ises and bribes, clamored for a capitulation. It was agreed that the 
governor and the best soldiers of the garrison should present themselves 
before Charles and demand to be admitted to mercy, as his emissaries 
had promised. The moment, however, that they appeared, Charles 
ordered them to be seized ; the governor and his officers to be hanged, 
and all the rest to be hurled as they were, bound hand and foot, into 
the lake. About two hundred Swiss were thus treacherously mas- 
sacred. 

Intelligence of this event spread rapidly through the cantons ; on 
every side the bold mountaineers flew to arms, while the duke, having 
formed an entrenched camp at Granson, advanced with a strong de- 
tachment toward Neufchatel. Pride held rendered him so regardless 
of ordinary precautions that he came unexpectedly in presence of 
the main body of the Swiss in the mountain defiles, when with his 
usual impetuosity he gave the signal to engage. The Swiss pikemen 
formed in close line, drove back the Burgundian cavalry, and steadily 
advancing in close order forced the squadrons of horse before them, 
destroying some of the bravest knights of the enemy as they got en- 
tangled in the press. Every effort which the duke made to extricate 
his gallant chivalry only added to the confusion, and while he vainly 
strove to form his lines, fresh troops appeared upon the heights on his 
left flank, raising the war-cry of " Granson ! Granson !" to show that 
they came to revenge the massacre of their brethren. Soon after the 
horns of Uri and Unterwalden were heard in the distance ; they were 
two enormous horns, which according to tradition had been bestowed 
upon these cantons by Pepin and Charlemagne ; their sound had often 
filled invaders with dread during the old wars of Austria, and appeared 
on the present occasion scarcely less ominous to the Burgundians. 



510 MODERN HISTORY. 

The retreat of the advanced guard of Charles became every moment 
more disorderly, it was at length converted into a precipitate flight, and 
the fugitives on reaching the entrenched camp, filled it with the same 
terror and confusion by which they were possessed themselves. In 
vain did Charles attempt to remedy the disorder ; his artillerymen after 
a feeble and ineffectual fire abandoned their guns ; his Italian auxiliaries 
fled without striking a blow, and at length, being left almost alone, he 
quitted his camp with a few attendants, leaving to the Swiss the richest 
booty that had been gained in war for several centuries. Among the 
spoils thus abandoned were three celebrated diamonds, of which one 
now adorns the tiara of the pope, a second is reckoned among the most 
splendid treasures of the emperor of Austria, and the third, usually 
called the Souci diamond, was long the richest brilliant in the crown 
of France. 

Grief and rage for his defeat reduced Charles to a state bordering 
on insanity. It was not until after the lapse of several weeks that he 
began to take active measures for repairing his losses, and preventing 
the king of France from profiting by his reverses. All the wealth 
which he had hoarded during his reign ; all the treasures which he 
could procure from the wealthy commercial cities in Flanders and Bra- 
bant, were freely poured forth to recruit his army ; the bells of the 
churches were melted down and cast into cannon to repair the loss of 
his artillery at Granson ; he hired auxiliaries from France, from Italy, 
and from England. On the other hand the Swiss employed themselves 
in fortifying Morat, which they regarded as the key of Berne, and sent 
pressing messages to their confederates to hasten the arrival of their 
respective contingents. 

On the 27th of May, 1476, Charles quitted his camp at Lausaune to 
commence the siege of Morat ; rarely has a place been more vigorously 
assailed or more obstinately defended ; the walls were breached in 
several places, but every assault of the Burgundians was repulsed, and 
the duke himself was twice driven back from the ruined ramparts. 
This marvellous resistance gave the Swiss time to assemble their ar- 
mies, but Morat was on the point of falling when they advanced to its 
relief. Several of his ofiicers advised Charles to raise the siege on the 
approach of the Swiss, and retire to ground more favorable for a field 
of battle ; but he was as obstinately deaf to good counsel as he had been 
at Granson, and his passions had produced a kind of fever which ren- 
dered him so irritable that his dearest friends were afraid to approach 
him. The Swiss formed their line of battle under the shelter of a line 
of hills covered with trees, which eff'ectually concealed their move- 
ments from their enemies ; Charles advanced to dislodge them from 
this position in a tempest of rain which injured his powder and relaxed 
the bowstrings of his archers. The Burgundians, finding that they 
could not get through the wood, nor entice the Swiss from their lines, 
began to retire toward their camp, drenched with rain and exhausted 
by their useless march. The Swiss general, Hans de Hallwyll, who 
had already earned high fame in the wars of Hungary, gave the signal 
of pursuit; Rene, the young duke of Lorraine, whom Charles had 
stripped of his paternal dominions, advanced at the head of the cavalry 
of the confederates, and the Burgundians were attacked iu their jft- 



THE STATES-SYSTEM OF EUROPE. 511 

trenched camp. Charles could scarcely be persuaded that the Swiss 
would have hazarded so perilous an attempt ; he hastened to bring up 
his men at arms to the place where the chief assault was made, and at 
the same time opened a heavy fire from his batteries on the advancing 
columns. His best artillerymen however had fallen at Granson ; his 
cannon being ill-served did but little execution, Avhile Hallwyll under 
cover of the smoke led a body of troops along the Burgundian lines 
and suddenly falling on their exposed flank, forced his way into the 
midst of the camp before the manoeuvre was discovered. On the other 
extreme the Burgundians were equally surprised by an unexpected 
sally from the garrison of Morat ; they fell into remediless confusion, 
the battle was no longer a fight but a carnage, for the Swiss sternly 
refused quarter, so that " cruel as at Morat," long continued to be a 
proverb in their mountains. 

The states of Burgundy, Flanders, and Brabant, refused to grant the 
■duke the enormous sums which he demanded to raise a third army, 
and while he was engaged in threatening them with his wrath, and 
collecting as many soldiers as he could procure from his own resour- 
ces, he learned that Lorraine was nearly recovered by its young duke 
Rene, who, after making himself master of several towns, with little or 
no opposition, had laid §iege to Nancy. The city was taken before 
Charles was ready to march, and Rene having secured it with a faith- 
ful garrison, proceeded to the Swiss cantons to solicit aid against their 
common enemy. Sieges were always unfavorable to the duke of Bur- 
gundy ; he was unable to reduce Nancy, but he obstinately persisted 
in remaining before the walls, while his army suffered severely from 
an inclement winter and the increasing want of pay and provisions. 
In fact the unfortunate duke was now sold to his enemies by his favor- 
ite Campo-Basso, and his rash cruelty had led him to precipitate the 
execution of the chief agent of the plot, whom he had by chance made 
prisoner. 

On the 4th of January, 1477, Rene of Lorraine, at the head of the 
Swiss confederates, was seen from the Burgundian camp advancing to 
the relief of Nancy. In the very beginning of the battle the desertion 
of the traitor Campo-Basso decided the fate of the day, but the brave 
chivalry of Burgundy in this, the last of their fields, maintained a des- 
perate resistance until night put an end to the combat. The fate of the 
duke of Burgundy was for a long time uncertain, but after a tedious 
search his body was found covered with wounds, some of which had 
every appearance of being inflicted by assassins. Rene paid every 
possible respect to the remains of the unfortunate Charles, and he lib- 
erated all his Burgundian prisoners that they might attend the funeral. 

The history of Mary of Burgundy, the daughter and successor of 
Charles the Bold, must be related briefly. No sooner was the news of 
her lather's death known, than the king of France prepared to seize on 
her dominions in Burgundy, and the Flemings rose in insurrection against 
her authority. Louis at first was disposed to force her to marry the 
dauphin, and thus reunite Burgundy to France, but the tortuous course 
of poUcy which he pursued defeated his object. The Flemings discov- 
ered the intrigue ; they seized on the favorite counsellors of the unhap- 
py princess, and beheaded them before her eyes in the market-place of 



512 MODERN HISTORY. 

Ghent. Mary was subsequently married to Duke Maximilian of Aus- 
tria, but lie only obtained possession of her dominions in the Nether- 
lands ; Burgundy was conquered by the French, and Maximilian had 
neither the energy nor the wisdom to recover it from Louis. This was 
the origin of the bitter hostility between the sovereigns of France and 
Austria, which for a long series of years kept the continent of Europe 
in almost perpetual war. 

Section VII. — The Age of Charles V. 

The political idea of maintaining a balance of power, which was first 
formed in Italy, began to spread north of the Alps, in consequence of 
the rapid and overwhelming increase of the Austrian power. Maxi- 
milian of Austria, son of the emperor Frederic III., married Mary of 
Burgundy, daughter and heiress of Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy 
(a. d. M77), as has been already related, and in her right obtained pos- 
session of the fertile and wealthy provinces of the Netherlands. His 
son, Philip the Fair, was united to Joanna, infanta of Spain, daughter 
of Ferdinand and Isabella, whose union had joined the kingdoms of 
Aragon and Castile. The fruit of Philip's marriage with Joanna was 
two sons, Charles and Ferdinand ; and the elder of these, at the age of 
sixteen, inherited the crown of Spain and its colonies, in addition to his 
paternal dominions in the Netherlands (a. d. 1516). The death of his 
grandfather Maximilian transmitted to him the Austrian territories, and 
the other domains of the house of Hapsburgh, and the electors chose him 
to fill the vacant throne of the empire. Thus Charles, the first of Spain, 
and the fifth of the empire, possessed greater power than any sovereign 
that had flourished in Europe since the days of Charlemagne, In the 
beginning of his reign, he resigned his hereditary dominions in Germany 
to his brother Ferdinand, who afterward succeeded him in the empire, 
and became the founder of the second Austrian line of emperors, which 
ended with Charles VI. (a. d. 1740). From the emperor Charles de- 
scended the Austrian family of Spanish kings, which was terminated by 
the death of Charles II. (a. d. 1700). 

These two branches of the Austrian house, the German and the 
Spanish, long acted in concert, to procure reciprocal advantages, and 
were fortunate in strengthening their power by new alliances. Ferdi- 
nand married Anne, sister of Louis, king of Hungary and Bohemia ; 
and when that monarch fell in war against the Turks, added both 
these kingdoms to the hereditary dominions of Austria. Charles V., 
by his marriage with Isabella, daughter of Emmanuel, king of Portu- 
gal, prepared the way for his son Philip's annexation of that country to 
Spain. 

Two monarchs, contemporary with Charles, were almost equally 
bound by their interests to check the preponderance of the house of 
Austria — Henry VIII. of England, and Francis I. of France. Henry 
VII., after the victory of Bosworth-field had given him undisputed pos- 
session of the crown', labored diligently and successfully to extend the 
royal authority, and to raise the commercial prosperity of the nation. On 
his death (a. d. 1509), he bequeathed to his son a rich treasury and a 
flourishing kingdom. Possessing such advantages, Henry VIII. might 



THE STATES-SYSTEM OF EUROPE. 513 

have been the arbitrator of Europe ; but his naturally fine talents were 
perverted by flattery ; he allowed free scope to all his passions, and his 
actions were consequently the result of caprice, vanity, or resentment — 
rarely, if ever, of enlightened policy. Many of the defects in his ad- 
ministration must, however, be ascribed to the pride and ambition of his 
prime minister. Cardinal Wolsey, who sacrificed the welfare of England 
and the honor of his sovereign to further his private ends or gratify his 
idle vanity. 

Francis I. was a prince of higher character ; he had many of the 
noble qualities, and not a few of the faults, usually ascribed to the spirit 
of chivalry ; bold, enterprising, and personally brave, he did not always 
regulate his actions by prudence, and^his rashness lost what his valor 
had won. Soon after coming to the crown, he undertook to recover 
Milan, and overthrew Sforza and the imperialists at Marignano. The 
defeated duke resigned his country for a pension ; the pope and the 
northern Italian states assented to the arrangement, and the possession 
of the contested dutchy seemed secured to France by the conclusion of 
a treaty with the Swiss cantons (a. d. 1516). Nearly at the same 
time a treaty was made with Charles, who had not yet succeeded to 
the empire, which seemed to establish peace, but only rendered war 
more certain. 

Henry and Francis were both candidates with Charles for the em- 
pire ; the former, however, had no rational hopes of success, while 
Francis could not hide his anticipations of success, no more than his 
mortification when he failed. The mutual jealousies of the French and 
Spanish monarchs were aggravated by hostile claims ; Charles, by right 
of descent, could demand the ancient possessions of the duke of Bur- 
gundy, and he was feudal sovereign, as emperor, over the northern 
Italian states, the chief dutchy of which had been recently annexed to 
France. On the other hand, Francis had claims to the thrones of Na- 
varre and Naples, which he was very unwilling to resign. Peace could 
not long subsist between these potentates, neither were their forces so 
unequally matched as might at first be supposed. The extensive domin- 
ions of Charles were governed by different constitutions ; in none, not 
even in Spain, was he wholly unfettered, while in Germany, where the 
Reformation was constantly raising embarrassing questions, and the 
princes ever anxious to circumscribe the imperial authority, added more 
to his nominal than to his real strength. His finances were also em- 
barrassed, and he often found it an almost insuperable difficulty to pro- 
vide for the payment of his troops, most of whom were necessarily mer- 
cenaries. On the other hand, Francis inherited almost despotic au- 
thority ; his power concentrated, his own subjects were enrolled as his 
soldiers, and the regular organization of the French government freed 
him from the financial embarrassments of his rival. Both strengthened 
themselves by alliances : Charles gained the aid of the pope, and won 
Henry VHI. to his side by duping the egregious vanity of Wolsey ; 
Francis, on the other hand, was supported by the Swiss and the Vene- 
tians. The war began nearly at the same moment in Navarre, the 
Netherlands, and Lombardy. The treachery of the queen-mother, who 
withheld from the French commander, Lautrec, the money necessary 
to pay the troops employed in Italy, led to the loss of Milan and the 

33 



514 MODERN HISTORY. 

greater part of the diitchy. An effort made to recover the lost ground 
led to the battle of Bicocca (a. d. 1522), in which the French were to- 
tally defeated, and finally expelled from Italy; and Genoa, their most 
faithful ally, was subjected to the power of their enemies. An event 
of scarcely less importance was the death of Leo, and the elevation 
of Adrian, a devoted adherent of Charles, to the papal chair ; and this 
was soon followed by the desertion of the Venetians to the imperial 
side. 

Francis might have still recovered the Milanese, where the emperor's 
troops had been disbanded for want of pay, had not the queen-mother, 
blinded by passion, induced him to treat the constable of Bourbon with 
such gross injustice, that this powerful noble entered into a secret in- 
trigue with the emperor, and agreed to raise the standard of revolt. The 
discovery of the plot delayed the French king's march into Italy ; and 
though he protected his own territories, the Milanese was irrecoverably 
lost. Encouraged by this success, Charles commanded the imperial 
generals to invade France on the side of Provence, while the king of 
England promised to attack it on the north. Had this plan been exe- 
cuted, Francis must have been ruined ; but Wolsey, provoked by the 
elevation of Clement VII. to the papacy, on the death of Adrian, 
avenged himself for the broken promises of the emperor, abated Henry's 
ardor for the enterprise, and persuaded him to keep his forces at home, 
under pretence of resisting the Scots, who had embraced the side of 
the French king. Charles, unable to command money, could not make 
a diversion on the side of Spain or the Netherlands ; and the imperial- 
ists, having uselessly wasted the country, were compelled to retire from 
Provence. 

Elated by his success, Francis hastened to invade Italy ; but instead 
of pressing the pursuit of the shattered imperialists, he laid siege to 
Pavia, and thus gave his adversaries time to strengthen and recruit 
their forces. With similar imprudence, he sent a large detachment to 
invade Naples, hoping that the viceroy of that kingdom would withdraw 
a large portion of the imperialists from the Milanese for its defence ; but 
Charles's generals, having received a strong reinforcement raised in 
Germany by the constable of Bourbon, attacked the French in their in- 
trenchments, and gained a decisive victory, in which Francis himself 
was made prisoner. 

This great calamity was principally owing to the romantic notions of 
honor entertained by the French king : he had vowed that he would 
take Pavia or perish in the attempt ; and rather than expose himself to 
the imputation of breaking a promise of chivalry, he remained in his in- 
trenchments, though the means of safe retreat were open to him. Never 
did armies engage with greater ardor than the French and imperialists 
before the walls of Pavia (February 24, 1525). On the one hand, a 
gallant young monarch, seconded by a generous nobility, and followed 
by subjects to whose natural impetuosity indignation at the opposition 
which they had encountered added new force, contended for victory and 
honor. On the other side, troops more completely disciplined, and con- 
ducted by generals of greater abilities, fought, from necessity, with, 
courage heightened by despair. The imperialists, however, were una- 
ble to resist the first efibrts of the French valor, and their firmest battal— 



THE STATESSYSTEM OF EUROPE. 515 

ions began to give way. But the fortune of the day was quickly 
changed. The Swiss in the service of France, unmindful of the repu- 
tation of their country for fidelity and martial glory, abandoned their post 
in a cowardly manner. The garrison of Pavia sallied out and attacked 
the rear of the French during the heat of the action with such fury as 
threw it into confusion ; and Pescara, falling on their cavalry with the 
imperial horse, among whom he had prudently intermingled a consider-^ 
ble number of Spanish foot, armed with the heavy muskets then in use, 
broke this formidable body by an unusual method of attack, against 
which they were totally unprovided. The rout became universal, and 
resistance ceased in almost every part but where the king was in person, 
who fought now, not for fame or victory, but for safety. Though wounded 
in several places, and thrown from his horse, which was killed under 
him, Francis defended himself on foot with an heroic courage ; many of his 
bravest officers, gathering round him, and endeavoring to save his life, at 
the expense of their own, fell at his feet. The king, exhausted with-^ 
fatigue and scarcely capable of further resistance, was left almost alone,. - 
exposed to the fury of some Spanish soldiers, strangers to his rank, and 
enraged at his obstinacy. At that moment came up Pomperant, a 
French gentleman who had entered, together with Bourbon, into the 
emperor's service, and placing himself by the side of the monarch 
against whom he had rebelled, assisted in protecting him from the vio- 
lence of the soldiers ; at the same time beseeching him to surrender to 
Bourbon, who was not far distant. Imminent as the danger was which 
now surrounded Francis, he rejected with indignation the thoughts of 
an action which would have afforded such triumph to his traitorous^ 
subject ; and calling for Launoy, who also happened to be near at hand, 
gave up his sword to him ; which he kneeling to kiss the king's hand, 
received with profound respect ; and taking his own sword from his 
side, presented it to him, saying that " it did not become so great a 
monarch to remain disarmed in the presence of one of the emperor's 
subjects." 

Although Launoy treated his royal captive with all the marks of re- 
spect due to his rank and character, he nevertheless guarded him with 
the utmost precaution. He was solicitous, not only to prevent any 
possibility of his escaping, but afraid that his own troops might seize 
his person, and detain it as the best security for the payment of their 
arrears. In order to provide against both these dangers, he conducted 
Francis, the day after the battle, to a strong castle, and committed him 
to the custody of an officer remarkable for the strict vigilance which 
such a trust required. Francis, who formed a judgment of the empe- 
ror's disposition by his own, was extremely desirous that Charles 
should be informed of his situation, fondly hoping that, from his gener- 
osity or sympathy, he should obtain speedy relief. He therefore gave 
a passport to an imperial officer to carry the intelligence of the battle 
of Pavia and his own capture through France, as the communication 
with Spain by land was the most safe and certain at this season of the 
year. 

Charles received the account of this signal success with affected mod- 
eration, but at the same time deliberated with the utmost solicitude how 
he might derive the greatest advantages from the misfortunes of his 



516 MODERN HISTORY. 

adversary. His first demands were that Francis should restore the 
dutchy ol' Burgundy, which, as we have seen, was dishonorably wrested 
from his ancestors by Louis XI. ; that Provence and Dauphine should 
be erected into an independent kingdom for the constable of Bourbon ; 
that satisfaction should be made to the king of England for his claims 
on France ; and that all the pretensions of France to territories in Italy 
should be renounced for ever. Francis was so indignant at being re- 
quired to make such ignominious concessions, that he drew his dagger, 
and made an attempt to commit suicide ; he was, of course, prevented, 
and it was hinted that a personal interview with the emperor would 
lead to the oiler of more equitable conditions. Francis himself was of 
the same opinion. He was sent in a Spanish galley to Barcelona, 
whence he was removed to Madrid ; but on reaching that city, he was 
sent to the Alcazar, and guarded more carefully than ever : and it ap 
peared evident that the king's reliance on the emperor's generosity had 
been wholly misplaced. 

But this triumph, which seemed to have made Charles master of Italy 
and arbiter of Europe, so far from yielding the substantial advantages 
which might reasonably have been expected, served only to array against 
him the jealousy of England, of the Italian states, and of the protestant 
princes of Germany. At the same time, the disorganized condition of 
his finances, and the consequent difficulty of finding pay, subsistence, or 
the munitions of war, for his soldiers, reduced his Italian armies to in- 
activity in the very moment of victory. Henry VIII. was the first of 
the imperial allies to set the example of defection ; he entered into a 
defensive alliance with Louise, the queen-regent of France, in which 
all the diff'erences between him and her son were adjusted ; at the 
same time he engaged that he would employ his best offices in order 
to deliver his new ally from a state of captivity. Imprisonment soon 
began to produce such injurious effects on the mental and bodily health 
of Francis, that Charles began to fear that all his plans might be frus- 
trated by the death of his captive, and he therefore sought a personal 
interview with him, in which he held out a hope of milder conditions of 
liberation. 

The chief obstacle that stood in the way of Francis's liberty was the 
emperor's continuing to insist so peremptorily on the restitution of Bur- 
gundy as a preliminary to that event. But the history of Burgundy 
while an independent dutchy, as detailed in preceding sections, suffi- 
ciently proves that compliance with such a demand would have reduced 
the monarch of France to a state of complete dependance on his nomi- 
nal vassals. Francis often declared that he would never consent to 
dismember his kingdom ; and that, if even he should so far forget the 
duties of a monarch as to come to such a resolution, the fundamental 
laws of the kingdom would prevent its taking effect. Finding that the 
emperor was inflexible on the point, he suddenly took the resolution of 
resigning his crown, with all its rights and prerogatives, to his son the 
dauphin, determining rather to end his days in prison than to purchase 
his freedom by concessions unworthy of a king. 

Charles was so alarmed by this resolution, that he consented to mod- 
ify his demands so far as not to insist on the restitution of Burgundy 
until the king was set at liberty. The remaining conditions of the 



THE STATES-SYSTEM OP EUROPE. 517 

treaty were sufficiently onerous ; but a few hours before signing them, 
Francis assembled such of his counsellors as happened to be in Madrid, 
and having exacted from them a solemn oath of secresy, he made a 
long enumeration in their presence of the dishonorable acts as well as 
unprincely rigor which the emperor had employed in order to ensnare 
or intimidate him. For that reason, he took a formal protest in the hands 
of notaries that his consent to the treaty should be considered as an 
involuntary deed, and be deemed luiU and void. By this disingenu- 
ous artifice, for which the treatment he had received was no apology, 
Francis endeavored to satisfy his honor and conscience in signing 
the treaty, and to provide at the same time a pretext on which to 
break it. 

About a month after the signing of the treaty, the regent's ratification 
of it was brought from France, and tv/o princes of the blood sent as 
hostages for its execution. At last Francis took leave of the emperor, 
whose suspicion of the king's sincerity increasing as the time of putting 
it to the proof approached, he attempted to bind him still faster by ex- 
acting new promises, vv^hich, after those he had already made, the 
French monarch was not slow to grant. He set out from Madrid, a 
place which the remembrance of so many afflicting circumstances ren- 
dered peculiarly odious to him, with the joy natural on such an occasion, 
and began the long-wished-for journey toward his own dominions. He 
was escorted by a body of horse, under the command of Alarcon, who, 
as the king drew near the frontiers of France, guarded him with more 
scrupulous exactness than ever. When he arrived at the river Andaye, 
which separates the two kingdoms, Lautrec, one of his favorite gene- 
rals, appeared on the opposite bank, with a guard equal in number to 
Alargon's. An empty bark was moored in the middle of the stream ; 
the attendants drew up in order on the opposite banks ; at the same in- 
stant Launoy put off with eight gentlemen from the Spanish, and Lau- 
trec with the same number from the French side of the river ; the 
former had the king in his boat ; the latter the two princely hostages, 
the dauphin and the duke of Orleans ; they met in the empty vessel ; 
the exchange was made in a moment ; Francis, after a short embrace 
of his children, leaped into Lautrec's boat, and reached the French 
shore. He mounted at that instant a Turkish horse, waved his hand 
over his head, and, with a joyous voice, cried aloud several times, " I 
am yet a king !" then, putting spurs to his horse, he galloped at full 
speed to St. Jean de Luz, and thence to Bayonne. This event, no less 
impatiently desired by the French people than their monarch, happened 
on the 18th of March, 1526, a year and twenty-two days after the fatal 
battle of Pavia. 

The states of Burgundy afforded Francis the first opportunity of 
refusing to fulfil the conditions of his liberation. They represented to 
the monarch that he had no right to make a transfer of their allegiance 
without their consent, and that they would rather assert their indepen- 
dence than submit to a foreign dominion. Upon this, Francis, turning 
toward the imperial ambassadors, represented to them the impossibility 
of performing what he had undertaken, and offered, in lieu of Burgundy, 
to pay the emperor two millions of crowns. The ambassadors, who 
were well aware that the entire scene had been concerted between the 



518 MODERN HISTORY. 

kinw and tlie states, refused to admit any modification of the treaty ; 
they returned to Madrid, and Charles, who perceived that he had beea 
overreached, exclaimed in the most public manner and in the harshest 
terms against Francis, as a prince void of faith and honor. The French 
kino-, on tiie other hand, asserted that no promise obtained by force was 
binding, and easily obtained from the pope a full absolution from all the 
obligations which he had contracted. 

During this period, Germany was cruelly harassed by insurrections 
of the peasants, goaded to madness by the oppressions of their lords. 
In Thuringia, where a great part of the popvdation had been converted 
to Lutherauism, Muncer, a wild fanatic, became the leader of the insur- 
gents, and by stimulating their ignorant zeal, added religious bigotry to 
the horrors of civil war. Luther sincerely lamented the scandal that 
these disturbances brought on the cause of the reformation ; but his own 
marriage with a nun who had broken her vows, gave such general of- 
fence, that his influence, for a season, was greatly diminished. 

Francis was not long at liberty before he not only protested against 
the treaty of Madrid and refused to fulfil any of its stipulations, but or- 
ganized a new league against Charles, which was named " Holy," 
because the pope was its nominal head. The Venetians, the duke of 
Milan, and the English king, joined the confederacy ; but their opera- 
tions were so slow and feeble, that the imperialists easily maintained 
their ascendency in the north of Italy. The constable of Bourbon, 
irritated by the vacillating conduct of the pope, marched against Rome, 
heedless of the truce that had been granted to the pontiff by the viceroy 
of Naples. " The eternal city" was taken by assault, and suffered more 
severely from the soldiers of a catholic king than from the barbarous 
pagans of an earlier age. Bourbon fell in the assault ; but the com- 
mand of the imperialists devolved on the prince of Orange, who be- 
sieged the pope in the castle of St. Angelo, and compelled him to yield 
himself a prisoner (a. d. 1527). Charles received the intelligence of 
this success with contemptible hypocrisy ; he professed the most sin- 
cere sorrow for the captivity of the holy pontifT, and ordered prayers to 
be offered for his deliverance in all the Spanish churches, instead of 
sending orders for his liberation. So great was the indignation excited 
by the 'harsh treatment of the pope, that Francis was enabled to invade 
Italy and penetrate to the very walls of Naples. But here his pros- 
perity ended ; the pope, liberated from captivity, resolved to conciliate 
the emperor ; the Venetians became jealous of the French power, and, 
finally, the Genoese hero, Andrew Doria, roused by the wrongs which 
Francis had inflicted on himself and his comitry, revolted to the empe- 
ror, and turned the scale of the war by making the imperialists superior 
at sea. Doria's first care was to restore the republic of Genoa ; and 
such was the opinion entertained of his patriotism and disinterestedness, 
that he was universally called " The father of his country and 
THE RESTORER OF ITS LIBERTY" (a. d. 1528). These circumstauces, 
and the defeat of his army in the Milanese, inclined Francis to peace ; 
a treaty was negotiated at Cambray by the emperor's aunt and the king's 
mother, but the fair diplomatists left enough of disputable points unset- 
tled to furnish grounds for a future war. 

Charles having thus prevailed over France, resolved to make a vigorous 



THE STATES-SYSTEM OF EUROPE. 519 

. struggle to crush the reformation in Germany, but the protestant princes, 
undismayed by his power, formed a league for their mutual protection 
at Smalkald (a. d. 1530), and applied to the kings of France and 
England to patronise their confederacy. Henry VIII. was eager to grant 
them support ; he was desirous to be divorced from his wife, Catharine 
of Aragon, the emperor's aunt, and attributed the pope's reluctance to 
the intrigues of Charles. Hostilities were for a time averted by the 
emperor's making some important concessions, for he was anxious to 
have his brother Ferdinand chosen as his successor, with the title of 
king of the Romans, and the progress of the Turks, on his eastern, 
frontiers, could only be resisted by the united strength of the empire. 

Francis had concltided peace at Cambray, because he was no longer 
able to maintain war. He sought the earliest opportunity of renewing 
hostilities, and secured the friendship of the pope, by uniting his son, 
the duke of Orleans, to the pontift''s niece, Catherine de Medicis. But, 
though he thus gained-one ally, he lost others. Henry VIII., inflam- 
ed by love of Anne Boleyn, and enraged by the pope's confirmation of 
his marriage with Catharine, no longer kept any measures with the 
court of Rome ; his subjects seconded his resentment ; an act of par- 
liament was passed, abolishing the papal power and jurisdiction in Eng- 
land (a. d. 1534) ; by another act, the king was declared supreme head 
of the church, and all the authority of which the popes were deprived, 
was vested in him. Henry was thus disinclined to support the pope's 
ally, and the protestant princes of Germany viewed Francis with some 

. suspicion, because he persecuted the reformed in his own dominions. 
The death of Clement VII., and the election of Paul III., an adherent 
of the emperor, suddenly deprived Francis of the papal aid, on which 
he had confidently calculated, and compelled him to delay his projects 
for troubling the peace of Europe. 

The insurrection of the anabaptists, a new set of fanatics in Germany, 
and the emperor's expedition against the piratical states of Barbary, 

. employed men's minds for a season. The suppression of the fanatics, 
and the conquest of Tunis, crowned the emperor with glory, yet it was 
at this moment that Francis chose to renew the war (a. d. 1535). 
Savoy was immediately overrun by the French troops, and its unfor- 
tunate duke in vain implored the aid of the emperor, whose resources 
had been exhausted in the African war. It was on this occasion that 
Charles challenged his rival to single combat, in which proposal he only 
imitated the former follies of Francis. On the other hand, the death 
of the dauphin, amid the joy occasioned by the repulse of the impe- 
rialists, who had invaded Provence, was absurdly attributed to poison, 
administered by emissaries of Charles. To complete the exhibition of 
folly, Francis summoned Charles, as count of Flanders, to appear before 
the parliament of Paris, and on his refusal, he was declared to have 
forfeited the Low Countries to his feudal superior. The war itself was 
languidly conducted, but the pope, alarmed by the progress of the Turks, 
personally interfered, and a truce for ten years was concluded between 
the two sovereigns at Nice (a. d. 1538). 

The religious disputes in Germany between the princes of the 
protestant and those of the catholic league, the struggles made by the 

■ pope to prevent the meeting of a general council, unless under circum- 



520 MODERN HISTORY. 

Stances that would give him complete control over its deliberations, 
filled Charles with anxiety, which was not a little increased by the tur- 
bulent disposition of his Flemish subjects, and the success of the Turks 
in Hungary. Notwithstanding all these difficulties, he undertook an 
expedition against Algiers (a. d. 1541), but his fleet was shattered by 
a storm, his army wasted by a pestilential disease, and his stores of 
provision rendered unavailing. He was compelled to return, overwhelmed 
with loss and disgrace, and his defeat raised the courage of his enemies 
so high that he had to encounter a new war in Europe. 

Francis w^as eager to take advantage of his rival's distress, and the 
crime of the imperial governor of the Milanese furnished hirn with a de- 
cent pretext. This imprudent functionary seized two ambassadors, sent 
from the Parisian court to Turkey, and put them to death, in direct 
violation of the law of nations. Francis now changed his plan of opera- 
tions ; acting on the defensive in Italy, he invaded the Netherlands and 
Rousillon (a. d. 154-2), but iailed to make any permanent impression. 
Charles found an ally in the king of England : the death of his aunt had 
removed the great source of enmity between the emperor and Henry, 
and the close alliance between France and Scotland, recently cemented 
by the marriage of the Scotch king, James V., to a French princess, 
Mary of Guise, had excited great jealousy and alarm in England. 
Henry, with his usual impetuosity, having introduced the reformation 
into England, became anxious that Scotland should also withdraw its 
allegiance from the pope, and endeavored to win his nephew James to 
adopt his plan, by the most advantageous offers . The influence of the 
Scottish clergy prevailed over that of the English monarch, and Henry 
in his fury proclaimed war against Scotland. In the midst of these 
troubles, James V. died leaving his dominions to his infant daughter, 
Mary, the celebrated and unfortunate qu6en of Scots. This changed all 
Henry's plans ; he aimed at uniting the two kingdoms, by efl'ecting a 
marriage between his son Edward and Mary, but he knew that this 
could only be affected by crushing the French party in Scotland, and 
eager to accomplish this object he readily entered into the alliance 
against Francis. 

The French monarch, on the other hand, entered into close union 
with tli« Turks, and courted the support of the German protestants ; 
but the princes of the empire refused to join so bitter a persecutor of 
the reformed doctrines, and his only ally, the duke of Cleves, was 
forced to submit to Charles. The sultan aflx)rded him more effective 
support ; he invaded Hungary in person, and sent the celebrated admiral 
and pirate, Barbarossa, to join the French in invading Italy. Nice was 
besieged by their united forces ; to the astonishment and scandal of all 
Christendom, the lilies of France and the crescent of Mohammed ap- 
peared in conjimction against a fortress, on which the cross of Savoy 
was displayed. The allies were finally compelled to raise the siege, 
and Francis had not even the poor consolation of success, in return for 
the infamy of having taken as auxiliaries the deadly enemies of Chris- 
tianity. The battle of Cerisoles (a. d. 1544) gave his arms the fame 
of useless victory, but it did not prevent the contemporary invasion of 
France by the emperor on the side of Lorraine, and the English through 
Calais. Had Charles and Henry acted in concert, Francis must have- 



THE STATES-SYSTEM OF EUROPE, 521 

yielded unconditionally, but he took advantage of their disunion to con- 
clude a separate peace with the emperor at Crespy (a. d. 1544). 
Henry VIII. continued the war for some time longer, but it did not 
produce any event of consequence. Charles had now secured his pre- 
dominance in Italy, and was secretly preparing to restore the imperial 
authority in Germany. Death removed his two powerful contemporaries, 
Francis and Henry, in the same year (a. d. 1547), both of whom would 
have been dangerous antagonists. Though Henry's motives in favoring 
the reformation were not very pure, his intense hatred of the popes must 
have induced him to protect the protestant interest in Germany. 

The secularization of Prussia, by Albert of Brandenburg (a. d. 1525)^ 
was the first example of the seizure of church property, consequent on 
the change of religion ; but the indignation of the catholic princes, and 
the ambition of the protestants, were restrained by the Turkish and 
the French wars. Still the emperor's conduct at the diets of Spires 
and Augsburg, the pope's anxiety to convene a council subservient to 
his will, and the intrigues of the ecclesiastics in the states that retained 
their connexion with Rome, compelled the protestants to renew the 
league of Smalkald, and assign the fixed contingent of men and arms 
that should be supplied by the several members. When the council 
of Trent finally opened (a. d. 1545), its very form and its first decision 
rendered it impossible for the protestants to take any part in it. But 
the peace of Crespy left them unprotected, and their want of mutual 
confidence prevented them from acting in concert. At the very com- 
mencement of the war. Prince Maurice of Saxony deserted the league, 
and joined the emperor ; John Frederic, the elector of Saxony, and 
chief leader of the protestants, was made prisoner at the battle of 
Miihlberg (a. d. 1547), and his dominions rewarded the treachery of 
Maurice. The landgrave of Hesse, the last hope of the reformers, was 
inveigled to visit the emperor, at Halle, and dishonorably detained as 
a captive. 

This rapid success of the emperior alarmed the pope, who began to 
fear that Charles would prevail upon the council to limit his pontifical 
authority, and the two potentates, apparently believing the protestant 
cause crushed, began to seek for their own private advantages. Charles 
published a code of doctrines called the " Interim," because the regula- 
tions it contained were only to be in force until the convocation of a 
free general council, and this edict, which was strictly conformable to 
the tenets of the Romish church, he resolved to enforce on the empire 
(a. d. 1548). Catholics and protestants equally declaimed against this 
summary mode of settling a nation's faith, but the emperor scarcely 
encountered any open resistance, except from the free city of Magde- 
burgh, and an army sent to reduce this disobedient place, was intrusted 
to Maurice of Saxony. 

Maurice was secretly dissatisfied with the conduct of the emperor, 
and was especially grieved by the detention of his father-in-law, the 
landgrave of Hesse. He formed a bold plan for compelling the 
emperor, by a sudden attack, to establish religious freedom, and libe- 
rate the landgrave, but concealed his projects until the most favorable 
moment for putting them into execution. On the surrender of Magde- 
burgh (a. d. 1551), he contrived to win the confidence of the garrison 



522 MODERN HISTORY. 

and the citizens, without awakening the suspicions of the emperor, and 
he entered into a secret treaty with Henry II. of France, the son and 
successor of Francis. No words can describe the astonishment and 
distress of the emperor, when Maurice, having completed his prepara- 
tions, published his manifesto, detailing the grievances which he requir- 
ed to be redressed. The active prince proceeded with so much prompti- 
tude and vigor, that Charles narrowly escaped being made prisoner at 
Innspruck. The council of Trent was broken up ; the prelates tumult- 
uously voted a prorogation for two years, but more than ten elapsed 
before its proceedings were renewed. The emperor had the mortifica- 
tion to see all his projects overthrown by the prince whom he had most 
trusted, and was compelled to sign a treaty at Passau, by which the 
captive princes were restored to liberty, and a free exercise of their 
religion secured to the protestants (a. d. 1552). The war with France 
lasted three years longer ; it was conducted without any great battles, 
but on the whole, proved unfavorable to the emperor. From the hour 
that the treaty of Passau had wrested from Charles V. the fruits of his 
Avhole political career, he felt that his crowns were heavy on his brows. 
The principles of mutual toleration were formally sanctioned by the 
diet of Augsburg : Paul IV., who may be esteemed the successor of 
Pope Julius — for the twenty days' reign of Marcellus produced no 
political event — was so offended, that he became the avowed enemy of 
the house of Austria, and entered into close alliance with the king of 
France. A storm Avas approaching, when Charles, to the great surprise 
of the world, abdicated his dominions. 

Though a prince of moderate abilities, Charles V. had reigned with 
more glory than most European sovereigns. A king of France and a 
pope had been his captives ; his dominions were more extensive than 
those of Alexander, or of Rome. By his generals, or his ministers, 
he had acquired all the objects which usually excite ambition ; he had 
gained even the distinction of being regarded as the champion of ortho- 
doxy, in an age when toleration was a crime. But the triumph of 
civilization over the system of the middle ages, of which he was at once 
the last support and the last representative, was certain and complete, 
and he could not resist the mortification of finding liimself vanquished ; 
the peace of Passau was to him " the hand-writing on the wall ;" it 
announced that his policy was past, and his destiny accomplished. The 
feebleness of old age overtook him at fifty-six ; harassed by vain repi- 
nings, overwhelmed by infirmities, he felt that he could no longer appear 
a hero, and he desired to seem a sage. He became a hermit, removed 
all his diadems from his head, and sank into voluntary obscurity. He 
was, however, sure to be regretted, for he bequeathed to the world his 
successor, the sanguinary Philip, just as Augustus adopted Tiberius. 

The protestant religion was first legally established in England by 
Edward YL, the pious son of the profligate Henry. But the troubles 
occasioned by his minority, and the ambition of his guardians, prevented 
the reformed church from being fixed on a permanent foundation. Ed- 
ward died young (a. d. 1553), and the papal dominion was restored by 
his bigoted successor and sister, Mary. Charles, having failed to pro- 
cure the empire for his son Philip, negotiated a marriage between that 
prince and Queen Mary, which was concluded, much to the dissatisfac- 



THE STATES-SYSTEM OF EUROPE. 523 

tion of tlie British nation. Mary's cruel persecutions of the protestants 
failed to reconcile her subjects to the yoke of Rome, and on her death 
(a. d. 1558), the reformed religion was triumphantly restored by her 
sister Elizabeth. 

The diet which assembled at Augsburg (a. d. 1555), did not secure 
to the protestants all the advantages they had a right to expect. Maur- 
ice had fallen in a petty war, and they had no leader fit to be his suc- 
cessor. With strange imprudence, the Lutherans consented to the 
exclusion of the Calvinists from the benefits of religious toleration, and 
left several important questions undecided, the pregnant source of future 
wars. When the labors of the diet terminated, Charles, mortified at 
being forced to resign the hope of securing the empire to his son, sad- 
dened by his experience of the instability of fortune, and broken down 
by illness, resolved to abdicate his double authority. He resigned the 
sceptre of Spain and the Netherlands to his son, Philip II., and the 
imperial crown some months after to his brother Ferdinand : he then 
retired to the monastery of St. Justus, in Valladolid, where he died 
(a. d. 1558). 

The long struggle for religious freedom during the reign of Charles 
V. terminated in the favor of the Reformation ; but the Romish church 
was far from being subdued, and it derived most efficient support from 
^the institution of the Jesuits, a political rather than religious society, 
admirably organized for the support of the highest and most unyielding 
assumptions of papal authority. This body became formidable from its 
unity and the secrecy of its operations, but it at length excited the alarm 
of catholic princes, and was suppressed in the last century. 

In the course of the wars between Charles and Francis, the republic 
of Venice, which, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, had ap- 
peared so formidable that almost all the potentates of Europe united in 
a confederacy for its destruction, declined from its ancient power and 
splendor. The Venetians not only lost a great part of their territory in 
the war excited by the league of Cambray, but the revenues as well as 
vigor of the state were exhausted by their extraordinary and long-con- 
tinued efforts in their own defence, and that commerce by which they 
iad acquired their wealth and power began to decay without any hopes 
of its reviving. All the fatal consequences to their republic, which the 
sagacity of the Venetian senate foresaw on the first discovery of a pas- 
sage to the East Indies, by the Cape of Good Hope, actually took place. 
Their endeavors to prevent the Portuguese from establishing themselves 
in the East Indies, not only by exciting the Mameluke sultans of Egypt 
and the Ottoman monarchs to turn their arms against such dangerous 
intruders, but by afibrdin* secret aid to the infidels in order to ensure 
.their success, proved ineffectual. The activity and valor of the Portu- 
guese surmounted every obstacle, and obtained such a firm footing in 
that fertile country, as secured to them large possessions with an influ- 
ence still more extensive. Lisbon instead of Venice became the staple 
for the precious commodities of the east. The Venetians, after having 
possessed for many years the monopoly of that beneficial commerce, 
had the mortification to be excluded from almost any share in it. The 
discoveries of the Spaniards in the western world proved no less fatal 
.to inferior branches of commerce. When the sources from which the 



iKJ4 MODERN HISTORY. 

State derived its extraordinary riches and power were dried up, its inte- 
rior vigor declined, and of course its external operations becarhe less 
formidable. Long before the middle of the sixteenth century, Venice 
ceased to be one of the principal powers in Europe, and dwindled into 
a secondary and subaltern state. But as the senate had the address to 
conceal the diminution of its power under the veil of moderation and 
caution ; as it made no rash effort that could discover its weakness ; as 
the symptoms of political decay in states are not soon observed, and are 
seldom so apparent to their neighbors as to occasion any sudden alter- 
ation in their conduct toward them, Venice continued long to be con- 
sidered and respected. She was treated, not according to her present 
condition, but according to the rank which she had formerly held. 
Charles V., as well as the kings of France, his rivals, courted her assis- 
tance with emulation and solicitude in all their enterprises. Even down 
fo the close of the century, Venice remained, not only an object of at- 
tention, but a considerable seat of political negotiation and intrigue. 

That authority which the first Cosmo de Medici and Lorenzo his 
grandson had acquired in the republic of Florence by their beneficence 
and abilities, inspired their descendants with the ambition of usurping 
the sovereignty in their country and paving their way toward it. 
Charles V. placed Alexander de Medici at the head of the republic 
(a. d. 1530), and to the natural interest and power of the family added 
the weight as well as the credit of the imperial protection. Of these 
his successor Cosmo, surnamed the Great, availed himself; and es- 
tablishing his supreme authority on the ruins of the ancient republican 
constitution, he transmitted that, together with the title of grand duke of 
Tuscany, to his descendants. Their dominions were composed of the 
territories which had belonged to the three commonwealths of Florence, 
Pisa, and Sienna, and formed one of the most respectable of the Italian 
states. 

Section VIll.— TIie Age of Elizaheih. 

The accession of Elizabeth was the crisis of the Reformation in 
Great Britain ; as she was the daughter of Anne Boleyn, whose mar- 
riage with Henry VIIL had not been sanctioned by the Romish church, 
her title was not recognised by the catholics, and the king of France 
permitted his daughter-in-law, Mary, queen of Scots, to assume the 
arms and title of England. Elizabeth secured herself by entering into 
secret alliance Avith the heads of the protestant party in Scotland, who 
succeeded in withdrawing that kingdom from its allegiance to the pope, 
and so fettering the royal authority, that the queen dowager, who acted 
as regent for her daughter, was too much harassed at home to make 
any hostile attempt on England. Connected with the cause of the 
Reformation by her own interests, Elizabeth Avas naturally regarded as 
the head of the protestants in Europe, while Philip IL was the cham- 
pion of the catholics. Hence England became the counterpoise to 
Spain in this age, as France had been in the preceding. But the an- 
cient rivalry between France and Spain was of the highest importance 
to England ; it prevented a cordial imion between the catholic powers 
of Europe for checking the progress of the Reformation, and it secured 



THE STATES-SYSTEM OF EUROPE. 525 

support for her doubtful title, ere her noble qualities becoming known, 
earned for her the best of all securities, the affections of the English 
nation. 

Mary, queen of Scots, was the niece of Henry VIII., and next heir 
to his crown if the illegitimacy of Elizabeth were established ; she was 
wedded to the heir-apparent of the French monarchy ; her maternal 
uncles, the princes of Lorraine, were remarkable for capacity, valor, 
and daring ambition, and she had reasonable prospects of success at a 
time when Scotland was divided between the contending communions, 
Ireland altogether catholic, and while catholics predonunated in the 
north of England. The death of Henry II., by a mortal wound in a 
tournament, raised Mary's husband, the feeble Francis II., to the French 
throne, and through the young queen's influence transferred the power 
of the monarchy to the princes of Lorraine. The bigoted Philip II. 
was so alarmed at the probable accession of power to his great rivals, 
that he not only acknowledged Elizabeth's title, but proffered her mar- 
riage. She declined the offer, and Philip gave his hand to the princess 
Elizabeth of France, and concluded a treaty with that power at Chateau 
Cambresis. Though no express stipulations were made, it was well 
known that the extirpation of heresy formed a part of this alliance be- 
tween the two great catholic powers ; it led to a furious war of religion, 
which ended in the establishment of a new European state. 

Before entering on the history of the religious wars in France and 
the Netherlands, it is of importance to examine the state of England 
and Scotland during the early part of Elizabeth's reign. On the death 
of Francis II. (Dec, 1560), Mary was compelled to return to her native 
dominions by the jealousy of her mother-in-law, Catherine de Medicis, 
Avho secretly envied the power of the princess of Lorr^-ine. She left 
France with a heavy heart, and from the very first moment of her land- 
ing had to endure indignities the most mortifying to her proud spirit. 
Popery had been overthrown in Scotland, but the protestantism erected 
in its stead was just as bigoted and as intolerant as the ancient creed 
had been in the worst of times. Still, the winning manners of the 
queen, and the weakness of her party, prevented any immediate out- 
break ; and the confidence of the protestants in the earl of Moray re- 
strained the violence of their fanaticism. The marriage of Mary to the 
young Lord Darnley, in spite of the remonstrances both of Elizabeth 
and Lord Moray (a. d. 1565), led to the first open breach between the 
queen and her subjects. Several lords, indignant at the refusal of security 
to the protestant religion sought safety in England, and they soon gain- 
ed Darnley himself to join their association. An Italian, of mean birth, 
David Rizzio, having been appointed private secretary to the queen, 
gained such an ascendency over her, that Darnley's jealousy was roused; 
he entered into a conspiracy with the exiled lords, introduced an armed 
band secretly into the palace, arrested Rizzio in the queen's presence, 
and murdered him at the door of her chamber. The birth of a son led 
to an apparent reconciliation between Mary and her husband ; but its. 
hoUowness was proved by Darnley's being excluded from witnessing 
the baptism of his own child. The appearance of renewed affection 
was maintained notwithstanding this insult ; Darnley fell sick, Mary 
visited him with apparent anxiety, and, under the pretence that quiet 



526 MODERN HISTORY, 

^as necessary to an invalid, removed him to a solitary house called the 
Kirk of Field. On the 9th of February, 1567, this house was blown 
lip with gunpowder, and the unfortunate Darnlcy's lifeless body carried 
to some distance, where it was found without any external mark of 
violence. The measures taken by Mary to screen Bothwell, univer- 
sally regarded as the author of this crime, and her subsequent marriage 
to that nobleman, seemed conclusive evidence that she had countenanced 
her husband's murder. The Scottish lords flew to arms ; Mary was 
forced to yield herself a prisoner to her irritated subjects, and Bothwell 
fled into exile. 

The unfortunate queen, confined in Lochleven castle, was forced to 
abdicate in favor of her son, who was crowned with the title of James 
VI. She escaped from her prison, and soon found herself at the head 
of a numerous army, but within eleven days from her deliverance she 
was completely defeated in the battle of Langside, and forced to seek 
refuge in England (a. d. 1568). Elizabeth placed the fugitive in close 
custody, a measure which her safety perhaps demanded, but which was 
scarcely consistent with her honor. The insurrections of the catholic 
lords in the northern counties, and Mary's intrigues with the duke of 
Norfolk, combined with the open attempts of the catholic states against 
Elizabeth, rendered the unfortunate queen's detention a matter of pru- 
dent expediency, if not of prime necessity. 

The imbecile Francis II. succeeded his father Henry on the throne 
of France ; during his brief reign he was the mere tool of the Guises, 
whose great anxiety was to establish the inquisition in France. Philip 
II. was engaged in a similar attempt in the Netherlands, and both pro> 
yoked a desperate resistance. Like his father Charles V., Philip was 
ambitious of universal monarchy, but he used different means ; he hoped 
to gain the clergy by his zeal, to win the nobles by the bribes which 
the wealth of Spanish America enabled him to offer, and to subdue the 
people by the united efforts of ecclesiastical and aristocratic influence. 
But in the Netherlands, as in France, the proposal to establish the in- 
quisition was a fatal error of despotism ; it provoked the fierce resistance 
of all who were worthy of their country, it identified the papacy with 
cruelty and slavery, it gave to the reformed leaders the proud title of 
deliverers of their country. The election of Pius IV. to the chair of 
St. Peter precipitated the civil war in France (a. d. 1560). A con- 
spiracy was formed for removing the Guises, in which many ardent 
catholics joined ; it was discovered and defeated, but the sanguinary 
cruelty of the Lorraine princes rendered their victory injurious to their 
cause ; the memory of the martyrs they slaughtered won proselytes, 
and confirmed opposition. So powerful were the Huguenots, that lib- 
erty of conscience was sanctioned in an assembly of the Notables at 
Fontainebleau ; and it was proposed to convoke a national council for 
regulating the affairs of the Gallican church. Had France been ruled 
by an energetic sovereign, acquainted with the interests of his crown 
and the wishes of the nation, the French church at this moment might 
have been rendered as independent of Rome as the English : the pope 
saw the danger, and he induced Francis to abandon the national synod, 
by promising the speedy convocation of a general council. Both the 
emperor and the king of France objected to reassembling the bishops 



THE STATES-SYSTEM OF EUROPE. 527 

at Trent, declaring that its name was odious to the protestants ; but the 
ill health of Francis II., who was fast sinking into the grave, induced 
Pius to quicken his proceedings, and bulls for the continuation of the 
council wore issued. In the meantime the states-general assembled in 
France. The prince of Conde and the king of Navarre, the great 
leaders of the Huguenot parly, were arrested when they appeared at 
court, and the former received sentence of death. But the queen- 
mother, Catherine de Medicis, dreading that the regency would be 
seized by the Guises when the king died, secretly intrigued with the 
Huguenots to secure their support, and the life of Conde was the pledge 
and the reward of their assistance. But while she thus courted the 
alliance of the protestants, she secretly informed Philip II. that her 
hatred of the Reformation was unabated, and that she only waited a fa- 
vorable opportunity to imitate his example of merciless butchery and 
persecution. She intrigued with both parties, a fatal error ; for had 
she frankly embraced one, she would have stamped the other with the 
character of revolt ; her Italian cunning only served to render civil war 
inevitable. 

The duke of Guise saw clearly that, to sustain the part he designed 
to act, it was necessary to attempt something of more than ordinary 
magnitude ; he raised the cry '' the church is in danger ;" ignorance 
and bigotry responded to the summons ; he placed himself at the head 
of the zealous supporters of papal infallibility, hoping to destroy, by one 
blow, the queen-regent, who was suspected of culpable indifference to 
the interests of the faith, the government, which seemed ready to rec- 
ognise the principles of toleration, and the Huguenots. Like his op- 
ponents, he appealed to the people, and attempted to guide public opin- 
ion ; like them, too, he declared himself the steadfast friend of the 
monarchy : thus the struggle between the two parties had for its prize 
the throne of France, and for its pretext the defence of royalty. 

In the meantime, the council of Trent continued its deliberations, 
without showing any symptom of a desire to conciliate the spirit of the 
age, by improving either the doctrine or the discipline of the church. 
The bishops wasted their time in scholastic disputations, and proved 
how delusive were their professions of a desire for peace, by celebra- 
ting the victory obtained over the Huguenots at Dreux, by a public 
thanksgiving. In fact, the council terrified nobody but Pius IV., who 
saw his power attacked on every side. Maximilian, the son of the 
emperor Ferdinand, having been elected king of the Romans, refused 
for a long time to receive the sanction of his election from the pontiff, 
and finally accepted it as a mere ceremony, venerable on account of its 
antiquity ; it would have been better for the holy see to have abjured 
such a privilege, than to have it preserved as a subject of ridicule and 
mockery. 

But though the public proceedings at Trent were far from injuring 
the progress of the Reformation, there were secret plans devised fraught 
with imminent peril to the protestants. One of these was revealed, 
by the imprudence of the cardinal of Lorraine. On the 10th of May, 
1563, he read a letter from his niece, Mary, queen of Scots, " submit- 
ting herself to the council, and promising that when she succeeded to 
the throne of England, she would subject both her kingdoms to the 



MODERN HISTORY. 

obedience due to the apostolic see." He added, verbally, that she 
would have sent prelates, as representatives of Scotland, to the council, 
had she not been restrained by the necessity of keeping terms with her 
heretical councillors. The Italians vi^ere engaged everywhere alarming 
monarchs with the republican tendency of the Reformation ; a charge 
which seemed to derive some support from the revolts of the peasants 
in Germany, the troubles in Flanders, and the confusion of France. 
Philip II. was not the only sovereign who regarded heretics as rebels, 
and believed that the papacy would be found an efficient aid to despo- 
tism in crushing civil as well as religious liberty. 

At length the council of Trent terminated its sittings ; eighteen 
years of debate had produced no plan of reform for ecclesiastical 
morals, discipline, or doctrine (a. d. 1564). One of the last acts of the 
assembled fathers was to issue an anathema against heretics, Avhich 
justified the protestants in their refusal to recognise the acts of the 
council. But we should commit a great error if we supposed that this 
last of the general councils produced no change in the constitution of 
the papacy, it organized the spiritual despotism of the popes, clearly per- 
ceiving that the temporal empire was irrecoverably lost, and it placed 
the holy see in the position of an ally to the monarchs who were eager 
to maintain despotic power. From the time of this council to the pres- 
ent day, every sovereign of France and Spain, remarkable for hostility 
to constitutional freedom, has been equally conspicuous for his attach- 
ment to the holy see, and the articles of faith ratified by the council of 
Trent. It was by this assembly that the marriage of priests was 
definitely prohibited. We have aheady shown how necessary an 
element this law has been to the spiritual despotism possessed, and 
temporal supremacy claimed, by the pope. Family and country had no 
ties on the bishops of the catholic church ; Rome enjoyed exclusive 
possession of every feeling that can render man a good subject or a 
good citizen ; the infallibility and omnipotence of the pope were made 
articles of faith, by prelates whose whole heart was engaged in sup- 
porting the supremacy of the holy see ; the popes could rouse nations 
to revolt, and trouble empires, because they had obedient emissaries in 
every parish ; the doctrine of implicit submission to the successors 
of St.' Peter was taught by priests, when it could not be enforced by 
armies, and it was found sufficiently efhcacious to harass Europe with 
a century of war. Pius IV. comprehended the immense value of an 
unmarried clergy ; though he had violently condemned the administra- 
tion of the eucharist in both kinds, he relaxed the prohibition at the in- 
stance of the emperor Maximilian, and permitted the cup to be given to 
the laity in Germany ; but on the point of celibacy he was inflexible, 
for he was justly convinced that it was the great bond by which all the 
portions of papal domination were united, and that if it should be relaxed, 
the entire edifice would fall in sunder. 

After the dissolution of the council, a general suspicion was diffused 
through the protestants of Europe, that a league for their destruction 
had been formed by some of the leading catholic powers. It is now 
sufficiently notorious that these suspicions were not groundless, and 
that Pius IV. was weary of the slow steps by which the members of 
this pretended holy alliance advanced to the verge of an exterminating; 



THE STATES-SYSTEM OF EUROPE. 529 

war. He earnestly urged a personal interview between Catherine de 
Medicis and Philip II. ; it was declined by the latter on account of his 
ill health, but he sent a worthy representative, the duke of Alva, to hold 
a conference with the queen-regent and her son, Charles IX., at 
Bayonne. The pretext for the meeting was an interview between the 
young queen of Spain and her mother, Catherine de Medicis ; but the 
presence of the duke of Alva, the avowed enemy of the protestants, 
whose extirpation he openly proclaimed to be his most solemn duty to 
God or man, was a clear proof that more important designs were con- 
templated. The days were spent in all the sports and festivities that 
are to be found in a luxurious and licentious court. But at the dead 
hour of midnight, when the courtiers, exhausted by the tournament, the 
table, and the dance, retired to repose, Catherine held secret conferen- 
ces with Alva in the apartments of her probably unconscious daughter, 
Elizabeth. They agreed in their object, the destruction of the Hugue- 
nots, and all the parties disposed to place restrictions on the royal au- 
thority in the French and Spanish dominions, but they differed very 
widely as to the means by which this might be most effectually accom- 
plished. Alva recommended the most violent measures, edicts of ex- 
termination supported by powerful armies, military execution of all who 
ventured to offer any opposition, and a general massacre of the Hugue- 
not congregations. But though Catherine would not have shown any 
scruple in adopting these, or even more atrocious plans, she was well 
aware that Alva's projects could not be executed without the aid of a 
Spanish army, and she was too jealous of her own authority to allow a 
foreign court to exercise any influence in the kingdom which she gov- 
erned as regent. She relied on her own craft and cunning to retain 
power, for her zeal for religion was always made subservient to her 
ambition, and she was infinitely more afraid of any combination of the 
nobles of France to restrain the royal authority, than of the real or sup- 
posed progress of heretical opinions. She hated the Huguenots rather 
as a political than as a religious body, for the aristocratic leaders of the 
sect were more bent on rendering the nobles independent of the crown, 
than of delivering the Galilean church from the power of the pope, and 
it was the aristocratic character thus imprinted on the principles of the 
reformation in France, which prevented the protestant movement from 
ever becoming popular with the great body of the middle and the lower 
ranks in France. In their minds it was associated with feudalism, 
which had become so odious to the French people that they would 
have accepted the worst foi'm of oriental despotism in preference. 

Philip began to execute his part of the agreement by a vigorous effort 
to establish the Inquisition in Flanders ; and to put an end to the insur- 
rection which such a measure provoked, he appointed the duke of Alva 
lord lieutenant of the Netherlands, with almost absolute authority. 
Many of the Flemish merchants and manufacturers left their country ; 
they brought their industry and their capital to England ; a circum- 
stance which had no small share in the rapid growth of England's com- 
mercial prosperity. The cruelties of Alva, the noble resistance of the 
prince of Orange, long the head and hope of the protestant party in 
Europe, and the final establishment of the independence of the Seven 
United Provinces, belong to general history ; but in this narrative we 

34 



530 • MODERN HISTORY. 

must not omit to mention, that Philip's brutal obstinacy was frequently- 
blamed by the court of Rome ; the crafty Italians would have preferred 
fraud to violence, and assassination to the perils of open war (a. d. 
1572). It must also be mentioned, that the Turks joined in the contest, 
as the protectors of the Flemings, and that their defeat by Don John of 
Austria, at Lepanto, finally delivered Europe from the perils with 
which it was menaced by Mohammedan barbarism. Pius V., who as- 
cended the papal throne (a. d. 1566), was disposed to take advantage 
of the victory at Lepanto, and organize a league against the Turks ; but 
Philip was jealous of the glory acquired by his brother, and he declared 
that nothing should divert him from the prosecution of the war in Flan- 
ders. This pontiff', who was afterward canonized as a saint, was in- 
flexible in his hatred of the protestants, but he made some efforts to- 
remedy the evils of the church by founding schools and colleges, and. 
excluding persons of immoral life from ecclesiastical dignities. He 
was succeeded by Gregory XIII. 

In the spring of 1560, the French protestants were detected in a 
conspiracy for taking the infant king out of the hands of the persecu- 
ting Guises, and expelling the entire Lorraine family from France. 
The massacres with which this crime was punished, produced retalia- 
tion ; a civil war ensued, which, interrupted by short and unsteady 
truces, lasted to 1570, when a treaty, favorable to the Huguenots, was- 
concluded at vSt. Germains. To cement this peace, a marriage was 
proposed between the young king of Navarre, the hereditary leader of 
the French protestants, and the princess Margaret, the beautiful sister 
of the king of France. The proposal diffused such universal joy, that 
even the more violent of the catholic party were forced to acquiesce^, 
and preparations were made for celebrating the nuptials at Paris with.' 
e!xtraordinary magnificence. Admiral Coligni and the other protestant 
leaders were invited to witness the festivities, and the chief catholic 
lords, headed by the duke of Guise, came to share in the general 
reconciliation. 

The events which led to the fearful tragedy that accompanied this- 
marriage, have been so misrepresented by party writers on every side, 
that it is desirable to state the facts at some length, as they have been 
narrated by the principal actors themselves. At this period the popu- 
lace of Paris was the most bigoted and sanguinary mob to be found in 
Europe. They went beyond the most cruel edicts of their rulers in 
persecuting all who were suspected of heretical opinions, and not un- 
frequently took the law into their own hands, against the wishes of the- 
court and the clergy. The presence of Coligni and the protestant 
lords, was, therefore, a source of indignant grief to the fanatical multi- 
tude, and nothing but the presence of the royal guards prevented out- 
burst of popular violence. Guise and his friends, opposed to the Hu- 
guenots as heretics, and to their leaders as rivals, fostered this general 
discontent, while the queen-mother, Catherine, negotiated with both 
parties, believing that she could only retain power by balancing one 
against the other. 

Charles IX., feeble in body, and weak in intellect, had just attained 
his legal majority, but the real power of the state was wielded by Cath- 
erine and her favorite son, Henry, for whom she always showed herself 



THE STATES-SYSTEM OF EUROPE. 531 

■willing to sacrifice the rest of her children. In some of his conversa- 
tions with the protestant lords, Charles complained very bitterly of the 
state of thraldom in which he was held, and Coligni, commiserating 
the unhappy monarch, promised to aid in his deliverance. The king 
SQon began to vamit of his design to assume the reins of power, and to 
remove his mother and brother from the court. They took the alarm, 
and easily discovering by whose counsels the king was influenced, 
resolved to assassinate the admiral Coligni. Henry hired a man for 
the purpose, and lent him his own gun ; but in order to avert suspicion, 
he stationed the assassin in the lodgings of a retainer of the duke of 
Guise. Coligni was shot as he passed the house, but the wound was 
not mortal ; before his friends could break open the door, the assassin 
had escaped, leaidng his gun behind him. At first, the suspicions of 
the protestants were directed against the duke of Guise, but the gun, 
and some other circumstances, soon led them to discover the real 
instigators of the plot, and they very imprudently proclaimed their 
intention to exact heavy vengeance upon Catherine and her favorite 
son. 

In this emergency, Catherine convoked a secret council of her 
friends, and there it was resolved to massacre all the Huguenots on the 
eve of St. Bartholomew (a. d. 1572), and thus crush the entire party at 
one blow. The conspirators, seven in number, were well aware that 
they could rely on the royal guards, who were still animated by all the 
passions of the late religious wars, and they also knew that the Parisian 
populace waited but a signal to indulge in the excesses of savage 
bigotry. It was further resolved that the atrocious plot should be kept 
secret from the king until it was on the eve of execution, but that all ar- 
rangements for effectually accomplishing the general slaughter should 
be made, and everything kept in readiness to begin, the moment that his 
consent had been obtained. 

It was late in the evening when Catherine went to Charles, accom- 
panied by her chosen advisers, and told him that the protestants had 
forrned a plan for the extermination of the royal family, which could 
only be frustrated by the most immediate and decisive measures. The 
feeble monarch, who was not many degrees removed from idiotcy, 
exhibited every sign of helpless alarm. While in this condition, his 
mother placed before him the dreadful decree of extermination, and 
demanded his signature ; Charles at first refused, and for some time 
it was doubtful whether his consent could be obtained. At length, 
in a paroxysm of rage mingled with insanity, he exclaimed, " I con- 
sent, provided that you kill them all, and leave no survivor to reproach 
me." 

It was about midnight that the sounding of the tocsin summoned the 
bands of murderers to commence the work of destruction. Most of the 
unsuspecting Huguenots were massacred in their beds, or shot on the 
roofs of their houses while attempting to escape. Charles himself, 
armed with a gun, stationed himself in a tower, from which he fired 
upon such fugitives as attempted to escape across the Seine ; the palace 
itself was not respected ; several of the attendants of the young king of 
Navarre were murdered in the royal apartments, and he was himself 
exposed to considerable danger. 



632 MODERN HISTORY. 

The massacre lasted for eight days and nights without any apparent 
diminution of the fury of the murderers. Several catholics perished, 
the victims of mistake or of private animosity, and similar atrocities 
were perpetrated in the principal cities of the kingdom. At first, the 
court seemed disposed to throw the blame of this fearful atrocity on the 
duke of Guise and his faction, but finding that the guilt could not be 
concealed, it Avas openly avowed, and a royal manifesto issued in its 
justification. The wish of Charles that none should survive to reproach 
liim was not fulfilled : nearly two millions of Huguenots still survived to 
avenge the fate of their murdered brethren. The civil Avar Avas re- 
ncAved Avith greater fury than, ever ; the protestants felt themselves 
strengthened l)y the sympathy of all whom bigotry had not rendered 
callous to every feeling of humanity ; and the authors of this unparalleled 
crime had the mortification to discover that it had been perpetrated in 
A'ain. 

While public rejoicings Avere made at Rome and Madrid, for the sup- 
posed overthrow of heresy in France, the horror and indignation excited 
by the massacre in northern Europe, not only among protestant, but 
even catholic princes, proved a serious injury to the catholic cause. 
The prince of Orange placed himself at the head of the revolters in the 
Netherlands — the Gueux, or Beggars, as they were contemptuously 
called by their oppressors. Though at first unsuccessful, he gave the 
insurrection a determinate character by the capture of Brille (a. d. 1572), 
a conquest which secured him a naval station for his daring cruisers, 
and encouraged the cities of Holland and Zealand to reject the Spanish 
yoke. The massacre of St. BartholomeAV Aveakened the insurgents, by 
depriving them of the aid of the French Huguenots ; but instead of 
quelling their courage, it only stimulated them to perseA'^erance. De- 
feated by land, and deprived of their strongest cities, they attacked the 
Spaniards on sea, and captured several rich freights. At length Alva 
retired in despair, and Avas succeeded by Zunega y Requesens (Decem- 
ber, 1573). 

In the very commencement of his administration, Requesens gained 
a decisive victory over the insurgents at Monher Moor, near Nimeguen, 
The three brothers of the prince of Orange fell in this fatal battle, Avhich 
would' probably have terminated the war, but for a mutiny of the Span- 
ish soldiers. The turbulence of the royal army, the insolence and 
licentiousness of the Spaniards, and the pillage of Antwerp by the muti- 
neers, excited the indignation of catholics and protestants. Five of the 
Batavian and six of the Belgic proAdnces entered into the pacification 
of Ghent, Avhich provided for the expulsion of foreigners, the repeal of 
Alva's sanguinary edicts, and restoration of the ancient poAver of the 
states-general (a. d. 1576). Don John of Austria, who had succeeded 
Requesens in the government, disarmed suspicion by acceding to the 
league of Ghent ; but this confederacy soon fell to pieces, OAving to the 
jealousy betAveen the protestant and catholic states. It now became 
manifest that freedom could only be attained by a close union of the 
northern provinces, and a final rupture Avith Spain. Acting on this be- 
lief, the prince of Orange organized the confederacy of Utrecht, the 
basis of that commonwealth so renowned under the name of the Repub- 
lic of the United Provinces (a. d. 1579). 



THE STATES SYSTEM OF EUROPE. 533 

But, notwithstanding these precautions, the nomination of the duke 
of Parma to the regency threatened to ruin all the projects of the prince 
of Orange. The southern provinces, inspired with a jealousy of the 
protestant designs on the catholic religion, entered into an alliance with 
the regent, and levied an army against the insurgents of the north. But 
the Hollanders, thus deserted, did not lose courage ; they formally re- 
nounced their allegiance to the Spanish crown, and chose the duke of 
Anjou, brother to the king of France, for their sovereign (a. d. 1581). 
But this choice did not produce the expected advantages ; and the duke 
of Anjou, after a brief struggle, abandoned all hopes of competing with 
the duke of Parma, and returned to France. It is probable that the 
states would have chosen the prince of Orange for their constitutional 
sovereign, but that hero was stabbed by a fanatic, whether instigated 
wholly by bigotry, or partly seduced by Spanish gold, it is now difficult 
to determine (a. d. 1.584). Amid the general gloom spread over the 
protestant confederates by the loss of theif illustrious leader, the Hol- 
landers and Zealanders chose Maurice, his son, a young man of eigh- 
teen, their stadtholder and captain-general by sea and land. The war 
still continued ; but though the duke of Parma prevailed in the field, and 
finally captured the important city of Antwerp (a. d. 1585), the confed- 
erates never dreamed of submission. They offered the sovereignty of 
their republic to Queen Elizabeth on certain conditions ; and though she 
rejected the proffer, she sent {he earl of Leicester to their aid with a 
considerable army. The misconduct of Leicester prevented the Hol- 
landers from gaining all the advantages from the English auxiliaries that 
might have been expected ; but the breaking out of war between Eng- 
land and Spain, the death of the duke of Parma in the civil wars of 
France, and the heroism of Prince Maurice, gave them such a decided 
superiority by sea and land, that their independence was secured and 
finally recognised by Spain (a. d. 1609). 

Before entering on the history of the war between England and Spain, 
it is necessary to take a retrospective view of the state of France. On 
the death of Charles IX., his brother Henry III., resigned the throne of 
Poland for that of France (a. d. 1574). This prince, on his return, be- 
gan a war of persecution, and concluded by an ignominious peace with 
his own subjects, in less than a year. He then abandoned himself to 
the lowest debaucheries, strangely combined with the practice of the 
most degrading superstitions. Opposed to the king, were the princes 
of Lorraine, whose chief, Henry, duke of Guise, was deservedly re- 
garded as the leader of the violent catholic party in France. Noble in 
person, polished in demeanor, endowed with superior talents, and ani- 
mated by grasping ambition, he seemed formed by nature to become the 
leader of a faction, and art had lent its aid to improve all these advan- 
tages. The utter contempt into which Henry III. had fallen, and the 
rage of the catholics at the tolerance granted to the protestants by the 
late pacification, encouraged the duke of Guise to raise the cry of re- 
ligion, and the fanatic populace, roused by this hypocritical pretext, be- 
gan to take arms to defend their church. The Holy League, drawn up 
by Guise's uncle, the cardinal of Lorraine, for the defence of the cath- 
olic religion, was signed aud sworn to by catholics of all ranks and 
conditions in Paris and the provinces. The duke of Guise was ap- 



534 MODERN HISTORY. 

pointed head of the league ; the pope and the king of Spain declared 
themselves its protectors, and the wretched Henry was forced to 
yield to the faction, assemble the states at Blois, and revoke the 
freedom of conscience granted to the Huguenots. The consequence 
was a civil war, the ninth which afflicted France since the death of 
Francis H. 

The fate of the unhappy queen of Scots, which had been determined 
ever since the massacre of St. Bartholomew, was precipitated by the 
formation of the Holy League. Some enthusiastic English catholics 
entered into a conspiracy for assassinating Elizabeth ; Mary was cog- 
nizant of their plans, but her participation in the plot is very doubtful.. 
However, an act of parliament was passed authorizing her trial ; com- 
missioners were sent for the purpose to Fotheringay castle, the place 
of her confinement, and after an investigation, in which the forms of 
law and the principles of justice were little regarded, she Avas con- 
demned to death. Elizabeth, with much apparent, and some real reluc- 
tance, signed the warrant of execution, and placed it in the hands of 
Davison, her private secretary, enjoining him not to use it without fur- 
ther orders (a. d. 1587). Davison, however, showed the warrant to 
the members of the council, and they, without further consulting Eliza- 
beth, had the unhappy Mary beheaded. Henry HI. of France, soon 
afterward, had his capital enemies, the duke and cardinal of Guise, 
assassinated ; but this atrocious crime only roused the leaguers to 
more Aagorous measures. They assembled a parliament, deposed the 
king, and created the duke of Mayenne lieutenant-general of the king- 
dom. 

Philip H., in the meantime, prepared an expedition which he fondly 
hoped would conquer England, and thus destroy the great stay of prot- 
estantism in Europe. Ships were prepared in all the ports throughout 
his extensive dominions ; Spain, Portugal, Naples, and those parts of 
the low countries which still recognised his authority. An army of 
30,000 picked men was assembled under the most experienced officers 
of Italy, Spain, and Germany, and the chief command was intrusted to 
the celebrated duke of Parma. The pope blessed an expedition that 
seemed destined once more to restore the supremacy of the holy see ; 
and the catholics throughout Europe were so confident of success, that 
they named the armament " The Invincible Armada." Elizabeth un- 
dauntedly prepared to meet the danger. She intrusted the command of 
her fleet to a catholic nobleman. Lord Howard of Effingham, while 
the land army was placed under the command of the earl of Leicester. 
Nothing could exceed the enthusiastic determination of the English 
people to defend their religion and liberties, though the queen had but 
one ally on whose assistance she could reckon, James, king of Scot- 
land ; she trusted to the attachment of her people, and found that the 
love of her subjects was the best security of her throne. 

On the thirtieth of May, 1588, the armada sailed from Lisbon: but 
having been shattered by a storm, it was forced to stop at Corunna, and 
it did not reach the English channel until the nineteenth of July. Here 
the Spanish admiral, the duke of Medina Sidonia, was surprised to 
find that the duke of Parma Avas not prepared to join him Avith a fleet 
and army. While he hesitated, the light English squadrons assailed 



THE STATES-SYSTEM OP EUROPE. 535 

5iis heavy vessels on all sides, and after seven days, three of vi^hich 
only passed without warm actions, though there was no decisive en- 
■gagement, the armada was so shattered by English skill and bravery, 
that it was forced to take shelter in the roads of Calais. The earl of 
Effingham, following up his advantage, sent in fireships during the night, 
which destroyed several vessels, and threw the others into such confu- 
sion, that the Spaniards ho longer thought of victory, but escape. The 
duke of Medina Sidonia, dreading again to encounter the English fleet, 
attempted to return home by sailing round the north of Scotland ; but 
dreadful storms overtook the armada, many of the ships were driven on 
the shores of Norway, Ireland, and the north of Scotland, and out of 
the triumphant navy that sailed from Lisbon, only a few shattered ves- 
sels returned to bring intelligence of the calamity that had overwhelmed 
the rest. 

This glorious success was deservedly regarded, not so mych as the 
triumph of England, as of the protestant cause throughout Europe ; it 
virtually established the independence of the Dutch, and it raised the 
courage of the Huguenots in France. It completely destroyed the de- 
cisive influence that Spain had acquired in the affairs of Europe ; ever 
since the shipwreck of the armada, the Spanish state and people seem 
to have lost all energy, and sunk into almost hopeless decay. 

Henry III. of France, obliged by the violence of the league to seek 
the aid of his protestant subjects, was murdered by a fanatic monk, 
■just as he was upon the point of driving his enemies from Paris. By 
his death, the house of Yalois became extinct, and the right of inheri- 
tance passed to the Bourbon family, descended from Robert, the sixth 
son of St. Louis. Its representative was Henry of Navarre, who now 
claimed to be Henry IV. of France, a warlike, chivalrous prince, en- 
dowed with many amiable qualities, but disliked by his new subjects 
on account of his attachment to the protestant religion. After a long 
struggle, Henry found it necessary to abjure his faith, in order to se- 
cure his crown ; but he atoned to the Huguenots for his compulsory 
desertion, by issuing the celebrated edict of Nantes. Still he had to 
make good his rights by the sword ; for his abjuration could not induce 
either the pope or Philip II. to give up their plans. He received some 
aid from Elizabeth, but his final success was mainly due to his own 
eminent abilities ; his triumph was virtually completed by the capture 
of Paris (a. d. 1594), but Spain persevered in its hostility until the 
peace of Vervins (a. d> 1598). 

The close of Elizabeth's reign was clouded by sanguinary wars 
against her Irish subjects, whose insurrections were too often provoked 
by the injustice of their rulers, and by the execution of her ill-fated fa- 
vorite, the earl of Essex. But notwithstanding these domestic calami- 
ties, she maintained the war against Spain with great vigor, and en- 
couraged her subjects to undermine the strength of that kingdom by 
enterprises against its commerce. The annexation of Portugal to the 
crown of Spain, apparently gave the subjects of Philip II. complete 
command of the Indian, as well as the South American trade ; but the 
wars of that monarch with England and Holland, raised both countries 
to a rivalry that terminated to the disadvantage, if not to the ruin of the 
Spanish commerce. In 1591, the English, for the first time, performed 



536 MODERN HISTORY. , 

the voyage to India; and in 1600, the year in which the East India 
company was founded, they took possession of the island of St. Hele- 
na. The Hanseatic league, now fast sinking into decay, complained 
loudly of the encouragement given by the English government to its 
native merchants, and prohibited the English from trading in Germany ; 
but this unwise attempt to enforce monopoly produced measures of 
retaliation tliat speedily proved fatal to their privileges aad their power. 
During Elizabeth's reign, England attained the highest rank among 
European states, and may be said to have held the balance of power in 
Christendom ; that this was owing, in no small degree, to the personal 
character of the sovereign, is manifest from the rapid decline of British 
influence, Avhen the sceptre passed to the feeble house of Stuart. 

Section IX. — Tlie Age of Gustavus Adolphus. 

From the death of Charles V. to the accession of Ferdinand II., 
there were few events in German history that produced any important 
result in the general politics of Europe. Ferdinand I. and his son 
Maximilian II. were sincerely attached to peace, and Rudolph II. was 
willing to leave the world in quiet, if the world would have left him 
undisturbed. From the time of his accession (a. d. 1576), Rudolph's 
great anxiety was to unite the Germanic princes in a firm league against 
the Turks ; but theological discussions, united with political ambition, 
served to prepare the way for fresh convulsions. The influence of the 
Jet lits in the imperial court so alarmed the protestants, that they 
formed a new alliance, called " The Evangelical Union," of which the 
elector-palatine was declared the chief (a. d. 1609), and this was op- 
posed by a catholic league, in which foreign as well as German prin- 
ces were joined. In this unsettled state of afiairs, the competition for 
succession to a small principality had nearly involved Europe in a gen- 
eral war. Henry IV. of France, after having secured himself on the 
throne, intrusted the chief management of his affairs to the duke of 
Sully, under whose wise administration the finances were so improved, 
and the strength of the kingdom so consolidated, that France began to 
take the lead in European policy. Henry had formed a great scheme 
for making all Christendom a federate republic, in which the rights and 
independence of the several states should be firmly secured. A more 
immediate project was the humiliation of the house of Austria, whose 
increasing power in Germany and Spain was deemed dangerous to all 
the surrounding countries. The vacancy in the dutchies of Cleves 
and Juliers, which, on the death of the duke without male heirs, had 
been seized by the emperor as lapsed fiefs, gave Henry a pretext for 
interfering in the affairs of Germany ; he formed alliances with several 
of his neighbors, and especially Avith the king of England and the Ital- 
ian princes. But while preparing to assist at the coronation of his 
queen, Mary de Medicis, he was stabbed by a fanatic, named Ravaillac 
(a. d. 1610), and the disturbances that ensued prevented the French 
from making further exertions in Germany. The dissensions in the 
Austrian family contributed to avert a general war. Rudolph was grad- 
ually driven from his whole dominions by his brother Matthias ; deserted 
by his ancient partisans, he became melancholy and distrustful, shutting 



THE STATES-SYSTEM OF EUROPE, 537 

himself up in his palace, where grief and want of exercise soon pro- 
duced a mortal disease, which brought him prematurely to the grave 
(a. D. 1611). 

Matthias succeeded to the imperial crown, and though he had been, 
previously befriended by the protestants, he threw himself into the 
arms of the catholic party, and thus increased the dissatisfaction which 
had led to the evangelical union ; he procured the crown of Bohemia 
for his cousin Ferdinand, archduke of Gratz, and this bigoted monarch 
soon forced his protestant subjects to revolt. While the war was yet 
in progress, Matthias died, and Ferdinand, to the great alarm of the- 
protestant party, was elected emperor (a. d. 1619). Ferdinand entered 
into close alliance with the Spanish branch of the house of Haps- 
burgh, but this family compact was not so formidable as it had been 
heretofore. The union of the crown of Portugal to that of Spain had 
not added much real strength to Philip II. ; the Portuguese hated the 
Spaniards, especially as they were compelled to abandon their lucrative 
commerce with the revolted Hollanders, and were finally deprived of 
the greater part of their Indian colonies by the successful republicans. 
The defeat of the armada, followed by these colonial losses, rendered 
the reign of Philip II. calamitous to the peninsula; but on his death 
(a. d. 1598) it was destined to sutler still greater losses from the bigotry 
of his successor. Philip III. expelled the Moriscoes or Moors, who 
had remained in the peninsula after the overthrow of the last Moham- 
medan dynasty, and thus deprived himself of the services of more than 
a million of his most industrious subjects (a. d. 1610). He intrusted 
the administration of the kingdom to favorites, chosen without discrim- 
ination, and made the custom of governing by ministers a maxim of 
state. On his death (a. d. 1621), Spain, though still respected and 
even feared, was in reality deplorably weak ; but the reign of Philip 
IV. almost completed its ruin ; the Catalans revolted, and placed them- 
selves under the protection of France ; the Portviguese, choosing for 
their monarch the duke of Braganza, achieved their independence 
(a. d. 1640), and the Neapolitans, harassed by the premier, the count- 
duke of Olivarez, attempted to form a republic. 

These events were not foreseen when Ferdinand became emperor. 
The Bohemian protestants, dreading his bigotry, chose Frederic, the 
elector-palatine, son-in-law of the British monarch, for their sovereign, 
and in an evil hour for himself, Frederic assumed the royal title, 
James I. was a monarch of much learning and little wisdom ; the nat- 
ural timidity of his disposition, and his anxiety to secure the hand of a 
Spanish princess for his son, induced him to observe a neutrality in 
this dispute, contrary to the ardent wishes of his subjects. Duped by 
vanity, he believed himself a consummate master of diplomacy, and 
entered into a series of negotiations, which only showed his weakness, 
and rendered him contemptible in the eyes of Europe. Deserted by 
his father-in-law, and by many of the protestant princes, on whose as- 
sistance he relied, the elector-palatine lost not only Bohemia, but his 
hereditary dominions, which were shared by his enemies (a. d. 1623). 

Circumstances, in the meantime, had occurred to change the neutral 
policy of England. The young prince Charles, accompanied by 
his favorite, the duke of Buckingham, had made a romantic journey to. 



538 MODERN HISTORY. 

Madrid, which, contrary to general expectation, led to the breaking off 
of the Spanish match. The discovery of a conspiracy for blowing up 
the British king and parliament with gunpowder (a. d. 1605), inflamed 
the English nation against the catholics, because the plot had been 
devised by some fanatics of that religion, who hoped in the confusion 
that must have ensued, to restore the supremacy of their church. Final- 
ly, Count Mansfelt, the ablest of the protestant leaders, succeeded in 
convincing James tliat he had been egregiousl)^ duped by the Spaniards. 
A new protestant union Avas formed, of which Christian IV., king of 
Denmark, was chosen the head, and the war burst forth with fresh 
violence. The imperial generals, Tilly and Wallenstein, were far 
superior to their protestant adversaries. Wallenstein, having been 
created duke of Friedland and chief commander of the imperial army 
raised by himself, acted with so much vigor, that Christian, threatened 
with the loss of his own dominions, was forced to purchase peace by 
renouncing all right to interfere in the afl'airs of Germany, and abandon- 
ing his allies, especially the dukes of Mecklenburg (a. d. 1629). 
Wallenstein obtained the investitute of Mecklenburg, and claimed hence- 
forth a rank among the princes of the empire. 

England had borne little share in this arduous contest. On the death 
of James (a. d. 1625), his son Charles I. ascended the British throne, 
and was almost immediately involved in a contest with his parliament, 
which eflectually diverted his attention from foreign affairs. The 
principal causes of this were the growing love of liberty in ihe English 
people ; the suspicions of danger to religion from the king's marriage 
with so bigoted a catholic as the princess Henrietta Maria, of France ; 
the unpopularity of Buckingham, the royal favorite ; and the increasing 
hostility of the puritans to the episcopal form of church government. 
The troubles and distractions by which France was weakened during 
the minority and the early part of the reign of Louis XIII. began to dis- 
appear when Cardinal Richelieu was placed at the head of the admin- 
istration. His great talents and singular firmness acquired for his 
country a new and vigorous influence in the political system of Europe, 
at the very moment when a counterpoise was most wanting to the over- 
grown power of the house of Austria. 

Richelieu's first operations were directed against the Huguenots, 
■whom he completely subdued and rendered utterly helpless by the 
capture of Rochelle. Scarcely had the reduction of this important city 
been eflected, Avhen the cardinal commenced his war against Austria 
by endeavoring to secure the dutchy of Mantua for the duke of Nevers, 
in opposition to the emperor, the king of Spain, and the duke of Savoy. 
The war was terminated by the treaty of Chierasio (a. d. 1631), which 
destroyed the Spanish supremacy in Italy, restored the old influence of 
France, and gave that power possession of several of the most important 
fortresses on the frontiers. But far more important was the share which 
Richelieu had in renewing the war in Germany, and bringing forward 
a protestant leader, able and willing to cope with the imperial generals. 

During the war of the Mantuan succession, the emperor Ferdinand 
published an edict at Vienna, commanding the protestanls to restore 
all the ecclesiastical benefices of which they had taken possession since 
the treaty of Passau. Some submitted, others remonstrated ; imperial 



THE STATES-SYSTEM OF EUROPE. 539 

commissioners were sent to decide on the claims of the bishops and 
monks to restitution ; the execution of the decree was intrusted to 
Wallenstein, who acted with so much rioor that the protestants were 
inflamed witli just rage, and even the catholics joined in demanding 
ji^tice against him from the emperor. So great was the clamor, that 
the emperor was forced to dismiss his general, and confer the command 
of the imperial army upon Count Tilly. Scarcely had this important 
step been taken, when Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden, secretly 
urged by some of the discontented protestant princes, published a dec- 
laration of war against the emperor, and after having captured the im- 
portant island of Rugen, landed in Germany (June 24, 1630). An 
alliance was formed between the king and the leading protestant princes 
of Pomerania, Brandenburg, and Hesse ; Saxony, after some efforts to 
preserve neutrality, was forced to accede to the league ; and Richelieu, 
who had no small share in forming the original plan, secured for the 
confederates the active co-operation of France. The early successes 
of Gustavus would have been more decisive but for the jealousy of the 
Saxon princes, who prevented his passage through their dominions, and 
thus hindered him from relieving the city of Magdeburg, hard pressed 
by Count Tilly and the imperial forces. The unfortunate city was 
finally taken by assault ; the cruel Tilly would show no mercy, thirty 
thousand of the inhabitants perished by water, fire, and sword ; and of 
this once flourishing city nothing was left standing except the cathedral 
and about one hundred and fifty fishing huts on. the banks of the Elbe. 

This atrocious cruelty cemented the alliance between Gustavus and 
the protestant princes ; the elector of Saxony, justly alarmed by the 
fate of his neighbors, and irritated by the menaces of Tilly, whom his 
recent success had filled with presumptuous pride, joined the king with 
all his forces at Wittemburg. A resolution to try the chances of battle 
was taken ; and at Leipsic the imperialists were so decisively over- 
thrown, that if Gustavus had marched immediately to Vienna, that city 
would probably have fallen. All the members of the evangelical union 
joined the king of Sweden ; the measures of the catholic confederates 
were disconcerted, and the whole country between the Elbe and the 
Rhine was occupied by the protestant forces. Early in the following 
year Count Tilly was killed in disputing with the Swedes the passage 
of the Lecji, and Gustavus overrun Bavaria. 

The emperor, in his distress, had recourse to Wallenstein, who was 
restored to command with unlimited powers. Gustavus attacked the 
imperialists in their intrenchments at Nur'emberg, and was defeated 
with some loss ; but, anxious to retrieve his fame, he sought an early 
opportunity of bringing his rival to a second engagement. The armies 
met at Lutzen (Nov. 16, 1632), the confederates attacked the impe- 
rialists in their intrenchments, and after a dreadful contest, that lasted 
nine hours, put them completely to the rout. But the victors had little 
cause to triumph ; Gustavus fell, mortally wounded, in the middle of the 
engagement, and died before the fortune of the day was decided. His 
death produced great changes in the political state of Europe. The 
elector-palatine, believing all his hopes of restoration blighted, died of 
a broken heart ; the protestant confederates, deprived of a head, were 
divided into factions ; while the Swedes, overwhelmed with sorrow. 



wo MODERN HISTORY. 

Baw the throne of their heroic prince occupied by a girl only seven 
years old. But the council of regency, appointed to protect the minori- 
ty of the young queen Christina, intrusted the management of the Ger- 
man war to the Chanceller Oxenstiern, a statesman of the highest 
order ; under his guidance, the protestant alliance again assumed ,a 
formidable aspect, and hostilities were prosecuted with vigor and suc- 
cess by the duke of Saxe Weimar and the generals Banier and Horn. 
An unexpected event added to their confidence ; Ferdinand became 
jealous of Wallenstein, and suspected him, not without cause, of aiming 
at sovereign power. The emperor was too timid to bring this powerful 
leader to a legal trial ; he, therefore, had recourse to the dishonorable 
expedient of assassination (a. d. 1634), and Wallenstein was murdered 
in his own camp. 

The confederates did not gain all the advantages they anticipated 
from the fall of the duke of Friedland ; the emperor's eldest son, the 
king of Hungary, having succeeded to the command, gained several 
advantages, and twenty thousand Spaniards arrived in Germany to the 
aid of the imperialists, under the duke of Feria. The protestant leaders, 
anxious to stop the progress of the king of Hungary, attacked him at 
Nordlingen. The battle was one of the most obstinate recorded in his- 
tory ; it ended in the complete rout of the confederates, notwithstanding 
the most vigorous eflbrts of the Swedes. The emperor improved his 
victory by negotiation ; he concluded a treaty Avith all the protestant 
princes, except the landgrave of Hesse, at Prague (a. d. 1635), and 
thus the whole weight of the war was thrown on the French and the 
Swedes. 

Section X. — Administration of the Cardinals Richelieu and Mazarine. 

Richelieu ruled France with a rod of iron ; hated alike by the nobili- 
ty and the people, he continued to hold the reins of government, and all 
conspiracies formed against him ended in the ruin of the contrivers. 
Jealousy of Gustavus prevented him from cordially co-operating with 
that prince, and Oxenstiern afterward was unwilling to give the French, 
any influence in Germany. But the battle of Nordlingen rendered a 
change of policy necessary, and the Swedish chancellor offered to put 
the French in immediate possession of Philipsburg and the province 
of Alsace, on condition of their taking an active share in the war against 
the emperor. Richelieu readily entered into a treaty so favorable to 
his projects for humbling the house of Austria. He concluded treaties 
with the Dutch republic and ihe duke of Savoy, proclaimed war against 
Spain, and in a very short space equipped five armies to act at once iu 
Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands. The balance now turned against 
the imperialists ; the duke of Saxe Weimar proved a worthy successor 
to the king of Sweden, and Banier restored the lustre of the Swedish 
arms by the victory he gained over the elector of Saxony at Wislock. 
The death of the emperor Ferdinand II. (a. d. 1637), and the accession 
of his son Ferdinand 111., made little alteration in the state of the war; 
the victorious leaders of the confederates invaded the hereditary do- 
minions of Austria, but in the midst of their triumphant career, the duke 
of Saxe Weimar fell a victim to poison (a. d. 1639), said to have been 
administered by an emissary of Richelieu, for the cardinal had reason 



THE STATES-SYSTEM OF EUROPE. 541 

to fear that the prince's patriotism would prove a serious obstacle to the 
aggrandizement of the French power. 

The war was still continued, but though the imperialists were gener- 
ally worsted, disunion crept into the councils of the confederates, and 
prevented them from improving their advantages. Banier's death might 
have proved their ruin, had he not been succeeded by Torstenson, a 
general of scarcely inferior abilities. While the Swedes, under their 
new leader, maintained their former eminence in Germany, and gained 
a complete victory at Leipsic, almost on the very ground where Gus- 
tavus had triumphed, the French were equally successful in Spain, 
having reduced Colioure and Perpignan.* The death of Richelieu, 
and his master, Louis XIIL, the accession of the infant Louis XIV. 
(a. d. 1643), and some changes in Germany, for a time inclined the 
Swedes to peace ; but when it was fomid that Cardinal Mazarine had 
resolved to pursue Richelieu's plans, and that France possessed such 
generals as Conde and Turenne, the hopes of the confederates were 
once more revived, and the Swedes had even the courage to provoke a 
fresh enemy by invading the dominions of Denmark. After several 
vicissitudes, the triumph of the confederates was so decided, that the 
emperor found it necessary to solicit terms of peace. After long and 
tedious negotiations, which varied according to the vicissitudes of the 
war, the celebrated peace of Westphalia was signed at Munster (a. d. 
1648), and became a fundamental law of the empire. 

While the protestant cause was thus triumphant in Germany, Eng- 
land was convulsed by civil war. The failure of the expedition to re- 
lieve Rochelle, and the complete overthrow of the Huguenots in France, 
had caused great discontent in England, and embittered the dispute be- 
tween the king and his parliament respecting the extent of the royal 
prerogative. The Petition of Right, extorted from Charles I., might 
have laid the foundation of a constitutional monarchy, had the king ad- 
hered strictly to its spirit ; but he continued to levy taxes by his own 
authority, and when the remonstrances of the commons became too en- 
ergetic, he dissolved the parliament (a. d. 1629), with a fixed resolution 
never to call another until he should see signs of a more compliant dis- 
position in the nation. Religious disputes aggravated these political 
animosities. When the ecclesiastical jurisdiction was wrested from the 
see of Rome, the people of England had submitted to a jurisdiction no 
less arbitrary in the prince, and the sovereign obtained absolute power 
in all affairs relative to the government of the church and the con- 
sciences of the people. An ecclesiastical tribunal, called the high com- 
mission court, was established under the immediate direction of the 
crown. Its judges enforced conformity with established ceremonies by 
fines and imprisonment. There were many who thought the English 
reformation incomplete ; they deemed that the church had not been suf- 
ficiently purified from Romish errors, and they wished for the simpler 
forms of worship that had been estabished in Scotland and Germany. 
Many of the puritans, as these reformers were called, had more justi- 
fiable reason for discontent ; they regarded the ecclesiastical sovereign- 

* Richelieu had just detected and punished a conspiracy, when Perpignan was 
taken. He sent intelligence of both events to Louis XIII., in the following laconic 
letter: " Sir, your enemies are dead, and your troops in possession of Perpignan." 



542 MODERN HISTORY. 

ty of the monarch as dangerous to general liberty, and they were anx- 
ious to transfer a portion of the authority to parUament. About this 
time, a sect, called from their founder, the Arminians, had rejected the 
strict doctrines of predestination and absolute decrees, maintained by 
the first reformers. Their number, in England, was yet small, but by 
the favor of James and Charles, some who held the Arminian doctrines 
were advanced to the highest dignities of the church, and formed the 
majority of the bench of bishops. They, in return for this countenance, 
inculcated the doctrines of passive obedience and unconditional sub- 
mission to princes. Hence Arminianism was regarded by the patriots 
in the house of commons with as much horror as popery, and the 
preacher of either doctrine was voted a capital enemy to the state. 

The success of Charles I. in his struggle with the commons de- 
pended very much upon the character of his ministers. The chief of 
these were Wentworth, earl of Strafford, a deserter from the popular 
party, and Laud, archbishop of Canterbury ; they were both men of 
arbitrary principles, and Strafford, especially, was very unscrupulous in 
the use of means to gain a favorite end. Without any regard to the 
petition of right, which was directly opposed to such measures, ton- 
nage, poundage, and other taxes were levied ; the penal laws against 
catholics were suspended on the payment of stipulated sums ; and 
such extensive jurisdiction given to those arbitrary tribunals, the courts 
of star-chamber and high commission, that the ordinary constitutional 
administration of justice almost entirely ceased. 

While these innovations spread secret discontent throughout England, 
Laud's efforts to model the Scottish church after the English form pro- 
duced a dangerous outbreak in Scotland. The attempt to introduce a 
liturgy, similar to that used in the English church, provoked a formida- 
ble riot ; and finally, " The solemn League and Covenant," a bond of 
confederation for the preservation of the national religion, was signed 
by a vast number of the higher and lower classes (a. d. 1638). Car- 
dinal Richelieu, fearing that the English government might oppose his 
designs on the Low Countries, and aware that he was disliked by the 
English queen, Henrietta, secretly encouraged the Scottish covenant- 
ers, and supplied their leaders with money, which, in spite of their 
exaggerated pretensions to patriotism and sanctity, they did not scruple 
to accept. Armies were levied, but neither party wished to merit the 
imputation of commencing civil war. A treaty Avas concluded at Ber- 
wick (a. d. 1639), by which Charles displeased his friends, who 
thought that he made concessions unworthy of a prince, and did not 
conciliate his opponents, who were resolved to be satisfied with nothing 
less than his full acceptance of the covenant. 

As might have been foreseen, the treaty of Berwick proved to be 
merely a suspension of arms. Strafford and Laud considered the re- 
bellion of the Scots to be so manifest, that they deemed the people of 
England could not entertain a doubt on the subject, and that the king 
would be supported in its suppression by a parliament. Charles adopt- 
ed the same opinions, and called a parliament, hoping to obtain a suffi- 
cient grant for carrying on the war (a. d. 1640) ; but the house of 
commons, postponing all consideration of taxes, applied itself directly 
to the redress of grievances, and an examination of the recent measures. 



THE STATES-SYSTEM OF EUROPE. 543- 

of the government. Incensed by this conduct, Charles dissolved the 
parliament, and attempted to raise money by new and unconstitutional 
expedients. The Scotch, not vvraiting to be attacked, crossed the bor- 
ders, defeated the earl of Northumberland at Newburn, and occupied 
Newcastle and Durham. The king was unable to cope with them in 
the field, and he therefore entered into a treaty by which he agreed to 
provide subsistence for the hostile army, until terms of pacification 
could be arranged. A new parliament was convoked, and, on the very 
first day of its meeting, the house of commons manifested its uncom- 
plying disposition, by choosing as its speaker a vehement opponent of 
the court. A more important and decisive step, was the impeachment 
of the earl of Strafford and Archbishop Laud on a charge of high trea- 
son ; after which, the armistice with the Scottish army was prolonged, 
and the Scots described not as enemies or rebels, but brethren ! Straf- 
ford's trial soon engrossed public attention ; he was condemned to death 
by an act of attainder, and Charles, after a long delay, was forced to 
consent to the public execution of his favorite minister. An attempt 
was next made to exclude the bishops from parliament; a bill for the 
purpose passed the commons, but was rejected by the lords ; as, how- 
ever, the public excitement continued, the bishops resolved to abstain 
from further attending their duty in parliament, and twelve of them 
pubhshed a protest, declaring everything null and void that should be 
determined during their absence. For this ill-advised proceeding they 
were accused of high treason, and committed to the Tower (a. o 
1641). 

Charles, dismayed by the hostility of the English, resolved to seek a 
reconciliation with his Scottish subjects, and for this purpose undertook 
a journey to Edinburgh. His measures were not well suited to effect 
his object, and before anything satisfactory could be done, the insurrec- 
tion of the Irish catholics produced a change in the position of parties 
most fatal to the royal interests. Few events have been so much mis- 
represented as the Irish civil war, and in order to view it correctly, we 
must go back to an earlier period of history. 

The Norman settlers in Ireland paid but a nominal allegiance to the 
English crown, the most powerful of them acted as independent prin- 
ces, and adopted the customs of the native Irish. The Tudor monarchs 
were anxious to break the power of this aristocracy, which was as in- 
jurious to the national happiness, as it was opposed to the royal power ; 
but unfortunately, they combined this object with the reform of religion, 
and with a system of confiscation equally impolitic and unjust. The 
Irish lords took up arms, to defend at once their religion and their pow- 
er ; they were defeated by Elizabeth's generals, and many of them 
were deprived of their estates, which were shared among English col- 
onists. James I., under the pretence of a meditated rebellion, confis- 
cated the greater part of the province of Ulster, and deprived all the 
innocent vassals of their property, for the unproved guilt of their chiefs. 
Property was rendered still more insecure by an inquisition into titles, 
on the legal pretence that the right to land belongs primarily to the 
king, and consequently, that every estate ought to be forfeited for which 
a royal grant could not be produced. The effect of this principle wotild 
be, not only to strip all the native Irish of their estates, but also to con- 



544 MODERN HISTORY. 

fiscate the lands belonging to the greater part of the lords descended 
from the companions of Strongbow and Henry II. When Strafford be- 
came lord-lieutenant of Ireland, he began to enforce the system of con- 
fiscation with a rigor which exceeded all former precedent. Every le- 
gal pretext was employed to expel the Irish i'rom their possessions, and 
transfer them to strangers ; judges were bribed, juries threatened, and 
witnesses suborned with the most shameless effrontery. The English 
nation was induced to countenance this injustice by the belief that it 
would be useful to substitute a more noble and civilized race of men 
for the barbarous Irish ; though, in fact, the new settlers were for the 
most part rapacious adventurers, or indigent rabble. Religious intoler- 
ance was united to political wrongs ; catholics Avere excluded from all 
public offices and the acquisition of landed property ; their churches 
and chapels Avere violently closed, their clergy expelled, and their chil- 
dren given to protestant guardians. They applied to the king for pro- 
tection, and gave a large sum for a charter of graces, which would se- 
cure their persons, property, and religion. Charles took the money, but 
refused the graces ; instigated by Strafford, who had devised a plan for 
rendering his master absolutely despotic in Ireland, as a preparatory 
step to his becoming supreme in England. 

The success of the Scots in securing their national religion, and 
placing restrictions on the royal power, induced many of the Irish 
lords to devise a plan for obtaining similar advantages. Accident pre- 
cipitated an outbreak ; the Ulster Irish, who had been expelled from 
their lands, hastened to attack the settlers that occupied them as intru- 
ders, and they sullied their cause by many acts of violence, which were 
easily exaggerated by persons w'ho had derived much profit, and ex- 
pected more, from the trade of confiscation. The English house of 
commons regarded the Irish as a degraded and conquered people ; they 
deemed their efforts acts of treason, not so much against royal power 
as English supremacy, while the difference of religion embittered this 
feeling of national pride, and rendered a peaceful termination of the 
contest hopeless. It was studiously reported that Charles himself had 
instigated this revolt in order to obtain unlimited power by aid of the 
catholics ; to refute this suspicion, he intrusted the conduct of Irish 
affairs to the English parliament ; and that body, with inconceivable 
precipitation, resolved that the catholic religion should no longer be 
tolerated in Ireland ; that two millions and a half of acres should be 
confiscated to pay the expenses of the war ; and that no quarter should 
be given to the insurgents or their adherents. These ordinances led 
to a civil war, whose history may be told in a few words : the Irish 
catholics, after having gained possession of nearly the entire kingdom, 
were broken into parties more opposed to each other than to the com- 
mon enemy : in the midst of this disunion, Cromwell, with a mere 
handful of men, conquered them in detail, and gave their estates to his 
victorious followers. The new settlers were confirmed in their pos- 
session after the restoration of Charles II., and the greater part of the 
ancient Irish landowners were reduced to beggary. 

Charles gained little by sacrificing the Irish to the parliament ; find- 
ing that his concessions only provoked fresh demands, he attempted to 
arrest five of the leading members for high treason, but the popular in- 



THE STATES-SYSTEM OF EUROPE. 545 

dignation compelled him to abandon the charge, and soon after to quit the 
capital. Negotiations were tried to avert the horrors of civil vi^ar, but the 
requisitions of the commons, if granted, w^ould have destroyed all royal 
authority, and Charles, on the 25th of August, 1642, caused the royal 
standard to be raised at Nottingham. War immediately commenced ; 
it was conducted with spirit, and was at first favorable to the king. 
The English parliament, alarmed at the progress of Charles, entered 
into an alliance with the Scottish covenanters, and on the 15th of Janu- 
ary, 1644, a Scotch auxiliary army, commanded by General Leslie, 
entered England. Fairfax, the parliamentary leader in the north, united 
his forces to those of Leslie, and both generals immediately laid siege 
to York. Prince Rupert, the son of the unfortunate elector-palatine, 
hasted to the relief of this important city, and effected a junction with 
the army of the marquis of Newcastle. Fairfax and Leslie retired to 
Marston Moor, whither they were followed by the royalists, who were 
urged to this rash proceeding by the fiery Rupert. Fifty thousand 
British combatants engaged on this occasion in mutual slaughter ; the 
victory was long undecided ; but, finally, the skill of Lieutenant-Gen- 
eral Cromwell prevailed over the rash valor of Rupert, and the royalists 
were signally defeated, with the loss of all their baggage and artillery. 
A second defeat, at Newbury, so weakened the royal cause, that the 
king must have been forced to immediate submission, but for the divis- 
ions that arose among his adversaries. 

The presbyterians and the independents had combined against the 
church of England as their common enemy ; but when episcopacy was 
abolished, the latter saw with great indignation the presbyterian efforts 
to establish a system of ecclesiastical tyranny, differing from the papal 
only in form, the power being lodged in the general assembly of the 
clergy instead of a single head. The presbyterians had the majority 
in parliament, but the great bulk of the army favored the views of the 
independents, which were also supported by some of the most active 
members of the house of commons. A law, called the Self-denying 
Ordinance, prohibiting members of parliament from holding military 
commissions, gave the greater part of the army into the hands of the 
independents, especially as an exception was made in favor of Oliver 
Cromwell, their principal leader. The battle of Naseby was decided 
in favor of the parliamentarians, principally by Cromwell's prudence 
and valor, an event which gave so much strength to his party, that the 
presbyterian majority in the house of commons feared to accept the 
king's proposals for an accommodation, contrary to their open profes- 
sions and secret wishes. Meanwhile Charles, being unable to keep 
the field, threw himself on the mercy of his Scottish subjects ; and 
having opened negotiations with their leader, through the French am- 
bassador, ventured on the faith of uncertain promises to present liim- 
self in their camp. He had the mortification to find himself treated as 
a prisoner, while all the towns and fortresses that had hitherto support- 
ed his cause fell into the hands of the parliament. 

The war was at an end, but civil dissensions raged with more fury 
than ever. The presbyterians and independents were each anxious to 
gain the king over to their side ; and the former, by a treaty with the 
Scots, gained possession of his person. Scarcely had they acquired 

35 



546 MODERN HISTORY. 

this advantage, when the discontent of the army threatened them with 
unexpected danger ; Cromwell encouraged the soldiers to resist the 
orders of the parliament, and by a bold measure gave fresh confidence 
to his party. Cornet Joyce, acting under his orders, removed the king 
from Holmby house, and brought him to the army. Cromv/ell and his 
friends made such a judicious use of the advantage thus obtained, that 
the presbyterian party soon lost all their influence. The behavior of 
Charles at this crisis was very injudicious ; he negotiated with both 
parties, and, by his obvious insincerity, displeased all. Finally, he at- 
tempted to escape ; but seeking shelter in the isle of Wight, he was 
seized by its governor, Hammond, and from that moment Cromwell be- 
came the master of his fate. Another opportunity of escaping from the 
perils that surrounded him was offered to the king ; the Scotch took 
up arms in his favor, but they were routed by Cromwell with great 
slaughter, and all hopes from their assistance destroyed. But the par- 
liament having reason to dread Cromwell's ambition, opened negotia- 
tions with the king on receiving the news of this victory, and the wisest 
of the royal counsellors entreated their master to seize this opportunity 
of concluding a treaty. Unfortunately he hesitated and delayed the 
arrangements for more than three months, until the army once more 
took possession of his person, and conveyed him to Hurst. The two 
houses, indeed, voted that the royal concessions were suflicient grounds 
for settling the peace of the kingdom ; but two days afterward the 
avenues to the house of commons were beset with soldiers, and all the 
members supposed favorable to the king forcibly prevented from taking 
their seats. In this diminished house the resolutions leading to a rec- 
onciliation with the king were revoked, and proposals were made -for 
bringing him to a public trial. The final resolution for impeaching the 
king of high treason before a court of justice constituted for the purpose, 
was adopted by the house of commons (January 2, 1649) : it was at 
once rejected by the lords ; but their opposition was disregarded, and 
the court regularly constituted. The form of trial was but a solemn 
mockery ; Charles with great spirit refused to acknowledge the juris- 
diction of the court, upon which some witnesses were called to prove 
what everybody knew, that he had appeared at the head of his army, 
which his judges declared to be treason against the people, and a crime 
worthy ofdeath. Sentence was pronounced on the 27th of January ; 
and, on the 30th of the same month, the misguided and unhappy Charles 
was beheaded in front of Whitehall, amid the unaffected sympathy of 
crowds of spectators. 

The death of Charles was followed by the usurpation of Cromwell, 
and Great Britain was subjected to a despotism more galling and severe 
than that of any monarch who ever swayed its sceptre. 

Section XI. — Formation of the States-system in the Northern Kingdoms 

of Europe. 

The revolutions in the northern kingdoms during the progress of the 
Reformation were scarcely less important than those in central Europe. 
Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, united by the treaty of Calmar, were 
never blended into a uniform goverment: the Swedish nobles kept their 



THE STATES-SYSTEM OF EUROPE. 647 

country in continued agitation ; without severing the union, they chose 
administrators of the kingdom whose allegiance to the crown of Denmark 
was merely nominal. Christian II., a tyrannical prince, resolved to de- 
stroy the Swedish independence, he overthrew the administrator at the 
battle of Bagesund, and had the ceremony of his coronation performed 
at Stockholm (a. d. 1520). A few days after this solemnity, Christian 
perfidiously violated the amnesty he had published ; and to gratify the 
vengeance of the archbishop of Upsal, whom the Swedes had deposed, 
caused ninety-four of the principal nobles to be publicly executed. 
This massacre was the signal for a revolution ; Gustavus Vasa, son of 
one of the murdered nobles, escaped to the mountains of Dalecarlia, 
and supported by the hardy peasants of that province, proclaimed the 
freedom of his country. Victory crowned his efforts, and he finally 
became king of Sweden (a. d. 1523). Christian II. was deposed by 
the Danes, and the crown conferred on his uncle Frederic ; he wan- 
dered about for some years, vainly seeking support, but was finally 
seized by his subjects, and thrown into a prison, where he ended his 
days.- The Danish monarchs, for nearly half a century, renewed their 
pretensions to the Swedish throne ; but finding that their efforts only 
exhausted their own resources, they recognised the independence of 
Sweden by the treaty of Stettin (a. d. 1570). 

Denmark thus lost the ascendency which it had long maintained, and 
it was further injured by a disastrous change in its internal constitution. 
The aristocracy established a vicious supremacy over the prerogatives 
of the crown and the rights of the people. The senate, composed en- 
tirely of nobles, seized on all the authority of the state; the national 
assemblies ceased to be couA'^oked ; the elections of the kings were 
confined to the aristocratic order, and the royal power was restrict- 
ed by capitulations, which the senate prescribed to the kings on their 
accession to the throne. 

It was in the reign of Frederic I., the uncle and successor of the 
tyrannical Christian, that the principles of the Reformation were first 
established in Denmark. The king invited several of Luther's disci- 
ples to preach the new doctrines in his kingdom ; he openly professed 
them himself, granted liberty of conscience to all his subjects, and 
sanctioned the marriages of priests throughout his dominions. Chris- 
tian III. completed the religious revolution ; in a general assembly of 
the states he procured the abrogation of episcopacy, and the suppression 
of the Romish worship (a. d. 1536). The castles, fortresses, and vast 
domains of the bishops, were reunited to the crown ; and the rest of 
their revenues applied to the maintenance of protestant ministers, the 
purposes of general education, and the relief of the poor. From Den- 
mark the revolution extended to Norway ; and about the same time 
this kingdom, having supported the deposed Christian II., was deprived 
of its independence, and reduced to a Danish province. 

Christian IV. was distinguished among the northern sovereigns by 
the superiority of his talents, and the zeal that he showed in reforming 
the different branches of the administration. In his reign the Danes 
first directed their attention to Asiatic trade, and founded an East In- 
dia company ; a commercial establishment was formed at Tranquebar, 
on the coast of Coromandel, which was ceded to the company by the 



548 MODERN HISTORY. 

rajah of Tanjore. Several large manufactories were established, and 
many cities founded by this wise monarch, who was also a judicious 
patron of science and literature. He was less successful in his wars 
against Austria and Sweden, but this was owing rather to the restric- 
tions which the nobles had placed on his power, than to any want of 
talent. 

Sweden, from having been subject to Denmark, rose to be its suc- 
cessful rival, and even menaced its total overthrow. It owed this pre- 
ponderance to two of the greatest men of the period, Gustavus Vasa and 
Gustavus Adolphus. After Vasa had liberated his country, he was 
raised to the throne, and by his wise government justified the choice 
of the nation. He directed his attention both to the political and reli- 
gious reformation of the covmtry ; instead of the aristocratic senate, he 
introduced a diet, composed of the different orders of the state, and by 
his influence with the commons, introduced Lutheranism, though op- 
posed by the bishops and nobles. He also established the hereditary 
succession of the crown, which was extended to females in the reign 
of his son Charles IX. 

Gustavus Adolphus, the grandson of Vasa, raised Sweden to the sum- 
mit of its greatness. Involved in wars at his accession (a. d. 1611), he 
gained signal advantages over the Russians and Poles, which so ex- 
tended his fame, that he was chosen, as we have seen, to be the 
leader of the protestant confederacy against the house of Austria. 
After a glorious career of two years and a half, he fell in the battle of 
Lutzen : but the victory which the Swedes won after his death was 
chiefly owing to his skilful arrangements. The war was continued 
under the minority of Christina, and brought to a successful issue, as 
was also the war waged at the same time against Denmark. By the 
peace of Bromsebro (a. d. 1645), Sweden obtained the free navigation 
of the Sound, and the cession of several important islands in the Baltic. 
Prussia, under the electors of Brandenburg, gradually increased in 
strength and power, especially during the administration of Frederic 
William, the true founder of the greatness of his house. His abilities 
were particularly conspicuous in the protestant wars of Germany ; and 
he obtained such an accession of territory by the treaty of Westphalia, 
that his son Frederic assmned the title of king of Prussia. 

The dismemberment of Livonia led to a fierce struggle between the 
northern powers, each of which sought a portion of the spoil. Russia, 
"which had slowly acquired consistency, obtained a considerable portion, 
which, however, it was forced to yield to Poland. After having long 
submitted to the degrading yoke of the Mongols, the grand-dukes of 
Moscow, strengthened by the union of several small principalities, began 
to aspire after independence, which was achieved by I wan III. This 
able ruler, having refused to pay the customary tribute to the barbarians, 
was attacked by the khan of the Golden Horde, as the leading sect of 
the Mongols was denominated. Instead of acting on the defensive, 
Iwan sent a body of troops into the very centre of the horde, and 
ruined all their establishments on the Volga. So great were the losses 
of the Mongols, that the Golden Horde disappeared, and left no traces 
but a few feeble tribes. Iwan IV. labored to civilize the empire 
acquired by the valor of his predecessors : he invited artisans from 



THE STATES-SYSTEM OF EUROPE. 549 

England and Germany, established a printing-press at Moscow, and 
raised the standing army of the Strehtzes to curb his turbulent no- 
bles. It was in his reign that Siberia was discovered and annexed to 
the Russian dominions, but the complete reduction of that country be- 
longs to the reign of his son Fedor (a. d. 1587), who founded the city 
of Tobolsk. 

On the death of Fedor, without any issue (a. d. 1598), Russia was 
involved in a series of calamitous civil wars, which ended in the eleva- 
tion of Michael Fedrowetsch to the crown. He found his dominions 
exhausted by the late commotions, and could only procure peace from 
Sweden and Poland by the cession of many valuable provinces (a. d. 
1634). 

During the reigns of the Jagellons, Poland was one of the most flour- 
ishing northern powers. The reformation was favored by Sigismond 
Augustus II., the last of this dynasty; but the want of a middle order 
of society, which has ever been the cause of Polish misery, prevented 
evangelical principles from taking deep root in the country, and produ- 
cing the benefits that had resulted from them in other states. When 
the male line of the Jagellons became extinct on the death of Sigismond 
(a. d. 1572), the throne of Poland became elective (without any restric- 
tion),* and the right of voting was given to all the nobles, who met in 
arms to choose a sovereign. These elections were generally marked 
with violence and bloodshed ; but though the nobles were divided among 
themselves, they readily united to restrict the royal authority ; every 
sovereign, on his accession, was obliged to sign certain capitulations, 
which greatly limited his rule, and secured the chief powers of the 
state to the aristocracy. Under its new constitution, Poland was inter- 
nally weak and miserable, though some of its monarchs still distin- 
guished themselves by foreign conquests, especially Vladislaus IV., 
who wrested the dutchy of Smolensko from Russia. 

Section XII. — Progress of the Turkish Power in Europe. 

The successors of Mohammed II. on the throne of Constantinople 
imitated the vigorous policy of that conqueror, and for nearly a century 
were the terror of Christendom. Bayezid II. subdued Bessarabia, and 
acquired some important provinces in Asia. He was forced to resign 
the throne by his son Selim (a. d. 1510), and was murdered in prison. 
Selim I., surnamed Gaviiz, or the Savage, was obliged to maintain the 
throne he had so criminally gained, by a series of sanguinary wars with 
the other members of his family. Having triumphed over these com- 
petitors, he turned his arms against the Persians, and gained a complete 
victory over Ismael Sofi at Tabriz (a. d. 1514). In consequence of 
this and other successes, Diarbekr and several other provinces beyond 
the Tigris were annexed to the Turkish empire. The Mameluke sul- 
tans of Egypt having assisted the Persians in this war, Selim led an 
army into Syria, and encountered Sultan Gauri near Aleppo. After a 
sanguinary engagement, the Mamelukes were defeated and their leader 
slain, upon which Aleppo and Damascus submitted to the Turks. This 

* See page 486. 



550 MODERN HISTORY. 

success opened the way for invading Egypt : Tuman Bey, who hadbeeti 
elected sultan in place of Gauri, assembled the remnants of the Mame- 
lukes under the walls of Cairo, and having procured some auxihary 
forces from the Arabs, prepared to meet the enemy. Selim advanced 
steadily, and attacked the hostile camp. The battle was obstinate and 
bloody, but the superior fire of the Turkish artiller}^, which was served 
principally by Christian gunners, decided the fate of the day ; and Tu- 
man Bey, after having done everything that could be expected from an 
able officer and a brave warrior, was driven into Cairo (a. d. 1517). 
Selim stormed the city ; but Tuman, not yet disheartened, fled across 
the Nile, and by incredible exertions once more collected an army. 
The Turks pursued him closely, and forced him to a final engagement, 
in which the Mamelukes were utterly routed, and their gallant sultan 
taken prisoner. Selim was at first disposed to spare the captive, but 
his officers, who feared and envied Tuman, persuaded him that such 
clemency might inspire the Mamelukes with the hope of recovering their 
dominions, and the unfortunate sultan was hanged at the principal gate 
of Cairo. 

Soleyman, usually surnamed the Magnificent, succeeded his father 
Selim, and emulous of the fame acquired by the conquest of Egypt, re- 
solved to turn his arms against the princes of Christendom. Hungary, 
during the reign of Matthew Corvinus, had become a powerful and flour- 
ishing kingdom. Inspired by the example of his father, the renowned 
Hunniades, Corvinus wrested Bosnia from the Turks, and maintained 
his supremacy over Transylvania, Wallachia, and Moldavia. But du- 
ring the reigns of his indolent successors, Uladislaus II. and Louis, who 
were also kings of Bohemia, Hungary was distracted by factions, and 
ravaged by the Turks. Soleyman took advantage of the minority of 
Louis, and the weakness of Hungary, to invade the kingdom. He 
captured, with little difficulty, the important fortress of Belgrade, justly 
deemed the bulwark of Christian Europe (a. d. 1521). Inspired by his 
first success, he returned to the attack ; having traversed the Danube 
and the Drave, without meeting any resistance, he encountered the 
Christians in the field of Mohatz, and gained over them one of the most 
signal victories that the Turks ever won (a. d. 1526). King Louis, and 
the priricipal part of the Hungarian nobility, fell in this fatal battle, the 
entire country was laid at the mercy of the invaders ; but Soleyman, 
instead of securing a permanent conquest, laid waste the land with fire 
and sword, and carried myriads of the inhabitants as slaves to Constan- 
tinople. 

A triumph of even greater importance was gained by the Turks du- 
ring the Hungarian war. Rhodes, the seat of the heroic knights of St. 
John, was besieged by Soleyman's vizier. All the arts of assault and 
defence that had yet been devised by human ingenuity were used in 
this siege, w^hich lasted more than five months. The assailants and the 
garrison fought with such fury that it seemed a contest rather for the 
empire of the world than the possession of a single city. The sultan 
himself came in person to superintend the operations of his army, while 
the knights were not oidy neglected by the Christian powers, but ex- 
posed to the open hostilities of the Venetians. They protracted their 
resistance until every wall and bulwark had crumbled beneath the over- 



THE STATES-SYSTEM OF EUROPE. 551 

whelming fire of the Turkish batteries, Avhen they surrendered on hon- 
orable conditions ; and on Christmas day (a. d. 1522), Soleyman made 
his triumphant entry into what had been a city, but was now a shapeless 
mass of ruins. 

On the death of Louis, Ferdinand of Austria, who had married the 
sister of the unfortunate monarch, claimed the crowns of Hungary and 
Bohemia. He received quiet possession of the latter kingdom ; but the 
Hungarians chose for their sovereign John Zapolya, prince palatine of 
Transylvania. Zapolya, finding himself unable to resist the power of 
Ferdinand, claimed the protection of the Turks. Soleyman marched in 
person to his aid, and, not satisfied with expelling the Austrians from 
Hungary, pursued them into their own country, and laid siege to Vienna 
(a. d. 1529). He failed in this enterprise, and was compelled to retreat, 
after having lost eighty thousand men. 

The emperor Charles V., alarmed at the progress of the Turks, tried 
to form a general confederation of the German princes against them, but 
found that the troubles occasioned by the progress of the Reformation 
would prevent any cordial union. He resolved, however, to check the 
growth of their naval power in the Mediterrenean, where Khair-ed-din,* 
or Barbarossa, a pirate whom Soleyman had taken into his service, 
captured Tunis and Algiers, and was collecting a formidable naval force. 
Charles took advantage of Soleyman's being engaged in conquering the 
pachalic of Bagdad from the Persians, to invade Africa, where he made 
himself master of Tunis. Soleyman, returning victorious from Asia, 
was so enraged at his losses in Africa, that he resolved to attempt the 
conquest of Italy. The imprudence of a Venetian captain turned the 
wrath of the sultan upon the republic of Venice ; he attacked two Turk- 
ish galleys in the Adriatic, for some mistake about their signals, and 
satisfaction being refused, Soleyman proclaimed war. 

But while thus engaged in the west, Soleyman did not neglect the 
enlargement of his eastern dominions. His generals conquered the 
■whole of Arabia, and his admirals issuing from the Red sea, attacked, 
but without success, the Portuguese dominions in India. In the mean- 
time the Venetian senate entered into an alliance with the emperor, 
Charles V., and the pope, Paul III. ; their united navies were placed 
under the command of the celebrated Doria, but his success was far 
from according with the expectations that the allies had formed. The 
war, however, led to no decisive result ; it was suspended by occa 
sional truces, during which Soleyman took the opportunity of enlarging 
his Asiatic dominions at the expense of Persia. 

The knights of St. John, expelled from Rhodes, obtained a settlement 
in the island of Malta ; they directed their attention to naval affairs, and 
inflicted severe damages on the Turks by sea. Soleyman, roused by 
the complaints of his subjects, resolved that Malta should share the fate 
of Rhodes, and collected all his forces for the siege (a. d. 1565). The 
knights maintained their character for obstinate valor with more success 
than on the former occasion : after a sanguinary contest for five months, 
the Turks were forced to retire, with the loss of twenty-four thousand 
men and all their artillery. Soleyman prepared to take revenge by com- 

* Khair-ed-din signifies " the goodness of the faith." This terror of the Chris- 
lians was named Barbaxossa, on account of his "red beard." 



552 MODERN HISTORY. 

Dieting the conquest of Hungary ; but while besieging Sigeth, he fell a 
victim to disease, produced by old age and fatigue (a. d. 1566), after 
having raised the Turkish empire to the highest pitch of its greatness. 
Selim II., soon after his accession, made peace with the Germans 
and Persians, but renewed war with the Venetians, from whom he took 
the important island of Cyprus (a. d. 1571). But while the Turkish 
anny was thus engaged, their fleet was utterly destroyed in the battle 
of Lepanto, by the allied Venetian, imperial, and papal navy. The allies 
neglected to improve their victory, and Selim soon repaired his losses. 
But this siiltan sank into the usual indolence of oriental sovereigns, his 
successors followed his example, and the Ottornan power began rapidly 
to decline. The Austrian rulers became convinced of the impolicy of 
harsh measures, and conceded to the Hungarians full security for their 
political and religious liberties, at the diet of Presburg. Hungary was 
thenceforth united to Austria, and the last war, directly resulting from 
the Reformation, happily terminated. 



AUGUSTAN AGES OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE. 553 



CHAPTER VH. 

THE AUGUSTAN AGES OF ENGLAND AND 
FRANCE. 

Section I. — State of the Continental Kingdoms after the Peace of Westphalia. 

Though the treaty of Westphalia restored tranquillity to northern 
Europe and Germany, France and Spain continued the war in which 
they had originally but a secondary share, with all the obstinacy of 
principals. At the same time, France was distracted by civil broils 
less fatal than those of England, but scarcely less sanguinary. The 
prime mover in these disturbances was the coadjutor-archbishop of 
Paris, al'terward known as the Cardinal de Retz ; he wished to gain 
the post of prime minister from Cardinal Mazarine, and he induced 
several princes of the blood, with a large portion of the nobility, to 
espouse his quarrel. The parliaments of France resembled those of 
England only in name ; they were colleges of justice, not legislative 
assemblies, and the members purchased their seats. This was the 
body with which Retz commenced his operations ; instigated by the 
ambitious prelate, the parliament of Paris thwarted all the measures of 
the queen-regent and her minister, until Anne of Austria, irritated by 
such factious opposition, ordered the president and one of the most vio- 
lent councillors to be arrested. Her orders were scarcely executed 
when the populace arose, barricaded the streets, threatened the cardi- 
nal and the regent, and procured the release of the prisoners. Alarmed 
by the repetition of similar outrages, the queen, attended by her chil- 
dren and her minister, retired from Paris to St. Germains, where their 
distress was so great that they were obliged to pawn the crown jewels 
to procure the common necessaries of life. These intrigues led to a 
desultory civil war, which began to assume a serious aspect after the 
arrest of the ambitious duke of Conde, who had repeatedly insulted the 
queen and the cardinal ; the factious took up arms in all the provinces, 
and the duke of Orleans, uncle to the young king, placed himself at the 
head of the malcontents (a. d. 1650). Mazarine was unable to resist 
the confederacy ; he liberated Conde and his associates, in the vain 
hope of conciliating their favor, but was obliged to fly to Cologne, 
where he continued to govern the queen-regent as if he had never quit- 
ted Paris. By his intrigues, which were now seconded by de Retz, 
the duke of Bouillon, and his brother Turenne, were detached from the 
confederates, and by their aid Mazarine was enabled to enter the king- 
dom at the head of an army, and resume his former authority. Conde, 
proclaimed a traitor by the parliament of Paris, threw himself upon the 



554 MODERN HISTORY. 

protection of Spain, and obtained from that power a body of troops, with 
which he pursued the court from province to province, and finally en- 
tered Paris. Turenne, who commanded the royal forces, brought the 
young king within sight of his capital ; and Louis witnessed a fierce 
conflict in the suburb of St. Antoine, which terminated in the defeat of 
his army. 

Encouraged by this success, the parliament of Paris proclaimed the 
duke of Orleans " lieutenant-general of the kingdom," and the prince 
of Conde, " commander-in-chief of the armies of France." But the 
danger with which these appointments threatened the monarchy, was 
averted equally by the rashness of Conde and the prudence of the king. 
Conde instigated a tumult, in which several citizens lost their lives ; 
Louis conciliated his subjects by sending the cardinal into temporary 
exile, and was received into his capital with the loudest acclamations. 
No sooner was the royal authority re-established, than Mazarine was 
recalled and invested with more than his former power. 

During these commotions, the Spaniards had recovered many of the 
places which they had previously lost to the French, and Louis de 
Haro, who governed Spain and Philip IV. as absolutely as Mazarine 
did France and its youthful sovereign, hoped by means of Conde's 
great military talents to bring the war to a triumphant issue. But the 
French found a general in Marshal Turenne, who was more than a 
rival for Conde ; he compelled the Spaniards to raise the siege of Arras, 
and seized all their baggage, artillery, and ammunition (a. d. 1656). 
He was himself soon after compelled to raise the siege of Valenciennes, 
but he made a masterly retreat as honorable as a victory, and even took 
the town of Capelle in the presence of his enemies. Still the fortune 
of the war was doubtful, when Mazarine, by flattering the passions of 
the usurper Cromwell, engaged England to take a share in the contest. 
Dunkirk, the strongest town in Flanders, first engaged the attention of 
the allies ; the English blockaded it by sea ; Turenne, with an auxiliary 
British force united the French army, besieged it by land (a. d. 1656). 
The Spaniards sent an army to its relief; Turenne did not decline an 
engagement ; the obstinate valor of the English, combined with the 
impetuosity of the French troops, procured him a decided victory ; Dun- 
kirk surrendered in a few days, and was given to the English according 
to treaty, while France obtained possession of the strongest towns in 
Flanders. 

Peace was now necessary to Spain, and it was also essential to the 
success of Mazarine's favorite policy ; the procuring for the house of 
Bourbon the eventual succession to the Spanish monarchy, by uniting 
King Louis to the infanta, Maria Theresa. The preliminaries were 
adjusted by Mazarine and Louis de Haro, in person, at a conference in 
the Pyrenees, and France obtained an extent of territory and the pros- 
pect of an inheritance, which soon made it formidable to the rest of 
Europe. About a year after the conclusion of this treaty. Mazarine 
died (a. d. 1661) ; and Louis, who had borne the ministerial yoke with 
secret impatience, took the reins of government into his own hands. 

Germany, exhausted by tedious wars, remained undisturbed after 
the peace of Westphalia until the death of Ferdinand HL (a. d. 1657), 
■when the diet was agitated by fierce debates respecting the choice of 



AUGUSTAN AGES OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE. 555 

a successor. Recent events had shown how dangerous was the ambi- 
tion of the house of Austria to the independence of the minor states, 
and several of the electors wished to have as their head some monarch 
whose hereditary dominions would not be of sufficient importance to 
raise him above the control of the Diet. But these considerations were 
forced to yield to more pressing circumstances ; the presence of the 
Turks in Buda, of the French in Alsace, and of the Swedes in Pome- 
rania, required a powerful sovereign to prevent further encroachments ; 
and Leopold, the son of the late emperor, was unanimously chosen. 
His first measure was to form an alliance with Poland and Denmark 
against Sweden, a power which, ever since the victorious career of 
Gustavus Adolphus, menaced the independence of the neighboring 
states. 

We have already mentioned that the renowned Gustavus was suc- 
ceeded by his daughter Christina. She was fondly attached to study, 
and assembled in her court the most distinguished professors of science, 
literature, and the fine arts. Her favorite pursuits were, however, too 
antiquated and abstruse for practical life ; she was pedantic rather than 
wise, and her great learning was never applied to a useful end. She 
consented to the peace of Westphalia, not from any regard for the 
tranquillity of Europe or her own kingdom, but simply to indulge her 
passion for study, with which the cares of state interfered. The 
Swedish senate felt little sympathy in the learned pursuits of their 
sovereign ; they pressed her to marry her cousin, Charles Gustavus, 
for whom she had been designed in her infancy, but Christina dreaded 
to give herself a master, and she only nominated this prince her suc- 
cessor. The states renewed their importunity, and Christina offered to 
resign the crown to her cousin ; after some delay, occasioned by rea- 
sonable suspicions of her sincerity, she carried her design into execution, 
and abdicated in favor of Charles Gustavus, who ascended the throne 
under the title of Charles X. (a. d. 1654'). The remainder of Chris- 
tina's life was disgraceful to her character. Designing to fix her resi- 
dence at Rome, she renounced Lutheranism, and embraced the catholic 
faith at Innspruck, not because she deemed it the preferable religion, 
but because she thought it convenient to conform to the tenets of the 
people with whom she intended to reside. Her profligate life, her 
want of any valuable information, and her loss of power, soon rendered 
her contemptible in Italy ; she made two journeys into France, where 
she was received with much respect, until her infamous conduct excited 
general abhorrence. In a fit of jealousy, she commanded one of her 
paramours to be assassinated in the great gallery of Fontainebleau, and 
almost in her very presence (a. d. 1657). This atrocious violation of 
the laws of nature and of nations, perpetrated in the midst of a civilized 
kingdom, and a court that piqued itself on refinement, was allowed to 
pass without judicial inquiry ; but it excited such universal detestation, 
that Christina was forced to quit France and seek refuge in Italy 
There the remainder of her life was spent in sensual indulgence and 
literary conversation, if such a term can be applied to the language of 
a capricious woman, admiring many things for which she had no taste, 
and talking about others which she did not understand. 

While Christina was thus disgracing her sex and country, Charles 



r 



556 MODERN HISTORY. 

X. indulged the martial spirit of his people by declaring war against 
Poland. After the death of Sigismond III. (a. d. 1632), his son 
Ladislaus was elected to the throne, and proved to be a prince of great 
courage and capacity. He gained several victories over the Russians 
and the Turks ; he forced the Swedes to resign the places which Gus- 
tavus Adolphus had seized in Prussia ; but unfortunately he combined 
with his nobles in oppressing the Cossacks, and thus drove those un- 
civilized tribes to a general revolt. In the midst of this war Ladislaus 
died (a. d. 1648) ; he was succeeded by his brother John Casimir, who 
would gladly have entered into terms with the injured Cossacks, but 
Avas forced to continue the war by his turbulent nobles. Alexis, czar 
of Russia, took advantage of these commotions to capture Smolensko 
and ravage Lithuania, while Poland itself was invaded by Charles X. 
The progress of the Swedes was rapid, they obtained two brilliant A'ic- 
tories in the field, captured Cracow, and compelled the terrified Casimir 
to seek refuge in Silesia. But the insulting demeanor of the Swedes, 
and the cruel massacre perpetrated at the capture of Warsaw, confirmed 
the Poles in the determined spirit of resistance, of which the burghers 
of Dantzic set them a noble example ; while the chief powers of the 
north combined to check the dangerous ambition of Sweden. Attacked 
at once by the czar of Russia, the emperor of Germany, and the king 
of Denmark, Charles, though deserted by his ally the elector of Bran- 
denburg, did not lose courage. He led an army over the ice to Funen, 
subdued that and several other Danish islands, and laid siege to Copen- 
hagen. The city was saved by an insincere peace, which proved to 
be only a suspension of arms ; but when Charles renewed his exer- 
tions, he was opposed by the republics of Holland and England. Ne- 
gotiations for peace were commenced under the auspices of these great 
naval powers ; but ere they were brought to a conclusion, Charles died 
of an epidemic fever (a. d. 1660). The Swedes, deprived of their 
active and ambitious monarch, were easily brought to resign their pre- 
tensions to Poland of the treaty of Oliva ; and the general desire of 
preventing the minority of Charles XI. being disturbed by foreign wars, 
induced the regency to adjust a pacification with Denmark and the other 
powers. 

Section II. — History of England under the Commonwealth. 

The civil and religious constitution of England was dissolved by the 
execution of Charles I. ; the great body of the nation was dissatisfied 
with the result of the civil war, but it was overawed by an army of fifty 
thousand men, entirely devoted to the service of Cromwell ; and the 
commonwealth parliament, as the inconsiderable remnant of the house 
of commons was called, found itself in possession of the supreme 
authority. The state of aff"airs in Ireland and Scotland soon engaged 
the attention of the new government, and they were especially interest- 
ed to maintain the dominion that England claimed over the former 
country. The revolt of the Irish, like the revolt of the Americans in 
later days, was regarded as treason against the English people, rather 
than rebellion against their joint sovereign ; the partial successes of the 
insurgents were viewed as national wrongs, and the use of the phrase 
" our kingdom of Ireland" made every Englishman imagine that he 



AUGUSTAN AGES OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE. 557 

would be robbed of some portion of his hereditary rights, were that 
island to establish its independence. Cromwell, aware of the great 
celebrity which might be gained in a war so popular as that undertaken 
for the recovery of Ireland, successfully intrigued to have himself ap- 
pointed lord-lieutenant and commander-in-chief of the army. 

The state of Ireland coidd not be more favorable to the purposes of 
an invader. When Charles I. entered into a treaty with his revolted 
Irish subjects, he disgusted one party without conciliating the other ; 
for he gave both reason to suspect his sincerity. He appointed the 
marquis of Ormond lord-lieutenant, a nobleman possessed of many high 
qualities, but who had imbibed the principles of the unfortunate earl of 
Strafford, and was bigotedly attached to the support of the royal author- 
ity and the episcopal church. Ormond conciliated Inchiquin and some 
other protestant leaders who had refused to acknowledge the cessation 
of arms which Charles had granted to the insurgents, but he protracted 
the negotiations with the catholic confederates until their aid was use- 
less to the royal cause. Alarmed at length by the progress of the par- 
liament, while the confederates were at the same time incensed by the 
intolerant ordinances of the English commons, he concluded a treaty 
with the catholic deputies at Kilkenny (a. d. 1646), on the basis of a 
general pardon and full toleration. The native Irish were dissatisfied 
with this pacification, which did not restore to them lands of which 
they deemed themselves unjustly deprived ; the bigoted catholics sought 
the supremacy, not the toleration of their religion, and many of the 
more moderate entertained suspicions of Ormond's good faith. Under 
such circumstances they were influenced by Rinuccini, the papal nuncio, 
to reject the treaty of Kilkenny, and Ormond at once was deprived of 
all authority. As the king was unable to assist him, he delivered up 
the fortified towns to an officer of the English parliament, a fatal meas- 
ure, which rendered the restoration of the royal power impossible. 

The Irish soon grew weary of Rinuccini's pride, bigotry, and inca- 
pacity ; a powerful body of the catholic nobles, headed by the earl of 
Clanricarde, expelled the nuncio, and invited Ormond to resume the 
government. The lord-lieutenant returned, and found the royal author- 
ity established everywhere except in the towns which he had himself 
surrendered to the parliament. His first care was to remedy this blun- 
der ; he subdued several important garrisons, but he allowed himself to 
be surprised near Dublin by an inferior force, and was routed with 
great loss. At this crisis Cromwell landed with an army of enthusias- 
tic soldiers trained to arms, and flushed by recent victories. He be-^ 
sieged Drogheda, took it by storm, and put all the garrison to the 
sword. The town of Wexford was next assailed, and its defenders 
similarly butchered ; and this cruelty produced such alarm, that thence- 
forth every town, before which Cromwell presented himself, surrendered 
at the first summons. The declining season, a failure of provisions, 
and epidemic disease, soon reduced the invaders to great distress ; but 
they were relieved by a revolution as sudden as it was unexpected. 
The protestant royalists in Munster, always jealous of their Irish al- 
lies, revolted to the parliament at the instigation of the lords Broghill 
and Inchiquin, and the gates of all the important garrisons in the south 
of Ireland were opened to Cromwell's sickly troops. The Irish could 



588 MODERN HISTORY. 

no longer be brought to pay obedience to a protestant governor, Ormond 
quitted the country in despair, and the confederates, having no longer 
any bond of union, were overpowered in detail. Cromwell freed him- 
self from all future opposition, by permitting the Irish oflicers and sol- 
diers to engage in foreign service. About forty thousand catholics went 
on this occasion into voluntary exile. 

The young king, Charles II., had intended to place himself at the 
head of the Irish royalists ; but when their cause was ruined, he en- 
tered into negotiations with the Scottish covenanters, and submitted to 
terms the most ignominious that ever a people imposed upon its prince. 
He was forced to publish a proclamation, banishing all malignants, 
excommunicated persons from his court — that is, the royalists who had 
perilled their lives and fortunes in the service of his family ; to pledge 
his word that he would take the covenant and support the presbyterian 
form^of government; and promise, that in all civil affairs, he would 
conform to the direction of the parliament, and submit all ecclesiasti- 
cal matters to the general assembly of the kirk. Charles did not con- 
sent to these disgraceful conditions, until the royal cause in Scotland 
"Was rendered desperate by the overthrow of its greatest supporter, the 
marquis of Montrose. This gallant nobleman, immediately after the 
execution of Charles I., renewed the war in Scotland, but was made 
prisoner by the covenanters, and ignominiously put to death as a traitor 
(a. d. 1650). 

Soon after this tragical event, Charles landed in Scotland, and found 
himself a mere pageant of state in the hands of Argyle and the rigid 
covenanters, at whose mercy lay his lii'e and liberty. The intolerance 
of these bigots Avas not assuaged by the approach of an English army 
under the command of Cromwell, whom the parliament of England had 
recalled from the Irish war, so soon as the treaty between Charles and 
the covenanters was published. Cromwell entered Scotland, but found 
a formidable competitor in General Leslie, the head of the covenanters. 
The English were soon reduced to great distress, and their post, at 
Dunbar, was blockaded by a Scottish army on the heights that overlook 
that town. Cromwell was saved by the fanatical and ignorant preach- 
ers in the hostile camp ; they pretended that a revelation had descended 
to them, promising a victory over the sectarian host of the English, and 
forced Leslie, in despite of his urgent remonstrances, to quit his advan- 
tageous position. Cromwell took advantage of their delusion ; he at- 
tacked the .Scotch, disordered by their descent from the hills, before 
they could form their lines, and in a brief space gained a decided vic- 
tory. Edinburgh and Leith were abandoned to the conquerors, while 
the remnant of the Scottish army fled to Stirling. 

This defeat was by no means disagreeable to Charles ; it so far 
diminished the pride of the bigoted party, that he was permitted to 
accept the aid of the episcopal royalists, the hereditary friends of his 
family. Still the king felt very bitterly the bondage in which he was 
held, and when Cromwell crossed the Forth, he embraced a resolution 
■worthy of his birth and cause, and disconcerting that general by a hasty 
march, he boldly entered England at the head of fourteen thousand 
men. But the result disappointed his expectations ; the English roy- 
alists disliked the Scotch, and detested the covenant ; the presbyterians 



AUGUSTAN AGES OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE. 559 

were not prepared to join him, and both were overawed by the militia 
which the parliament raised in the several counties. At Worcester the 
king was overtaken by Cromwell with thirty thousand men (Sept. 3, 
1651). The place was attacked on all sides: Charles, after giving 
many proofs of personal valor, saw his cause totally ruined, and sought 
safety in flight ; the Scots were all killed or taken, and the prisoners, 
eight thousand in number, were sold as slaves to the American planta- 
tions. Charles wandered about for forty-five days in various disguises 
and amid the greatest dangers : more than fifty persons were intrusted 
with his secret, but they all preserved it faithfully, and he finally escaped 
to France. In Scotland the presbyterian clergy, formerly all-power- 
ful, found themselves treated with scorn by the English army. Their 
assembly at Aberdeen was dispersed by a military force, their persons 
were paraded through the town in insulting mockery, and they were 
forbidden to assemble in greater numbers than three at a time. 

In the meantime, the English republic was engaged in a foreign war. 
The increase of the naval and commercial power of the Dutch had 
been viewed with great jealousy by the English nation ; but the com- 
mon interests of religion, and afterward the alliance between the Stuart 
family and the house of Orange, had prevented a rupture. After the 
death of William II., prince of Orange, the Dutch abolished the oflSce 
of stadtholder ; and this advance toward a purely republican constitu- 
tion induced the English parliament to seek a closer alliance with Hol- 
land. Their ambassador, however, met but an indifferent reception at 
the Hague,* and on his return to London it became obvious that the 
mutual jealousies of the two commonwealths would soon lead to open 
hostilities. 

The English parliament passed the celebrated Act of Navigation, 
which enacted that no goods from Asia, Africa, or America, should be 
imported into England, except in English vessels ; and the prohibition 
was extended to European commodities not brought by ships belonging 
to the country of which the goods were the growth or manufacture. 
This, though apparently general, particularly affected the Dutch, whose 
commerce consisted chiefly in the carrying trade, their own country 
producing but few commodities. The war commenced in a dispute on 
a point of naval etiquette : the English required that all foreign vessels 
in the British seas should strike their flags to English ships-of-war ; 
Van Tromp, a Dutch admiral, with a fleet of forty sail, met Blake, the 
commander of the British fleet, in Dover road. Conscious of his supe- 
rior force, he refused to conform to the degrading ceremony, and an- 
swered the demand by a broadside. Though Blake had only fifteen 
ships, he immediately commenced an engagement, and being reinforced 
during the battle by eight more, he gained a glorious, though not a very 
valuable victory. A fierce naval war ensued between the two repub- 

* Mr. St. John, the English plenipotentiary, was a stern republican, and a 
haughty man. He had the presumption to take precedency of the duke of York, 
who was then at the Hague, in a public walk. The prince-palatine, happening 
to be present, struck off the ambassador's hat, and bade him respect the son and 
brother of his king. St. John put his hand to his sword, refusing to recognise 
either the king or the duke of York ; but the populace, compassionating fallen 
royalty, took part with the prince, and forced the stern republican to seek refuge 
in his lodgings. 



560 MODERN HISTORY. 

lies ; it was, on tlie whole, disadvantageous to the Dutch, though they 
were coninnindcd by such excellent admirals as De Ruyter and Van 
Tronip. The death of the latter in an engagement that lasted three 
days (a. d. 1654), decided the contest, and the Hollanders were forced 
to beg peace from Oliver Cromwell, who had, in the meantime, dis- 
solved the parliament and usurped the government of England. 

When Scotland and Ireland were subdued, the parliament became 
jealous of Cromwell's power, and resolved to diminish it by disbanding 
a portion of the army. But the parliament, if such a name could fairly 
be given to a minority of the house of commons, had lost its sole 
strength, the confidence of the people, by its obstinacy in retaining the 
power with which it had been invested by circumstances ; it would not 
dissolve itself, but seemed determined to perpetuate its sovereignty.* 
An angry remonstrance from the army was rejected, and the soldiers 
reproved for interfering in public affairs. This brought affairs to a cri- 
sis : on the nineteenth of April, 1653, Cromwell turned out the mem- 
bers with military force, locked the doors, put the key in his pocket, 
and retired to his lodgings at Whitehall. The council of state was 
similarly dismissed, and so weary were the people of their late rulers, 
that addresses were sent to Cromwell from almost every part of Eng- 
land, thanking him for his boldness and courage. 

It was necessary still to preserve the forms of the constitution, but 
Cromwell could not venture on an appeal to the people, and allow them 
their ancient liberty of election, much less a more extended franchise ; 
he therefore adopted a middle course, and by the advice of his officers, 
nominated one hundred and sixty persons on his own authority, to form 
a new parliament. This extraordinary body was named the Barebones 
parliament, from one of its fanatic members, named Praise-God Bare- 
bones, who rendered himself conspicuous by his affectation of superior 
sanctity. Cromwell, finding this convention not so pliant as had 
been expected, contrived, by his creatures, that a majority should vote 
for an immediate dissolution, and when about thirty members con- 
tinued to meet, they were unceremoniously ejected by a file of mus- 
queteers. 

A new constitution was formed, by which the legislative power was 
granted to a lord protector and parliament, and the executive to the 
protector and a council of state. On the 16th of December, 1653, 
Cromwell took the oath of fidelity to the new form of government, and 
was invested with the dignity of lord protector. On the 3d of the fol- 
lowing September, the new parliament assembled, but though the 
strictest regulations consistent with the forms of election had been de- 
vised to exclude all but partisans of the government, the protector's au- 
thority was menaced on the very first day of debate, and it was resolved, 
by a majority of five, to refer the examination of the new constitution 
to a select committee. Cromwell first excluded half the members for 
refusing to take an oath of allegiance to the protector, and finding that 
the house, even after this mutilation, continued refractory, he dissolved 

• Ludlow asserts, without a shadow of proof, that the parliament was about to 
dissolve itself, and give the nation a free general election on a reformed plan, 
when Cromwell interfered. Such a project, indeed, was discussed, but there ap- 
pear no proofs of its being intended to put it into execution. 



AUGUSTAN AGES OP ENGLAND AND FRANCE. 561 

the parliament before it had sat the five months required by the consti- 
tution, which he had himself framed and sworn to support. 

A new parliament was summoned, but notwithstanding the inter- 
ference of Cromwell and the major-generals that ruled the twelve dis- 
tricts into which England was divided, so many opponents of the gov- 
ernment were returned, that Cromwell posted soldiers at the door to 
exclude those members to whom he had not granted tickets of admis- 
sion. The parliament, thus modified, proved sufficiently subservient, 
and on the 26th of March, 1656, i,t gratified Cromwell's secret am- 
bition, by offering him the title of king. But Fleetwood, the protec- 
tor's son-in-law, and Desborough, his brother-in-law, disconcerted the 
entire plan by joining the republicans in the army, and procuring a pe--^ 
tition from the officers against royalty, which it would have been dan- 
gerous to disregard.* Cromwell was forced to resign his darling ob- 
ject at the moment it seemed within his grasp, and to content himself 
with the protectorate for life, and the power of nominating his suc- 
cessor. 

To divert the attention of the nation from its internal affairs, Crom- 
well resolved to engage in some foreign war, but was at first undecided 
whether he should attack France or Spain. f Mazarine's cunning de- 
cided the question ; he conciliated the protector by banishing the Eng- 
lish princes from France, and thus obtained auxiliaries at a critical 
moment, whose support, as we have already seen, he paid by the ces- 
sion of Dunkirk. Two formidable fleets were prepared in England; 
one, under the command of Blake, was sent to cruise in the Mediterra- 
nean ; the other, intrusted to admirals Penn and Venables, proceeded 
to the West Indies. To justify hostilities, Cromwell demanded of the 
Spanish ambassador, that his master should abolish the Inquisition, 
and open the trade of South America to the English. The ambassador 
replied, that this was asking for his master's two eyes ; indeed, neither 
demand, under the circumstances, was reasonable. The Spanish In- 
quisition certainly exercised an unjust tyranny toward protestants, but 
Cromwell did not treat the Irish catholics with greater mildness ; and 
when England had just given an example of monopoly by passing the 
navigation act, it showed little regard for consistency to demand free 
trade from Spain. But both proposals were in accordance with the 
spirit of the times, and the knowledge of their having been made, 
brought back to Cromwell a considerable share of the popularity he 
had forfeited. 

Admiral Blake first sailed to Leghorn, and having cast anchor be- 
fore the town, demanded and obtained satisfaction for the injuries; 
which the duke of Tuscany had done to English commerce. Repair-': 
ing thence to Algiers, he compelled the dey to restrain his piratical sub- 

* " Certain persons," said the petition, " are endeavoring to reduce the nation 
to the old state of slavery, and urge the protector to assume the royal title, wish- 
ing by this means to ruin him. We, therefore, petition the parliament to oppose 
such intrigues, and to abide by the old cause, for which we are ready to hazard 
our lives." 

f " In order to maintain himself, he, in common with Lambert, and some of the 
council, wishes for war, and is only revolving whether it were better for him to 
raise it against France or Spain." — Report of the French Embassador, Jpril 20, 
1654. 

36 



562 MODERN HISTORY. 

jects from further depredations on the English. Failing lo obtain sim- 
ilar satisfaction at Tunis, he battered its fortifications with his artillery, 
and burned every ship in the harbor. His fame spread through the 
entire Mediterranean, and no power dared to provoke his vengeance. 
Penn and Venables attempted. to take Hispaniola, then considered the 
most valuable island in the West Indies, but failing in this effort, they 
conquered Jamaica, which has ever since been annexed to the domin- 
ions of England. Cromwell, however, was so little satisfied with the 
conduct of the two admirals, that on their return, he committed them to 
the Tower. The English, through the entire war, maintained their 
supremacy by sea ; several of the galleons, laden with the precious 
metals from South America, were taken or destroyed, and an entire fleet 
burned by the heroic Blake in the bay of Santa Cruz.* 

These conquests silenced many opponents for a lime, but secret dis- 
satisfaction pervaded the nation, and pamphleteers bitterly assailed the 
protector, both in verse and prose. f Public attention was roused by 
the assembling of parliament on the 20th of January, 1658; the house 
of commons showed its hostility to the government, by admitting the 
members who had been previously excluded by the privy council, and 
still more by severely scrutinizing the constitution of the upper house. 
After a vain effort to conciliate his opponents, Cromwell dissolved the 
parliament on the 4th of February, and resolved to hazard the perilous 
experiment of governing alone. But he encountered violent opposition, 
even in his own family ; Elizabeth, his second daughter, keenly re- 
proached him on her dying bed, and the father, who loved her fondly, 
felt his grief for her loss sharpened by the pangs of conscience. A 
pamphlet was published, and widely circulated, in which the assassina- 
tion of the protector was recommended as an act of justice and patriot- 
ism ; Cromwell read it, and never smiled again. He lived in continual 
fear, always wore a coat of mail, never slept two successive nights in 
the same chamber, had guards posted everywhere, and secret avenues 
contrived, by which he might escape on the least alarm. In such a 
condition, his death must be considered a happy release ; it took place 
on the 3d of September, 1658, the anniversary of his great victories at 
Worcester and Dunbar. He was interred with great pomp in West- 
minster Abbey, but the conduct of the populace evinced anything but 
sorrow for the loss of their ruler.| 

•April 21st, 1657. — "This was the last and greatest action of this gallant naval 
commander, who died in his way home. He was, by principle, an inflexible re- 
publican, and only his zeal for the interests of his country induced him to serve 
tinder the usurper. Though he was above forty-four years of age before he en- 
tered into the military service, and fifty-one before he acted in the navy he raised 
the maritime glory of England to a greater height than it had ever attained in any 
former period. Cromwell, fully sensible of his merits, ordered him a pompous 
funeral at the public expense ; and people of all parties, by their tears, bore tes- 
timony to his valor, generosity, and public spirit." — Dr. Johnson's Life of Blake. 

t Satirical poems were published, in one of which is the following passage : — 

"Aprolectorl wliat 's tliat ? ' lis a stalely tiling- 
That confesses liimself but tlie ape of a liing ; 
A tragical Caesar, the aclur a clown. 
Or a brass fai thing, stamped witli a kind of a crown." 

t Evelyn says, "This was the merriest funeral that I ever saw, for no one 
howled but the dogs, with which the soldiers made sport, amid barbarous noise, 
parading through the streets, drinking and smoking." Ludlow adds, " The folly ■ 



AUGUSTAN AGES OP ENGLAND AND FRANCE. 563 

Richard Cromwell had hitherto lived a thoughtless and rather ex- 
travagant life, but on his father's death he was acknowledged as pro- 
tector both at home and abroad, without opposition. He had, however, 
soon to contend against a powerful republican minority in parliament, 
while still greater dangers menaced him from the discontent of the 
army, which was equally dissatisfied with the protector and the parlia- 
ment.* The officers urged Richard to dissolve the refractory com- 
mons, and when he had taken this imprudent step, seized the reins of 
government into their own hands. Having deliberated on several proj- 
ects, the military junta came to the resolution of re-assembling the 
Long parliament. About ninety members were hastily collected, but 
those who displeased the new rulers were excluded, and the delibera- 
tions of the rest were fettered, by what was called " an humble petition 
and address from the officers to the parliament of the commonwealth of 
England." Richard, weary of his situation, resigned the protectorate, 
and the chief power of the state passed to the cabal of officers, at whose 
head were Lambert, Fleetwood, and Desborough. In the contests that 
followed between the parliament and the council of officers, the nation 
generally took no interest. It was a period of complete anarchy ; prin- 
ciple was forgotten, every one was guided by his caprice, or by some 
prospect of private advantage. All true friends of their country were 
heartily tired of this confusion, and the illusion of the republicans had 
so completely vanished, that if we except those who wished for a pro- 
tector, or expected the personal reign of Christ, not more than a few 
hundreds could be found anxious to restore the commonwealth. In. 
this state of affairs, George Monk, afterward duke of Albemarle, re- 
solved to act a decided part. He had been intrusted by Cromwell 
with the government of Scotland, and the command of the army : though 
suspected of a secret attachment to the royal cause,! he continued to 
hold his place during the protectorates of Oliver and Richard. On the 
abdication of the latter, he professed the utmost anxiety for a reconcilia- 
tion between the parliament and the English army ; but if that could 
not be effected, he declared that he would support the former, because 
the establishment of a commonwealth was dear to his heart. This 
declaration gave so much confidence to the opponents of the officers, 
that Fleetwood found it necessary to permit the parliament to assemble ; 
and the Rump parliament, as the house of commons so often mutilated 
was ignominiously termed, met amid the loudest acclamations of the 
soldiers, who only two months before had dispersed it by military 
violence. The house promptly made use of the power which it had 

and profusion (of the lying in state) so far provoked the people, that they threw 
dirt in the night on his escutcheon that was placed over the great gate of Somer- 
set house." 

* Richard derided the fanatical pretensions of his father's officers ; when a re- 
monstrance was made against his granting commissions to "the ungodly," he re- 
plied, " Here is Dick Ingoldsby, who can neither pray nor preach, and yet I will 
trust him before ye all." "These imprudent, as well as irreligious words," says 
Ludlow, " so clearly discovering the frame and temper of his mind, were soon 
published in the army and city of London, to his great prejudice." 

t Cromwell once wrote to him, " I have been informed that there is in Scotland, 
a certain cunning fellow, George Monk by name, who has a scheme for restoring 
Charles Stuart ; endeavor to catch him, and send him hither." 



564 MODERN HISTORY. 

regained ; the members and officers of whom it did not approve were 
removed ; Desboroiigh, with some others, fled to Lambert. Fleetwood 
was overwhelmed with consternation. 

On the 1st of January, 1660, Monk, at the head of six thousand men, 
commenced his march toward London ; he was received everywhere 
with the greatest enthusiasm ; in all the towns on his road the people 
rang the bells, lighted bonfires, and declared their ardent wish for a 
free parliament. Lambert's army melted away as he advanced ; but 
Fleetwood's soldiers excited so much alarm, that the speaker wrote to 
Monk to hasten his march. On the 6th of February he appeared in 
parliament, and first excited some suspicions of his real designs by re- 
fusing to take the oath of abjuration against the Stuarts. The parlia- 
ment tried to embroil him with the citizens of London, by sending him 
to arrest some members of the common council for resolving that no 
taxes should be paid until the parliament was filled. Monk performed 
this disagreeable duty ; but immediately after reconciled himself to the 
city, and sent a letter to the speaker, demanding a dissolution of par- 
liament and a new election. While this letter was fiercely debated, 
Monk took the decisive step of introducing the old excluded members, 
by which he gained a triumphant majority. 

On the 17th of March the Long parliament concluded its sittings, to 
the great joy of the nation, and a new house of commons met on the 
25th of April. In the interval, Lambert made a desperate effort to place 
himself at the head of a new army, but by Monk's promptitude and 
vigor he was taken prisoner and sent to the Tower. 

When the new parliament, consisting both of upper and lower house, 
met, it was manifest that the royalists had such a preponderance that 
the only questron remaining to be decided was, whether Charles IL should 
be restored with or without conditions. The latter course was unfor- 
tunately chosen, perhaps because it would have been impossible to frame 
terms, the discussion of which would not have roused the slumbering 
feuds of hostile parties. 

On the 29th of May, the day on which he completed his thirtieth 
year, Charles triumphantly entered London. He was accompanied by 
the, members of parliament, the clergy, the civic authorities, and about 
twenty thousand persons on foot or horseback. The streets were 
strewed with flowers, the houses decorated with tapestry, the bells rung 
in every church, the air resounded with acclamations. The monarch, 
so recently a hopeless exile, might well ask, as he witnessed the tumult 
of universal joy, " Where then are my enemies ?" 

Section IIL — History of England, from the Restoration to the Revolution ; 
and Rise of the Power of Louis XI F. 

Few monarchs ever had such an opportunity of rendering himself 
popular, and his subjects happy, as Charles IL ; there is scarcely one 
who failed more lamentably. His first measures promised well ; a few 
of the regicides and their adherents were indeed excepted from the act 
of indemnity, and executed ; but pardon was granted to the chief par- 
liamentary leaders, and many of them received into favor. Ecclesias- 
tical affairs, however, began to disturb the harmony of the nation, when. 



AUGUSTAN AGES OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE. 565 

a new parliament was assembled, in which the episcopal and royalist 
party had a triumphant majority. An act was passed, requiring that 
every clergymen should possess episcopal ordination, declare his assent 
to everything contained in the book of common prayer, take the oath 
of canonical obedience, abjure the solemn league and covenant, and the 
right of taking up arms against the king under any pretence whatever. 
About two thousand of the clergy rejected these conditions, and resign- 
ed their benefices, rather than do violence to their religious opinions. 
The ejected clergymen were persecuted with unwise rigor ; severe 
laws were enacted against conventicles, and a non-conformist minister 
was prohibited from coming within five miles of a corporation. 

The marriage of the king to Catherine of Portugal, when his sub- 
jects hoped that he would make a protestant princess his queen, and 
the sale of Dunkirk to the French monarch, tended still further to 
diminish the royal popularity ; and a war, equally unjust and impolitic, 
undertaken against the Dutch, completed the public dissatisfaction. 
Hostilities were commenced without a formal declaration of war ; the 
English seized several of the Dutch colonies in Africa and America, 
especially the province of Nova Belgia, which Charles, in honor of his 
brother, named the state of New York. Holland was at this time 
ruled by the Louvestein, or violent republican party ; its head, the 
celebrated John de Witt, who, with the title of pensionary, enjoyed 
almost dictatorial power, feared that Charles might make some effort 
to restore William III., prince of Orange, to the office of stadtholder, 
which his ancestors had enjoyed ; and to avert this danger, entered 
into close alliance with France. The pensionary found, however, that 
he miist rely upon his own resources ; he fitted out a powerful fleet ; 
the English exerted themselves with equal diligence, and a furious 
engagement took place upon the coast of Holland (a. d. 1665). Vic- 
tory declared in favor of the English ; more than thirty of the enemy's 
ships were taken or destroyed, and the whole would probably have 
fallen had not the pursuit been stopped by the oversight or cowardice 
of the duke of York, who had been created lord high-admiral of England 
by his brother. 

The joy occasioned by this victory was diminished by the ravages 
of the great plague, which swept away seventy thousand citizens of 
London in the course of a year. De Witt, in the meantime, exerted 
himself to restore the naval power of the Dutch ; he formed an alliance 
with the king of Denmark, procured aid from France, and soon sent 
out a more powerful fleet than that which had been defeated. But 
the English still maintained their wonted superiority ; and the Dutch, 
disheartened by repeated defeats, began to murmur against the govern- 
ment of the grand pensionary. Scarcely had the plague ceased, when 
London was subjected to a second calamity ; a dreadful fire, which 
raged for four days, destroyed four hundred streets and lanes, including 
thirteen thousand houses ; but it is remarkable that not a single life 
was lost by the conflagration. Great discontents were excited by the 
severity with which the non-conformists were treated in England and 
Scotland ;. about two thousand of the discontented, in the western 
counties of Scotland, had recourse to arms, and renewed the covenant, 
but they were overpowered by the royal forces, and their insurrection 



566 MODERN HISTORY. 

punished with remorseless cruelty. One of the first stipulations made 
with Charles on his accession was, that he should not disturb the grants 
which Cromwell had given to his followers in Ireland. But as many, 
if not most, of these estates had been forfeited for the attachment of 
the proprietors to the royal cause, it was necessary that some compen- 
sation should be made to the sufferers. After a long struggle, the best 
arrangement that was perhaps possible, under the circumstances, was 
effected by the act of settlement ; and though many of those who had 
been dispossessed complained of injustice, the island was restored to 
tranquillity. It was fast recovering its prosperity, when the unwise 
jealousy of the English parliament produced considerable distress, by 
prohibiting the importation of Irish cattle.* While these circumstances 
embarrassed the British government, the pensionary, De Witt, sent out 
a new fleet, which destroyed several vessels at the mouth of the 
Thames, reduced Sheerness, insulted Portsmouth and Plymouth, and 
for several week rode triumphant in the channel (a. d. 1667). The 
conclusion of a peace at Breda dissipated the alarm, but at the same 
time increased the discontent, of the English nation ; it was felt that 
the prodigality, of the king had exhausted the treasury and left the king- 
dom exposed to insult and disgrace. 

The ambitious projects of Louis XIV. began now to excite general 
alarm ; his personal qualities won him the affections of his people ; the 
splendor of his court dazzled the nobility, and changed the factious 
lords of France into a body of the most subservient courtiers that had 
ever been seen in modern Europe. On the death of Philip IV. of Spain, 
Louis claimed the Spanish Netherlands in right of his wife, the daughter 
of Philip by his first marriage, asserting that females could inherit 
according to the custom of Brabant, and that his queen should have 
precedence of her infant brother, the offspring of a second marriage. 
Anna Maria of Austria, queen-regent of Spain, was a weak woman, 
entirely governed by her confessor, a German Jesuit, named Nithard, 
"who was more anxious to check the growth of heresy than to protect 
the monarchy.! Louis entered Flanders at the head of a powerful 
army, and found the Spaniards almost wholly unprepared for resistance. 
The principal towns surrendered immediately ; Lisle, though a place of 
considerable strength, capitulated afler a siege of nine days, and Louis 
secured his conquests by intrusting the repair of their fortifications to 
the celebrated Vauban, and garrisoning them with his best troops. 
The Dutch were alarmed at the prospect of having their frontiers 
exposed to such a powerful neighbor ; they received succor from au 

• The discussion of this act, in the house of lords, gave rise to some singular 
debates. It was secretly opjwsed bj' the king, who felt its obvious impolicy ; it 
was urged forward by the eccentric duke of Buckingham, who hoped to force him- 
self into power by means of the house of commons. The commons declared the 
importation of Irish cattle " a nuisance." The lords rejected a term so revolting 
to common sense, and substituted " a grievance." The duke of Buckingham in- 
sisted on retaining the obnoxious phrase ; another noble lord moved that the im- 
portation of Irish cattle should be deemed " a felony," or a " prcemunire :" a third, 
with more wit and as much reason, proposed that it should be accounted 
" adultery." 

t His arrogance and ignorance were displayed in his reply to a nobleman who 
had addressed him in a tone of disrespect. " You ought," said he, " to revere the 
man who has every day your God in his hands and your queen at his feet." 



AUGUSTAN AGES OF ENGLAND AND PRANCE. 567 

Tinexcepted quarter. Charles II., either jealous of Louis, or eager to 
acquire popularity, concluded a defensive alliance between England 
and Holland (a. d. 1668) ; and Sweden soon after concurred in the 
treaty. Louis found it necessary to stop short in his career ; he made 
peace with Spain, retaining a great portion of his conquests, which, 
however, were not sufficient to console him for the brilliant prospects 
he was compelled to resign. He had to endure another mortification ; 
the Turks one more became formidable, under the administration of the 
vizier Kuproeli, and compelled the German emperor to conclude peace 
on terms highly favorable to their interests ; and they wrested the im- 
portant island of Candia from the Venetians, in spite of the efforts made 
by the French monarch to save the place. 

Louis saw that his designs on the Netherlands, and his revenge 

. against Holland, could not be accomplished without the active partici- 
pation of England. Knowing the profligate habits of Charles, whose 
court was a scene of extravagance and dissipation, he concluded a 
secret treaty with that monarch, in which it was agreed that Charles 
should receive a large pension from Louis, in return for which he 
should co-operate in the conquest of the Netherlands, propagate the 

. catholic faith in his dominions, and publicly announce his conversion 
to that religion. France and England commenced the war by atro- 
ciously outraging the laws of nations ; Louis, without the shadow of a 
pretext, seized the dutchy of Lorraine ; Charles attempted the capture 
of a rich Dutch fleet, before he had announced his dissatisfaction with 
the recent treaty. The Dutch were wholly unable to resist this storm; 
at sea they maintained their equality, but the armies of France bore 
down all opposition ; Louis crossed the Rhine, advanced to Utrecht, 

• and had he not delayed there, might have conquered Amsterdam. The 
Dutc^ populace vented their rage on the unfortunate pensionary, to 
whom they unjustly attributed all their calamities. John de Witt and 
his brother Cornelius were arrested, but ere they could be brought to 
-trial, a furious mob burst into their prison and tore them to pieces. 
William III., prince of Orange, was immediately chosen stadtholder ; 
;his exhortations revived the sinking spirits of the Dutch ; they resolved, 
that rather than submit to disgraceful terms, they Avould abandon their 
country, seek their settlements in the East Indies, and re-establish 
their republic in southern Asia.* Louis soon found the results of this 
.determined spirit ; the emperor, thoroughly alarmed, sided with the 
DuUih, and many of the northern German states followed his example. 
Indecisive engagements were fought at sea ; but the conquest of Cologne 
by the Dutch and Germans, intercepted the communication between 
France and the United Provinces, in consequence of which Louis was 
compelled to withdraw his forces and abandon his conquests. A more 
important change was the secession of England ; Charles, distressed 
for want of money, loaded with debt, and rendered anxious by the 
progress of public discontent, concluded peace with Holland on very 
equitable conditions (a. d. 1674). He then offered his mediation to 
the contending powers. 

* Several efforts were made to corrupt the prince of Orange, but he sternly re- 
jected them. When told that the ruin of his country was inevitable, he replied, 
" There is one way by which I can be certain not to see the ruin of my country ; 
and that is, to die disputing the last ditch." 



<;||^ MODERN HISTORY. 

Louis surprised all Europe by the magnitude of his efforts, but they 
did not produce any corresponding result ; and the desolation of the 
Palatinate by Marshal Turenne excited such general indignation, that 
Louis bribed Charles to dissolve the parliament, lest it should force its 
sovereign to declare war against France. The war was maintained 
with great fury during the ensuing campaigns ; it was on the whole 
favorable to the French, but the rapid progress of Louis, in the year 
1677, excited so much alarm, that the English parliament addressed the 
king to conclude au offensive and defensive alliance with Holland. 
Charles, however, had sold his neutrality, and would not abandon his 
pension to promote either the honor or advantage of his kingdom ; but 
he tried to conciliate the nation by giving his niece, the daughter of the 
duke of York, in marriage to the prince of Orange. Louis continued 
his victorious career uninterrupted by England, until the Dutch sought 
peace on any terms, and a treaty was concluded at Nimeguen (a. d. 
1678), by which France acquired an increase of power dangerous to 
all the neighboring states. 

The jealousy of the English nation at the exaltation of a rival, long 
regarded as their natural enenij^ the feeling that the national honor had 
been sacrificed, and the fear of the design of the court to establish the 
Romish religion and arbitrary power, spread a deep gloom over Eng- 
land, and disposed the people to suspicions that led them to become the 
dupes of the vilest impostors. Just as the account of the cruelties 
practised on the covenanters in Scotland excited most alarm and indig- 
nation, the three kingdoms were roused to sudden phrensy by the an- 
nouncement of a popish plot. A wicked impostor, named Titus Gates, 
framed a tale of a conspiracy by the Jesuits for the subversion of the 
protestant religion and the murder of the king ; his narrative was im- 
probable, confused, and contradictory, but it suited the temper'^of the 
nation, and it was favorable to the ambition of some designing men, 
anxious to obtain power at any hazard. Before censuring too severely 
the credulity of the nation, we must remember that a plot for the re-es- 
tablishment of the Romish religion really existed, but it was formed by 
the king, not against him ; many catholics, aware of the king's secret 
attachment to their religion, and encouraged by the duke of York's open 
profession of it, indulged hopes of the speedy reconciliation of the 
British kingdoms to the holy see, and several enthusiastic phrases ia 
their letters were capable of being distorted into confirmation of a plan 
formed to accelerate such a consummation.* The inexplicable murder 
of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey, an active magistrate who had taken. 
Gates's depositions, completed the delusion ; to deny the reality of the 
plot was now to be reputed an accomplice ; even to doubt of it was 
criminal. Several catholics were brought to trial ; the evidence against 
them was a tissue of palpable falsehoods, but, in the phrensy of the 
moment, every absurdity received credence ; they were condeamed and 
executed. The parliament at the same time passed a law excluding 
from both houses all who would nut swear that " the sacrifice of the 

* This i.s especially the case with the letters of the first victim to the national 
delusion, Edward Coleman, secretary to the duke of York. Dryden has well de- 
scribed the plot in a single line -. — 

" Some truth there was, but dashed and brewed with lies." 



AUGUSTAN AGES OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE. 569- 

mass was damnable and idolatrous," and it was with great difficulty 
that an exception was made in favor of the king's brother, the duke of 
York. The covenanters in Scotland were driven to such desperation 
by the severities of the royal government, that they murdered Archbish- 
op Sharpe, and broke out into open rebellion. Their revolt was sup- 
pressed, and those who had shared in it, or who were suspected of fa- 
voring the views of the covenanters, were punished with remorseless 
cruelty. It deserves to be remarked that, during this turbulent period, 
Ireland, to the great discredit of the popish plot, continued perfectly 
tranquil. Still its name was dragged into the controversy, and it lent 
a title to a party. The supporters of the court were named tories, 
from the Irish robbers, who, under that name, harassed the Cromwelli- 
an settlers ; the leaders of the opposition were denominated whigs, 
the appellation of the fiercest of the Scottish covenanters (a. d. 1681). 
A bill to exclude the duke of York from the succession passed the com- 
mons, but was rejected by the lords ; Charles seized the moment when 
the violence of his adversaries disgusted the sound part of the nation, 
to dissolve the parliament, and to summon a new one to assemble at 
Oxford. This second parliament proving refractory, it was suddenly 
dissolved, and a declaration vindicating the king's proceedings was or- 
dered to be read in all churches and chapels. 

Charles won the support of the clergy by vigorously enforcing the 
act of uniformity and persecuting sectaries, and at the same time chose 
some of the most pliant lawyers to be judges. By these means the 
doctrines of passive obedience and non-resistance were revived, and 
the bench and the pulpit seemed to contend with each other which 
should show most zeal for the unlimited power of the crown. He next 
assailed his opponents with their own weapons ; the spies, the inform- 
ers, and false witnesses, who had been employed by the popular party 
to establish the reality of the popish plot, were now enlisted against 
their former patrons, and gave their perjured support to one party as 
freely as they had done to another. The spirit of independence still 
reigned in the hearts of the citizens of London, but, on the most flimsy 
legal pretexts, the capital was deprived of its charter, and the power 
of the corporation virtually transferred to the king. The popular lead- 
ers, not disheartened, formed a plan of insurrection ; they were be- 
trayed by one of their party : Lord Howard, who had been a leader, 
became a witness against his associates ; several of them were tried, 
condemned, and executed ; but the victims whose fate excited the most 
sympathy were the popular Lord Russell and the virtuous Algernon 
Sydney. The duke of York was now placed at the head of the royal 
councils, but Charles soon became weary of his brother's violence and 
bigotry ; he is even said to have meditated a change in the government, 
and the adoption of popular measures, when he died suddenly (a. d. 
1685), not without strong suspicions of poison. It was supposed that 
some of the violent catholics attached to the duke of York perpetrated 
the crime without that prince's knowledge or participation. 

While England was thus convulsed at home, its foreign interests 
were wholly neglected by its profligate sovereign, who continued to be 
the pensioner of the French king. Louis XIV. thus had full scope ta 
gratify his ambition ; he continually enlarged his frontiers on the most 



570 MODERN HISTORY. 

frivolous pretences, while Spain and Holland were too weak, and the 
Germanic empire too much harassed by other enemies, to check his 
progress. The emperor Leopold, by flagrantly violating the privileges 
of his Hungarian subjects, provoked a formidable revolt ; it was headed 
by Count Tekeli, a leader possessing great courage and resolution, and 
he called the Turks to the assistance of his countrymen. While these 
allies were ravaging Silesia, the sultan Mohammed IV. was preparing 
one of the most formidable armies that the Ottoman empire had ever 
sent against Christendom. Leopold, convinced that his own resources 
were not equal to the crisis, entered into close alliance with the cele- 
brated John Sobieski, who, in the year 1674, had been raised to the 
throne of Poland. 

Before the Polish levies could be completed, the Turkish army, 
commanded by the grand A'izier, Kara Mustapha, entered Austria ; the 
duke of Lorraine, who commanded the imperialists, was unable to re- 
sist the progress of the invaders ; they advanced rapidly, and at length 
laid siege to Vienna. During several weeks the city was vigorously 
defended, but, at length, its fortifications crumbled under the heavy fire 
of the Turkish artillery ; the suburbs were destroyed, and the final as- 
sault was expected every moment (a. d. 1683). The garrison, reduced 
to despair, was about to resign all thoughts of resistance, when the 
banners of John Sobieski, approaching to their relief, were seen on the 
hill of Schellenberg. Kara Mustapha led the main body of his forces 
to meet the Poles, while a body of twenty thousand men attempted to 
storm the city. But the courage of the garrison was now revived, and 
the confidence of their enemies abated ; the assailants were repelled ; 
a panic seized the Turks ; they broke at the first charge of the Polish 
cavalry, and fled in such confusion, that they abandoned their artillery, 
baggage, and treasures. Even the consecrated banner of Mohammed 
became the prize of the victors, and was sent as a trophy to the pope. 
Leopold, in consequence of this decided triumph, recovered possession 
of Hungary, but his ingratitude to his deliverers was as signal as their 
merits. 

Louis XIV. had raised the siege of Luxemburg when he heard of 
the advance of the Turks, declaring that he would not attack a Chris- 
tian prince while Christendom itself was endangered by the invasion 
of the infidels. No sooner, however, had Sobieski's valor crushed the 
Mohammedans, than he renewed his aggressions. Spain was thus 
provoked into a war wliich it had not strength to support, and a hasty 
peace confirmed Louis in his conquests. His naval power was steadily 
increased at the same time ; he humbled the Algerines, compelled the 
republic of Genoa to submit to the most degrading humiliations, and did 
not even spare the pope. But while his ambition was provoking the 
resentment of Europe, he weakened his kingdom by a display of fero- 
cious bigotry, at the moment when all its strength was required to re- 
sist justly-provoked hostility. The religious toleration of the Hugue- 
nots had been secured by the edict of Nantes, which was designed to 
be perpetual ; Louis, after the death of his wisest minister, the virtuous 
Colbert, revoked this edict, and attempted to impose his rehgion on his 
subjects by the sword. He began by issuing an edict, authorizing 
Huguenot children, above seven years of age, to change their religion 



AUGUSTAN AGES OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE. 571 

without the consent of their parents ; this pernicious law introduced 
dissension into the bosom of families ; children were enticed to ingrat- 
itude and disobedience by the arts of clerical kidnappers who over- 
spread the country. The parents were next persecuted ; they were 
excluded from aH public employments and the incorporations of the 
trades. Bribes were offered on the one hand, punishments were men- 
aced on the other ; apostacy was assured of reward, and the payment 
of conversions became a heavy charge on the state. Finally, a brutal 
and licentious soldiery was let loose on the hapless protestants ; dra- 
goons were sent as missionaries among them, and the edict of Nantes, 
their last security, was formally revoked. Exposed to all the cruelties 
and horrors that bigotry could dictate, or brutality execute, nearly four 
hundred thousand of the Huguenots abandoned their country, and car- 
ried into lands hostile to France, their wealth, their commercial intelli- 
gence, their manufacturing industry, and their desire of vengeance. 
The accounts of their sufferings published by the exiled Huguenots in 
England, Holland, and Germany, aggravated the hatred of France, 
which was spreading through these countries, and accelerated a general 
war. A league was formed by all the princes of Germany to restrain 
the encroachments of Louis ; Spain and Holland joined it as princi- 
pals ; Sweden, Denmark, and Savoy, were afterward gained : and a 
sudden revolution in England placed that country at the head of the 
confederacy. • 

James II. succeeded to the English crown on the death of his brother 
Charles ; he commenced his reign by liberal promises, which procured 
him general popularity, notwithstanding his open adhesion to the Ro- 
mish church, and his going to mass with all the ensigns of regal dig- 
nity. But there were many discontented spirits who lamented his ac- 
cession, and these secretly instigated the duke of Monmouth, the natu- 
ral son of Charles II., to assert his mother's marriage, and his own 
consequent claim to the throne. Monmouth was a weak, vain man ; 
he readily adopted the scheme, and in* concert with the earl of Argyle, 
prepared for the simultaneous invasion of Scotland and England. Ar- 
gyle, who was the first, readily effected a landing in Scotland, but soon 
found that the country was not so ripe for revolt as he had believed. 
Surrounded by superior forces, he attempted to force his way into the 
disaffected part of the western counties, but his followers gradually 
abandoned him ; he was taken prisoner and sent to Edinburgh, where 
he expiated his imprudence on the scaffold. In the meantime, Mon- 
mouth had landed in the west of England, where he was received with 
great enthusiasm. Encouraged by the proofs of attachment he received, 
he ventured to attack the royal array encamped at Sedgemoor, near 
Bridge water. But the cowardice of Lord Grey, who commanded the 
horse, and the incapacity of Monmouth himself, proved fatal to the in- 
surgents ; they were routed with great slaughter, and their unfortunate 
leader, after wandering about several days in great distress, was taken 
prisoner. 

James II. induced the unhappy Monmouth to degrade himself by a 
mean supplication for life,* and then informed him that his offence was 

* Monmouth displayed great firmness and intrepidity on the scaffold. The exe- 



ff9 MODERN HISTORY. 

too great to be pardoned. The cruelties exercised on all suspected of 
having shared in the insurrection, by the inhuman Colonel Kirke, and 
the still more infamous Judge Jeifries, were shocking to human nature ; 
they spread general consternation through the western counties, but at 
the same time they excited a spirit of secret hostility to the tyrannical 
king. Encouraged by his success, James resolved to dispense with 
the test acts, by which catholics were excluded from the public ser- 
vice, and, finding the parliament opposed to his views, he dissolved 
that body. Eleven out of the twelve judges asserted that the dispens- 
ing power was an essential part of the royal prerogative ; and the king, 
fortified by their opinion, gave several places of trust to catholic lords 
and gentlemen. The lord-lieutenancy of Ireland was intrusted to the 
earl of Tyrconnell, a zealous adherent of the Romish church ; many 
of the catholics, who felt that their religion was the cause of their be- 
ing deprived of their estates, began to look forward to the repeal of the 
Act of Land Settlement, and several of the more timorous protestants 
sought refuge in England. Their representations, and the tales of hor- 
ror related by the exiled Huguenots, filled the nation with a general 
hatred of popery ; the king, however, imconscious of his increasing 
unpopularity, unwisely deprived himself of his chief security by quar- 
relling with the church. He commenced by endeavoring to open the 
doors of the universities to catholics ; more opposition was offered than 
had been anticipated, but the*king persevered, and a catholic, named 
Parker, was installed into the presidency of Magdalen college, Oxford. 
Although there was much discontent in England, no project had as 
yet been formed against the king ; it was believed that Mary of Mode- 
na, James's queen, would never have any children, and the nation was 
disposed to wait quietly for the accession of one of his daughters by his 
former marriage, both of whom were known to be strongly attached ta 
the church of England. Mary, the eldest daughter of James by Anne 
Hyde, was married to the prince of Orange, who was engaged in sup- 
porting the liberties of Europe, and the protestant religion against the 
ambition and bigotry of Louis XIV. ; she was less popular in England 
than her husband, to whom she was known to be fondly attached, and 
it was generally believed that she would relax the laws against prot- 
estant dissenters, if ever she came to the throne, in order to gratify 
the attachment of her husband to presbyterian principles. She was, 
however, childless, and the national hope of a protestant successor to 
the throne centred in her sister. 

The princess Anne, afterward queen, had been educated in the strict- 
est principles of the Anglican church by her maternal grandfather, the- 
celebrated earl of Clarendon. She Avas married to Prince George of 
Denmark, by whom she had several children, all of whom, except the 
duke of Gloucester, either died in their infancy, or were still-born. 
She was the favorite child of her father, and nothing had ever occurred 
to interrupt their affection, until nearly at the same time James's queen 

cutioner, touched with pity, or respect for the victim's noble bearing, struck him 
three limes without eli'ect, and then threw aside the axe, declaring he was unable 
to perform his otiioe. The sherifl' compelled him to renew his eflbrts, and the 
head of the unhappy duke was at length severed from his body. 



AUGUSTAN AGES OF ENGLAND AND PBANCB. 573 

appeared likely to give an heir to the throne, and he himself became 
involved in a contest with the church of England. 

Anxious to relieve the catholics from the civil disabilities under 
which they labored, as a monarch of the same religion as themselves 
must naturally have been, and at the same time desirous to obtain the 
support of so powerful a body as the protestant dissenters, in the new 
course of policy which he meditated, James published a new declara- 
tion of indulgence, suspending all the penal laws against every species 
of dissent, and soon after issued a proclamation commanding it to be 
read in churches. The legality of such a command was questioned by 
the prelates, for though royal declarations had been read in churches 
with their sanction during the preceding reign, considerable doubts 
were entertained of the king's power to suspend the penal laws, and in 
fact, such an exercise of the royal authority had been pronounced un- 
constitutional by the best lawyers of the kingdom. Had the declaration 
related to a less obnoxious matter than the virtual abrogation of the 
laws against non-conformity, which had been only procured by the 
most vigorous exertions of the hierarchy, it is probable that the king's 
orders might have been obeyed : but it was unwise to call upon the 
English prelates to undo their work, and to proclaim in the churches 
that they had hitherto pursued an erroneous course of policy. It was 
also known that the great majority of the English dissenters, far from 
being grateful for the king's favor, viewed his edict of toleration with 
suspicion, believing that it was not intended to serve them, but to ad- 
vance the cause of popery. 

Under these circumstances six bishops, in concert with Sancroft the 
primate, prepared a remonstrance in the form of a petition to the king, 
which stated, in firm but respectful language, their reasons for refusing 
to comply with his injunctions. When this document was presented 
to James, he was so violently enraged, that he ordered the prelates to 
be arrested on the charge of having uttered a seditious libel, and as 
they all refused to find bail, they were committed to the Tower. 

At this crisis the queen gave birth to a prince of Wales, and the ab- 
sence of the archbishop, imprisoned in the Tower, who ought in virtue 
of his office to have been present on the occasion, gave rise to a report 
that he had been purposely removed out of the way, lest he should de- 
tect the king and queen in their attempts to impose a spurious child on 
the nation. This monstrous tale was studiously circulated ; and though 
the queen's delivery had been as public as decency would permit, the 
story that the prince of Wales was supposititious was received with 
equal credulity in England and Holland. James at first paid no regard 
to the reports which were in circulation, but when he learned that the 
prayers for the young prince were discontinued in his daughter's chapel 
at the Hague, he remonstrated very strongly on the subject, but was 
forced to rest satisfied with excuses so disingenuous that their falla- 
ciousness was transparent. 

As the king, according to the constitution as settled at the Reforma- 
tion, was the head of the English church, it was impossible to avoid 
some collision when the monarch professed a religion at variance with 
that of the establishment ; and though such an evil might be endured 
for a season, the members of a protestant establishment naturally shrunk 



^74 MODERN HISTORY. 

from the prospect of being governed by a continued succession of Ro- 
mish sovereigns. The birth of a prince of Wales forced men to take 
into serious consideration the position of the church and the country, 
especially as it took place at a time when seven prelates of the church 
■were persecuted by its head for defending what they believed to be the 
proper .privileges of the established religion. Such an anomaly was 
loo glaring .to escape notice, and James exhibited extraordinary weak- 
ness in forcing it on the consideration of the country. There never, 
perhaps, was a trial which excited such interest as that of the seven 
bishops for the pretended libel contained in their petition to the king. 
The best lawyers in England were engaged on each side, and the 
question between prerogative and privilege was never more ably deba- 
ted. The trial lasted during the whole of the day. In the evening 
the jury were desired to retire and consider their verdict. They re- 
mained together in close consultation all night, without fire or candle : 
great difference of opinion appears to have prevailed among them, for 
it was not until ten o'clock on the following morning that they pro- 
nounced the acquittal of the prelates. 

" The moment the verdict was pronounced," says the earl of Claren- 
don, who was present, " there was a wonderful shout, that one would 
Lave thought the hall had cracked." — " The loud shouts and joyful ac- 
clamations were," as Sir John Reresby expresses, " a rebellion in 
noise, though not in intention." From London the tumultuous sounds 
of joy extended rapidly into the country, and a well-known expression 
of James is preserved, on hearing acclamations, even among the soldiers 
in his camp at Hounslow. He was told by his general. Lord Fayer- 
sham, of whom he had inquired the cause of the noise, that it was 
nothing but the rejoicing of the soldiers for the acquittal of the bishops. 
" Do you call that nothing ?" he replied, " but so much the worse for 
them." Bonfires were made, and the bells of the churches rung not 
only in London, but in the greater part of the country towns, as soon as 
the news of the acquittal reached them, although the strictest orders 
were given to prevent such proceedings. So strong was the general 
feeling, that though several persons Avere indicted at the next sessions 
for Middlesex for riotous behavior, yet the grand jury would not find 
bills §Lgainst them, though they were sent out no less than three times. 
It is stated further, that the churches of London were crowded on that 
forenoon with multitudes, eager to pour forth their gratitude to God for 
this great deliverance. " what a sight was that," says Nichols, " ta 
behold the people crowding into the churches to return thanks to God 
for so great a blessing, with the greatest earnestness and ecstacy of 
joy, lifting up their hands to heaven ; to see illuminations in every 
window and bonfires at every door, and to hear the bells throughout all 
the city ringing out peals of joy for the wonderful deliverance." 

It was in the midst of this popular excitement, and most probably in 
consequence of it, that the project of a revolution was first formed. In 
order to form a right estimate of this great event, which for nearly half a 
century became the great turning point of European policy, it will be 
necessary to take a brief retrospect, in order to explain the position of 
parties in England. From the time of the restoration, a party, consisting 
of a few nobles and a very large body of country gentlemen, labored to 



AUGUSTAN AGES OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE. 575 

introduce so much of the principles of the old commonwealth as con- 
sisted in restraining the power of the crown, and the ecclesiastical priv- 
ileges of the establishment. They were at first called the puritanical, 
and afterward the whig party ; they were animated by a perfect horror, 
of popery, or of anything which seemed approaching to it, but they were 
more favorable to the protestant non-conformists than to the episcopal 
clergy, and their main strength rested on the support of the protestant 
dissenters. Except in hatred of popery, the English people of that day 
had little community of feeling with the whig leaders ; the rigid rule of 
the presbyteries in the time of the commonwealth and Cromwell, when 
the most innocent amusements were strictly prohibited, had alienated 
the lower orders, and though they were rallied round the whigs for a, 
time when the perjuries of Titus Gates and his associates had filled the 
nation with senseless terror, the reaction against this delusion had re- 
duced the party to more than its former weakness, and it had found 
little support out of doors when an attempt was made to exclude James 
from succeeding to the throne on account of his obnoxious religion. 
Another reason for the small amount of popular favor enjoyed by the 
whig party was the notorious fact that many of the leaders, in spite of 
their loud professions of patriotism, accepted bribes from foreign pow- 
ers. Some took money from Holland, others from France, and not a 
few from both governments, excusing such conduct to themselves by 
the necessity of obtaining foreign support to resist the prerogatives of 
the crown, and the many advantages of position enjoyed by the court 
party. The more ardent whigs had raised a rebellion against James, to 
give the crown to the duke of Monmouth, and the ease with which that 
rebellion was crushed seemed to prove the extinction of their power as 
a party. James certainly undervalued them, and had he not taken 
measures which constrained a coalition between them and their rivals, 
he might have continued to despise the English whigs with impunity. 
Matters were very different in Scotland : presbyterianisra was there 
the favored religion of the nation, and prelacy was scarcely less hated 
than popery. So far as the important question of church government 
was concerned, the Scotch were whigs and something more, but James 
and his court made little account of Scotland ; they had taken no warn- 
ing from the fate of Charles I., which had been decided by a Scottish 
army. 

A far more powerful party was known by the names of prelatists, 
cavaliers, or tories ; it included the great majority of the nobility, the 
entire body of the clergy, a large proportion of the country gentlemen, 
and in general the masses of the agricultural and laboring population, 
so far as the latter were capable of forming any opinion, or selecting a 
party. Their great principle of union was to support the exclusive su- 
premacy of the church of England, and to extend the influence of that 
sovereign in his capacity of head of that church ; their rallying cry was 
" church and king," in which church came first not only in name but in 
reality. From the very moment of James's accession, the tories found 
themselves in an awkward and false position. They had long taught 
the doctrines of the divine right of kings and passive obedience to the 
will of the sovereign, denouncing all resistance as sinful ; but when the 
monarch began to exercise his prerogatives as head of the church, in a 



576 MODERN HISTORY. 

spirit of direct hostility to the principles on which the church had been 
established, they found themselves involved in difficulties which every 
day became more embarrassing. The trial of the bishops was the crisis 
of their loyalty ; it was not unjustly regarded as a kind of declaration 
of war by the monarch against the national establishment, and all the 
friends of that establishment felt themselves coerced to take measures 
for its defence and protection. It is true that the adoption of such meas- 
ures was a virtual abandonment of the doctrine of non-resistance, and 
so far a concession to the principles of their old adversaries the whigs ; 
hence the first movements of the tories to join in inviting the prince of 
Orange to England were slow and unsteady, and the most for which 
they looked was that the prince might act as mediator between the 
king, the church, and the nation. 

We have next to examine the connexion between the position of the 
king of England in relation to the general politics of Europe. At this 
period the arbitrary designs of Louis XIV. had excited universal dis- 
trust, and alliances were secretly formed to resist his designs, whether 
covert or avowed, to the different districts and territories over which he 
sought to extend his sway. England was prevented from joining in 
this coalition only by the strict alliance between its monarch and Louis, 
and hence the reign of James was odious to the princes of Germany, 
the houses of Spain and Austria, and even to the pope himself, who 
had been harshly treated by the French monarch, stripped of his terri- 
tory of Avignon, and menaced with further injuries. Holland was still 
more deeply interested in detaching England from the French alliance : 
Louis had openly avowed his intentions to destroy its independence, 
and if he had procured the promised support of the naval power of 
England, the Dutch -would in all probability have become subjects of 
France. The combination of parties by which the prince of Orange 
was invited into England, had little unity in itself, and might have been 
dissolved in a moment if James had shown a disposition to adopt concil- 
iatory measures and regain the friendship of the tories and churchmen. 
William was well aware of these circumstances, and made the most 
vigorous exertions to take immediate advantage of the crisis. While 
he was thus engaged, the invasion of western Germany by Louis XIV. 
without the formality of a declaration of war, and the fearful ravages 
perpetrated by the French in the palatinate, excited universal alarm and 
indignation throughout Europe. The states of Holland immediately 
placed their fleets and armies at the disposal of William ; he set sail 
with a powerful armament, and on the 5th of November, 1688, landed 
safely at Torbay. 

The perplexity into which all parties were thrown by the landing of 
William was almost ludicrous. At first he was joined by so few par- 
tisans, that he began to think of returning ; then on a sudden the nobles 
and leading men of England flocked to him from all quarters ; the favor- 
ite officers of James, those who were solely indebted to him for rank 
and fortune, even his favorite daughter Anne, joined in the general de- 
fection — while he, sinking at once into despondency, abandoned his 
army, and after a brief delay in London, fled to France. It is unfortu- 
nately true that the prince of Orange made use of many dishonorable 
artifices to terrify the unfortunate monarch, and induce him to seek safe- 



AUGUSTAN AGES OF ENGLAND AND PRANCE. 577 

ty in flight ; but James seems to have adopted the fatal resolution of 
abandoning liis kingdom, in the belief that the complicated embarrass- 
ments of parties would lead to his recall ; and that returning at the head 
of a French army, he might yet triumph over all his enemies. Confi- 
dence in the power of Louis XIV. had been his bane from the begin- 
ning, and his connexion with that detested monarch was the principal 
cause of his dying in exile. 

William assumed so much of royal power as to summon a convention 
to regulate the affairs of the nation. Three proposals were made to 
this body : first, that terms should be made with James, and the chief 
administration intrusted to the prince of Orange as lieutenant-general 
of the kingdom ; secondly, that the flight of James should be taken as 
an abdication, and a regency proclaimed, with the prince of Orange at 
its head ; and thirdly, that the throne should be declared vacant, and 
William and Mary declared king and queen of England. The first pro- 
posal was the most acceptable to the consistent tories, including the pri- 
mate, Sancroft, and several of the bishops whom James had so recently 
prosecuted, but the great majority felt the absurdity of turning a king 
out for the mere purpose of calling him back, and it had already passed 
into a proverb that " the worst of all revolutions was a restoration." 

In the consideration of the second proposition was involved the ques- 
tion of the legitimacy of the prince of Wales, which nobody really doubt- 
ed, but almost everybody affected to deny. There were, however, great 
practical difficulties in recognising the infant prince as heir to the crown. 
It was tolerably certain that James would not consent to reside in 
France, and send his son to be educated as a protestant in England ; the 
princesses Mary and Anne were naturally opposed to a plan which 
would have deprived them of their fondly-cherished hopes of wearing a 
crown, and William had taken pains to make it known that if a regency 
should be determined upon, somebody else must be sought to exercise 
the functions of regent. 

In fact, the circumstances of the time rendered the third plan the 
only one possible to be adopted ; but the majority of those who voted 
for conferring the crown on William and Mary did so with undisguised 
reluctance, as men submitting to a painful necessity. The subsequent 
efforts of James to recover his dominions by the aid of French arma- 
ments completed the alienation of the English people from his cause, 
while the cowardice and incapacity he displayed in Ireland, particularly 
at the battle of the Boyne, led to the utter ruin of his unfortunate parti- 
sans in that country. Louis was himself injured by his efforts in favor 
of the dethroned king : his futile attempts to invade England, his in- 
trigues to provoke insurrections, and his continued menaces of conquest, 
provoked and kept alive against him the flame of popular indignation in 
Great Britain, and induced the people to bear the brunt of expensive 
continental wars, in which England was very remotely and indirectly 
concerned, for the mere purpose of restraining his ambition. It was in 
the same way at a later period that Napoleon's menace of invading 
England, excited a spirit among the people which led them similarly to 
fight the battle of continental Europe, and pay its sovereigns for main- 
taining their own independence. 

37 



598 MODERN HISTORY. 

Section IV. — General History of Europe, from the League of Augsburg to 
the Formation of the Grand Alliance. 

■ The domestic history of England, during the reign of William III., 
is so remotely connected with the progress of the war to restrain the 
ambition of Louis XIV., that it will be convenient to limit our attention 
to the former before commencing the narrative of the latter. Several 
parties, as we have seen, joined in effecting the revolutiun ; scarcely 
had they succeeded, when their old jealousies were renewed with ag- 
gravated fury. The Scottish convention made the establishment of 
presbyterianism an essential part of the settlement of the crown ; the 
protestant sectarians in England were thus encouraged to hope for some 
modifications in the discipline of the English church ; they did obtain a 
general toleration, to the great disgust of the tory or high-church party. 
Ireland remained faithful to James, though William not only offered 
wealth and dignity to the lord-lieutenant, Tyrconnell, but promised to 
secure the catholics in their civil rights, and give them one third of the 
churches. 

But the protestants, who had so recently been secured in their lands 
by the acts of Settlement and Explanation, conscious that the justice of 
their titles Avould not bear a very rigid scrutiny, and dreading that, under 
a catholic monarch and a catholic parliament, these acts might be re- 
pealed, bold^ took up arms, and atoned for their deficiency of number 
by martial vigor and a daring spirit. They felt that under Cromwell 
they had won their possessions by the sword, and by the sword they 
were resolved to retain them. Some of them formed guerilla bands, 
and scoured the country ; others threw themselves into Londonderry, 
Enniskillen, and other garrison towns, resolved to hold out until aid 
could arrive from England. James, with a small French force, pro- 
ceeded to Ireland, and convened a parliament in Dublin. The act of 
Settlement was repealed, and all the protestants who favored, or were 
supposed to favor, the prince of Orange, were declared guilty of high 
treason. But in the meantime, the adherents of the abdicated monarch 
had been ruined in Scotland by the loss of their leader, the brave Vis- 
count Dundee, who fell in the arms of victory. The Highlanders who 
foUovyed his standard dispersed, -and the jacobite party had no person 
of sufficient influence to collect another army. James began his opera- 
tions in Ireland by the siege of Londonderry ; it was nobly defended by 
the inhabitants, whose religious enthusiasm more than supplied their 
deficiency in martial discipline. They were, however, on the point of 
sinking under the joint sufferings of fatigue and famine, when a rein- 
forcement arrived from England, with provision and ammunition, upon 
which the besiegers abandoned their undertaking. 

Ere James could recover from this disaster, the duke of Schomberg 
landed at Carrickfergxis with ten thousand men ; but as the operations 
of this general were too slow for the impatience of the people of Eng- 
land, William followed with a considerable reinforcement, and hasted 
to meet his father-in-law. The hostile armies met on the 1st of July, 
1690, on the banks of the river Boyne ; the skill of William procured 
him a victory, which the cowardice of James rendered decisive ; he 
fled from the field of battle, and scarcely halting in Dublin hasted to 
take shipping at Waterford for France, abandoning his faithfid subjects 



AUGUSTAN AGES OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE. 579 

to their fate. The Irish, though forsaken, did not despair ; they threw 
themselves into Limerick, which William immediately invested, but 
was finally forced to raise the siege. This failure was, however, com- 
pensated by the success of the earl of Marlborough, in Munster, who 
Avith five thousand men reduced Cork, Kinsale, and some other places 
of less importance. But Ireland was not yet subdued, and William 
intrusted the completion of the task to Baron Ginckle, who took Ath- 
lone almost in the presence of the Irish army, chiefly through the neg- 
ligence of St. Ruth, whom Louis had sent over at the request of James. 
Stung with remorse, St. Ruth hazarded a battle at Aughrim, but he was 
defeated and slain. The Irish a second time sought shelter in Limer- 
ick, which Ginckle once more besieged. All parties were now weary 
of the war, and a treaty was concluded at Limerick, by which it was 
stipulated that the catholics should enjoy the same toleration as in the 
reign of Charles II. ; that they should be restored to the privileges of 
subjects, on taking the oath of allegiance ; and that as many as chose 
to follow the fortunes of the late monarch should be transported to the 
continent at the expense of the government. About ten thousand men 
took advantage of the last article, and, under the name of the Irish 
brigades, were taken into the service of the king of France. 

William had, in the meantime, become disgusted with the constitu- 
tional jealousy of the whigs, and had sought the friendship of the tories, 
who were remarkable for their zealous support of the royal prerogative. 
But a sanguinary act of vengeance, the massacre of the Macdonalds of 
Glencoe, under circumstances of great treachery, brougljt so much odium 
on the new government, that James began to entertain some hopes of 
a restoration. The Macdonalds had recognised the new government a 
day later than that named in the act of parliament, but as their allegiance 
was formally accepted by the authorities, they believed themselves in 
perfect security. A military force was received into their glens with- 
out distrust or suspicion. But in the dead hour of the night, the sol- 
diers, pursuant to previous orders, rose upon their hosts, set fire to the 
houses, and shot down the wretched inhabitants as they attempted to 
escape from the flames. 

This atrocity excited universal indignation throughout Europe ; the 
French king hoped that it would enable him to replace James on the 
throne ; and had he been able immediately to transport his forces across 
the channel, the liberties of England and the crown of William would 
have been exposed to serious danger. A camp was formed between 
Cherbourg and La Hogue ; twenty thousand Irish and French soldiers 
were prepared to invade England, and a powerful navy was equipped 
to support the expedition. Th6 whole was frustrated by the valor of 
the British seamen ; Admiral Russell having formed a junction with a 
Dutch squadron, attacked the French fleet off La Hogue, burned sev- 
eral of their men-of-war and transports, and drove the rest into their 
harbors. James beheld from the shore this annihilation of his hopes, 
but could not forbear expressing his admiration of the valor of his former 
subjects.* 

The death of Queen Mary revived the hopes of the Jacobites, as the 

* When he saw the French fleet set on fire, he exclaimed, " Ah ! none but my 
brave English tars could have performed so gallant an action !" 



9m MODERN HISTORY. 

partisans of the Stuarts were called ; but instead of open rebellion, tliey 
resolved to remove the king by assassination. The plot was discovered, 
and the nation was so disgusted with the intended treachery, thai Wil- 
liam was restored to all his former popularity. From this time lo the 
accession of Queen Anne, there is little worthy of note in the domestic 
history of England. On the death of the duke of Gloucester, the last 
protestant heir to the crown, an act was passed by which the eventual 
succession was settled on Sophia, dutchess dowager of Hanover, and 
her heirs, being protestants (a. d. 1701). She was the grand-daughter 
of James I., by the princess Elizabeth, married to the imfortunate elec- 
tor-palatine. Party animosities between the whigs and tories were 
occasionally violent, and William III. was not always on the best of 
terms with his parliament. 

The emperor Leopold, the head of the league of Augsburg, was a 
prince of great abilities, sullied, however, too often, by cruelty and big- 
otry. Though the chief of a confederacy for maintaining the liberties' 
of Europe, he trampled on the privileges of his Hungarian subjects, and 
persecuted the protestants. But the overthrow of the Turks at Vienna, 
and the subsequent capture of Belgrade, left the discontented without 
an ally, and they were forced to submit in silence. Louis was not 
daunted by the power of the league ; he assembled two armies in Flan- 
ders, sent a third to check the Spaniards in Catalonia, and, to form a 
barrier on the side of Germany, ravaged the Palatinate with fire and 
sword (a. d. 1688). This barbarous policy filled Europe with horror ; 
men, women, and children, driven from their habitations, in the inclem- 
ent month of February, wandered by the light of their own burning 
houses over the frozen fields, and fell victims by thousands to cold and 
hunger. Nor did this detestable expedient produce the desired effect ; 
the German armies, in the ensuing campaign, gained several important 
triumphs. Louis sought to recover his former superiority by nobler 
means ; he intrusted his armies to new generals of approved talent, and 
the fortune of the war instantly changed. Savoy was overrun by the 
French marshal Catinat ; Marshal Luxemburg gained a brilliant victory 
over the allies in Flanders ; the imited Dutch and English fleets were 
defeated off Beachy Head, and the Spaniards were scarcely able to de- 
fend Catalonia (a. d. 1690). Little was done on the side of Germany, 
for the emperor was once more assailed by Tekeli and the Turks, 
whose progress threatened the ruin of his hereditary dominions. Had 
this course of fortune continued, Louis must have become the master of 
Europe, but in the follow^ing campaigns, the Turks, deprived of all their 
advantages, left the emperor at leisure to watch his western frontiers, 
and Catinat was driven from Italy by the duke of Savoy. But in Flan- 
ders the French continued to be eminently successful. Mons and Na- 
mur Avere taken in spite of all the efforts which the united forces of the 
English and Dutch could make for their relief, and the allies were de- 
feated in two great general engagements by the duke of Luxemburg. 
But William III. was never daunted l)y ill success, and he adopted 
such prudent measures, that Luxemburg was unable to derive any im- 
portant advantages from his victories. Similar success attended the 
armies of Louis in Savoy, Spain, and Germany ; but the triumphs were 
equally unproductive. Even at sea, notwithstanding the repent loss at 



AUGUSTAN AG|;S OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE. 581 

La Hogue, the French navy rode triumphant, and gained a decided 
superiority over the English and Dutch fleets. But France was ex- 
hausted by these efforts ; a dreadful famine ravaged the country, arising 
partly from an unfavorable season, and partly from the want of hands to 
till the ground ; and the finances of the state were fast falling into con- 
fusion. The allies, aware of these circumstances, made vigorous efibrts 
to recover their losses, but they were generally unsuccessful, except on 
the side of Flanders, where William recaptured Namur, and thus, in 
some degree, retrieved his military reputation. All parties became 
weary of a war in which much blood was shed, much treasure expend- 
ed, and no permanent acquisitions made. Negotiadons were com- 
menced under the mediation of Charles XL, of Sweden, at Ryswick 
(a. d. 1697), and a treaty concluded, in which Louis made many im- 
portant concessions, to purchase an interval of tranquillity for his future 
projects. The French king's renunciation of the Spanish succession, 
which it had been the main object of the war to enforce, was not even 
mentioned in the articles of pacification, and several other omissions 
left abundant grounds for a renewal of the war at no distant period. 

The emperor, though severely harassed by the Turks, consented to 
the peace with great reluctance, and complained bitterly of the desertion 
of his allies. But no one of the confederates derived more advantage 
from the treaty ; he was enabled to direct his whole force against the 
Ottomans, who, under their new sultan, Mustapha IL, became, for a 
brief space, formidable to Europe. The danger was averted by the 
celebrated Prince Eugene, of Savoy, who now began to attract admira- 
tion. After the peace of Ryswick, he took the command of the impe- 
rialists, and encountered Mustapha at Zenta, a small village on the banks 
of the river Theysse, in the kingdom of Hungary. The battle was 
brief, but, for its duration, one of the most sanguinary on record ; fifteen 
thousand Turks were slain, and eight thousand more drowned in their 
flight across the river ; their artillery, baggage, and ammunition, the 
sultan's magnificent pavilion, countless standards, and the great seal of 
the Ottoman empire, remained the prize of the victors ; the grand vizier, 
the aga of the janissaries, and twenty-seven paghas, were among the 
victims of this fatal field. Mustapha, haAdng vainly attempted to retrieve 
his losses in a new campaign, was forced to consent to the peace of 
Carlowitz, by which several provinces were resigned to the Austrians, 
Azof ceded to the E.ussians, noAV fast rising into importance under the 
administration of the Czar Peter, and the Venetians gratified by the 
cession of the Morea, anciently called the Peloponnesus. 

The declining health of the king of Spain, Charles II., engaged the 
general attention of Europe after the peace of Ryswick : three princes 
were candidates for the succession, Louis XIV., the emperor Leopold, 
and the elector of Bavaria. It is unnecessary to canvass their several 
claims, but it is manifest that the general interests of Europe pointed 
to the electoral prince as the most eligible of the competitors. A secret 
treaty of partition was concluded between William and Louis, but 
Charles II. received information of the transaction, and enraged that 
his dominions should be shared during his life, proclaimed the electoral 
prince of Bavaria sole heir. Scarcely, however, had this arrangement 
been made, when that prince died suddenly, not without strong suspi- 



682 MODERN HISTORY. 

cions of poison (a. d. 1699). A new treaty of partition was arranged 
by Holland, France, and England, but the emperor Leopold refused his 
concurrence, expecting to obtain for his family the inheritance of the 
whole Spanish monarchy. During these negotiations, the affections of 
the Scotch were alienated from William, by his sacrificing the settle- 
ment which they had established at a great expense, on the isthmus of 
Darien, to quiet the fears of the Spaniards, and the commercial jeal- 
ousy of the English. Could they have found leaders, they would 
probably have had recourse to arms, but fortunately they were contented 
to vent their rage in violent language, and furious invective. Charles II. 
was long disposed to favor the Austrian claimant to his crown, but the 
arrogance of his queen and her German favorites, alienated the nation 
from the court of Vienna, while the Spanish nobility and clergy urged 
the dying monarch to bestow the sovereignty on the house of Bourbon. 
Charles applied to the pope for advice ; Innocent XII., who then filled 
the pontifical chair, was very jealous of the progress of the Austrian 
power in Italy ;, he therefore strenuously recommended the choice of a 
French prince ; a new will was made, and Philip, duke of Anjou, sec- 
ond son of the dauphin, was nominated heir to the crown of Spain. 
Not long after Charles died (a. d. 1701), and Louis, after some hesi- 
tation between the will and the partition treaty, proclaimed his grandson 
king of Spain and the Indies, under the title of Philip V. 

Though England and Holland were equally alarmed' at this proceed- 
ing, both powers were obliged to acquiesce for a season. William 
found his parliament reluctant to engage in a new war, and Louis, by 
an unexpected movement against the barrier towns, had secured a great 
portion of the Dutch army. The emperor, however, commenced a war, 
claiming the dutchy of Milan as a fief of the imperial crown, and his 
army, under the command of Prince Eugene, gained several advantages 
over Marshal Catinat, in Italy. During this campaign, the states-gen- 
eral and William, having failed to make any satisfactory explanations 
of his designs from the French king, concluded a treaty, called the 
Grand Alliance, with the emperor. Its a^'owed objects were " to pro- 
cure satisfaction to his imperial majesty in the case of the Spanish suc- 
cession ; obtain security to the English and Dutch for their dominions 
and commerce ; prevent the union of the monarchies of France and 
Spain, and hinder the French from possessing the Spanish dominions 
in America." But this treaty would probably have been frustrated by 
the English parliament, but for the imprudence with which Louis haz- 
arded an insult to the British nation (a. d. 1701). On the death of 
James II., he caused his son, commonly called the Old Pretender, to be 
recognised king of Great Britain and Ireland, under the title of James 
III. The parliament at once entered heartily into the war, which they 
had hitherto disapproved, and their martial ardor was not abated by the 
death of William, who fell a victim to a fall from his horse, and the 
unskilfulness of an inexperienced surgeon (a. d. 1702). The intelli- 
gence of this event filled the allies with consternation ; but their fears 
were of short duration, for Queen Anne, who next ascended the 
throne, declared her resolution to adhere steadily to the policy of her 
predecessor. 



AUGUSTAN AGES OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE. 583 

Section V. — The War of the Spanish Succession. 

The accession of Queen Anne gave great satisfaction to the English 
people ; William was disliked as a foreigner, who was more strongly 
attached to Holland than to his adopted country, and his coldness of 
manner had greatly tended to increase his unpopularity. He was sus- 
pected by the tories of secret designs against the church, on account 
of his attachment to presbyterianism, and the whigs had ceased to 
respect him, because he had not shown himself sufficiently grateful for 
their services in raising him to the throne. Though his military talents 
were great, he had not been a very successful general, and it was stu- 
diously circulated, that he endeavored as much as possible to keep back 
the earl (afterward duke) of Marlborough, through envy of his superior 
abilities. He had, at first, recognised the duke of Anjou to the crown 
of Spain, and therefore, when he joined the grand alliance formed to 
prevent what he had previously sanctioned, he was exposed to suspi- 
cions of insincerity, and it was generally believed that if Louis made 
any large sacrifices to conciliate the Dutch, the English monarch would 
not persevere in his resistance. It is scarcely necessary to say that it 
was of very little importance to England, whether an Austrian or a 
French prince became monarch of Spain ; the war of the succession, 
in which this country bore the principal share, was that in which its 
interests were the least involved ; and this country lavishly poured 
forth its blood and treasure to accomplish objects which had no connex- 
ion with its real position. It was the indignation excited by the at- 
tempt of Louis to impose upon the English people a sovereign of his 
choice, which induced the queen and her people to enter on a bloody 
and expensive war, for no other purpose than humiliating the insolence 
of a despot. They subsequently found out that they had to pay too 
dear a price for the luxuries of war and vengeance. 

Queen Anne infused vigor into the grand alliance, not only by the 
prompt declaration of her adhesion, but by her judicious choice of 
ministers ; Lord Godolphin was placed at the head of the treasury, and 
the earl of Marlborough, who was connected with the premier by mar- 
riage, was appointed commander-in-chief of the English army in Flan- 
ders, and appointed ambassador extraordinary to the states-general. 
War was declared against France on the same day, at London, the 
Hague, and Vienna ; and the campaign was simultaneously opened in 
Italy, Germany, and Flanders (a. d. 1702). The earl of Marlborough, 
who commanded in Flanders, was the only one of the allied generals 
who obtained success ; he captured several important towns, and would 
probably have defeated the French in the open field, had not his motions 
been fettered by the presence of the Dutch field-deputies, who were 
too cautious or too timorous to allow of his hazarding an engagement. 
At sea the ancient renown of the English navy was re-established ; 
Sir George Rooke sailed against Cadiz with a fleet of fifty sail, having 
with him the duke of Ormond and an army of twelve thousand men. 
Cadiz was too strong to be taken, and Rooke sailed to Vigo, where the 
galleons, laden with the treasures of Spanish America, lay protected 
by a French fleet and a formidable castle and batteries. The English 
admiral broke the boom that protected the narrow entrance into the iu- 



584 MODERN HISTORY. 

ner harbor, Onnond stormed the castle, and the French losing all hope, 
set fire to their ships. But the English and Dutch were at hand to ex- 
tinguish the flames ; six ships of the line and nine galleons became the 
trophies of the conquerors. 

These losses, and the defection of the duke of Savoy, did not abate 
the courage of Louis ; and the confederates, though joined by the king 
of Portugal, did not improve their advantages (a. d. 1703). The elector 
of Bavaria, the firm ally of France, being joined by Marshal Villars, 
gained a great victory over the imperialists at Hochstet, by which a 
road was opened to Vienna. The armies of Louis retained their supe- 
riority in Italy ; even at sea the French disconcerted the plans of the 
confederates, and these disasters were poorly compensated by the ac- 
quisition of a few fortified towns in Flanders, which were captured by 
Marlborough. Even these slight successes gave courage to the allies ; 
the English parliament voted liberal supplies for continuing the war, 
and the emperor, though menaced on one side by the Hungarian insur- 
gents, and on the other by the French and Bavarians, ordered his sec- 
ond son, Charles, to assume the title of king of Spain, and to proceed 
to Portugal, for the purpose of invading that country. 

Marlborough had hitherto been greatly impeded by the timid caution 
of his Dutch colleagues ; he concerted the plan of his next campaign 
with a more congenial spirit. Prince Eugene. As his Flemish con- 
quests, in the preceding campaigns, had secured a good barrier for the 
imited provinces, Marlborough now advanced to the title of duke, 
leaving the defence of the fortresses to the Dutch garrisons, concen- 
trated his forces, with the professed design of invading France, and 
then suddenly marched into Germany. A junction was effected with 
the imperialists, the elector of Bavaria's lines at Donawert were forced, 
and the allies advanced to the Danube. The Bavarian prince having 
been reinforced by thirty thousand French under the command of Mar- 
shal Tallard, resolved to hazard a battle, and the duke having been 
joined by Prince Eugene, with an equal number, eagerly sought for an 
engagement (August 13, a. d. 1704). The French and Bavarians were 
advantageously posted on a hill between the Danube and the village of 
Blenheim ; but their line was weakened by detachments, and Marlbor- 
ough, taking advantage of their error, charged through, and won a de- 
cisive victory. Thirty thousand French and Bavarians were killed, 
wounded, or taken ; their camp-equipage, baggage, artillery, and stand- 
ards, became the prize of the conquerors ; Tallard was taken prisoner, 
and the Bavarian prince narrowly escaped the same fate. The allies, 
however, suffered very severely ; their loss amounted to no less than 
five thousand killed and seven thousand wounded. 

The consequences of this brilliant but bloody \'ictory were, the im- 
mediate liberation of the emperor from all danger ; the Hungarian 
insurgents were terrified into submission, Bavaria was abandoned by its 
sovereign to the ravages of the imperialists, and the shattered relics 
of the French army were driven to seek shelter within their own fron- 
tiers. The moral influence of the victory Avas even of more impor- 
tance than the immediate results : it not only compensated for the ill 
success of the allies in Italy and Spain, but changed the whole com- 
plexion of the war. At sea the English navy bfigan to retrieve its 



AUGUSTAN AGES OF ENGLAND AND PRANCE. • 585 

fame ; though Sir George Rooke failed in an attack on Barcelona, he 
stormed Gibraltar, a fortress hitherto deemed impregnable, and gained 
a glorious but unprofitable victory over the French fleet off Malaga. 

Had all the allies exhibited the same vigor as the English, Louis 
must have been speedily ruined ; but the Germans were sluggish ; the 
death of the emperor Leopold, and the accession of his more enter- 
prising son Joseph, made no change in their policy (a. d. 1705) : the 
prince of Baden, the general of the imperialists, obstinately refused to 
join Marlborough on the Moselle, and the allies could attempt no con- 
quest of importance in Flanders. In Italy the French obtained so 
many advantages that the duke of Savoy was forced to shut himself up 
in his capital, where he was besieged, with but little prospect of relief; 
but on the side of Spain the allied arms were crowned with brilliant 
success. Sir John Leake defeated a French fleet off" Gibraltar, and 
thus forced the marshal de Tesse to raise the siege of that fortress ; the 
confederates, entering Spain on the Portuguese side, captured several 
places in Estremadura, while the earl of Peterborough, having been 
convoyed by Sir Sir Cloudesly Shovel to the coast of Catalonia, took 
the important city of Barcelona, and established the authority of Charles 
III. in the whole province of Catalonia, and the greater part of the 
kingdom of Valencia. 

These variations of success inflamed the courage and obstinacy of 
the belligerant powers. Louis was so elated that he ordered Marshal 
Villeroy to act on the offensive in Flanders, while his Italian army be- 
sieged Turin, and the forces he sent into Germany drove the prince 
of Baden and the imperialists before them (a. d. 1706). The Enghsh 
parliament, now composed principally of whigs, showed the greatest 
eagerness for the prosecution of the war, and voted liberal supplies for 
the ensuing campaign. Marlborough joined the united army of Hol- 
land and England in May, and soon after received a subsidiary Danish 
force. Villeroy, relying on his superior strength, advanced to attack 
the allies, and the two armies met near the village of Ramillies. The 
French marshal posted his left wing behind a morass, where it could 
not be attacked, but where it was equally incapable of advancing against 
the enemy. Marlborough took immediate advantage of this error ; 
amusing the French left wing by a feigned attack, he poured his in- 
fantry in masses on the centre ; they encountered a brave resistance, 
but the duke, bringing up the cavalry just as the French lines began to 
waver, broke through them with a headstrong charge, and in an instant 
Villeroy's army was a helpless mass of confusion. Seven thousand of 
the French were slain, six thousand taken prisoners, and a vast quan- 
tity of artillery and ammunition abandoned to the victors. The loss of 
the allies, in killed and wounded, did not exceed three thousand five 
hundred men. 

The results of this brilliant victory were the immediate conquest of 
Brabant, and almost all the Spanish Netherlands ; but its consequences 
were felt even in Italy. Marshal Vendome having been recalled to 
remedy, if possible, Villeroy's disaster. Prince Eugene resolved to raise 
the siege of Turin, and baffled the efforts of the duke of Orleans to ob- 
struct his march. Orleans therefore joined the besieging army, and as 
a battle was manifestly inevitable, the French marshals anxiously de- 



586 MODERN HISTORY. 

liberated whether they should wait for the enemy in their intrench- 
ments. The majority voted against the measure, but Marshal Marsin 
produced an order, signed by the king, immediately after receiving the 
account of his defeat at Ramillies, commanding his generals not to 
offer, but to wait for battle. This order hurt the pride and confused the 
measures of the duke of Orleans. While the French generals were 
angrily debating what arrangements should be made. Prince Eugene 
and the duke of Savoy fell upon their lines ; the French got entangled 
in their extensive inlrenchments, the river Doria running through their 
camp prevented one part of their army from coming to the assistance 
of the other; they were speedily routed, and fled with precipitation, not 
halting until they had passed their own frontiers. In men, the loss of 
the French army was not great, but they abandoned all their cannon, 
baggage, ammunition, and military chest. By this single blow, the 
house of Bourbon lost the dutchies of Milan and Mantau, the principality 
of Piedmont, and eventually the kingdom of Naples. 

That the success of the allies was not equally decisive in Spain, 
must be attributed to the want of energy and Austrian sluggishness of 
the archduke Charles. Philip besieged his rival in Barcelona, but was 
forced to retire by the appearance of Sir John Leake, with an English 
squadron, before the town. The retreat was made in great disorder, 
partly occasioned by an eclipse of the sun, which the superstitious 
Spaniards regarded as an omen of their ruin. Forty thousand English 
and Portuguese, under the command of the earl of Galway and the 
marquis de las Minas, advanced through Estremadura toward Madrid, 
and Philip was forced to abandon his capital ; at the same time, the 
count de Santa Cruz surrendered Carthagena and the galleys to the 
allied powers. Had the archduke gone immediately to Madrid, and 
closely pressed his rival, the crown of Spain would probably have been 
lost to the house of Bourbon ; but he lingered unaccountably in the 
neighborhood of Barcelona, until Philip and the duke of Berwick,* hav- 
ing collected a superior army, compelled the English and Portuguese 
to abandon Madrid. Carthagena was soon after recovered, but this 
was more than compensated by the loss of the islands of Majorca and 
Ivica, which surrendered to the English fleet under Sir John Leake. 
Louis was so disheartened by his losses, that he sought for peace on 
very humble conditions, but the allies, intoxicated with success, de- 
manded such humiliating terms, that he resolved to try the hazards of 
another campaign. 

While the English ministers were lavishing blood and treasure to 
support foreign wars, they did not neglect the internal affairs of the na- 
tion. A treaty for uniting England and Scotland under one legislature, 
was ratified by the parliaments of both countries ; but the Scottish na- 
tion generally was opposed to a union that galled their national pride, 
and the advantages of which time alone could develop (a. d. 1707). 
Louis derived one advantage from his recent misfortunes ; the expulsion 
of his force from Italy enabled him to send powerful succors into Spain, 
where the allies were acting with the greatest negligence and miscon- 
duct. The earl of Galway and the marquis de las Minas, having ex- 

• The duke of Berwick was the natural sou of James II., and one of the ablest 
generals in the service of France. 



AUGUSTAN AGES OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE. 



587 



hausted all their provisions in Valencia, attempted to pass into New- 
Castile ; the duke of Berwick, having received large reinforcements, 
and aware that the allies had been weakened by the departure of the 
archduke, did not hesitate to attack them at Almanza, and won a vic- 
tory as complete as any that had been obtained during the war. This 
great triumph restored the cause of the Bourbons in Spain, and sim- 
ilar success attended the French army in Germany, where Marshal 
Villars penetrated to the Danube, and laid the dutchy of Wirtemberg 
under contribution. Nothing of importance occurred in Flanders, and 
the only naval enterprise was the siege of Toulon. Prince Eugene, 
and the duke of Savoy, marched through France to besiege this great 
port, while Sir Cloudesly Shovel appeared off the coast to second their 
operations. But unfortunately, the garrison of Toulon had been re- 
inforced two hours before the appearance of the allies ; they retreated 
through Provence, wasting the country as they passed, and diffusing 
consternation almost to the gates of Paris. Nor was this the only evil 
that Louis suffered from the invasion ; the detachments withdrawn 
from the army of Marshal Villars so weakened that general, that he 
was forced to relinquish his high projects in Germany, and repass the 
Rhine, instead of advancing beyond the Danube. 

Great expectations had been formed in England, which the results 
of the campaign miserably disappointed ; Godolphin and Marlborough 
lost a considerable share of their popularity ; they were opposed even 
by the members of the cabinet, and though they persuaded the queen 
to dismiss Mr. Secretary Harley, and Mr. St. John, they saw that their 
influence with her majesty, and their power in parliament, had been 
considerably diminished (a. d. 1708). Marlborough felt that a vigorous 
campaign was essential to his future interests, especially as the duke 
de Vendome had, by treachery, gained possession of Ghent and Bruges ; 
he therefore resolved to risk a general battle, and crossing the Scheldt, 
came up with the French army strongly posted at Gudenarde. The 
British cavalry broke their opponents at the first charge, the French 
lines fell into confusion, and though the approach of darkness prevented 
the allies from completing their victory, the enemy fled in such disorder, 
that nine thousand were taken prisoners, and nearly six thousand de- 
serted. Marlborough, being reinforced by Prince Eugene, undertook 
the siege of Lisle, the principal city in French Flanders, and though it 
was vigorously defended by Marshal Boufflers, it was forced to surren- 
der after a siege of two months, while Ghent and Bruges were re- 
covered ere the close of the campaign. Nothing of importance occur- 
red in Italy, Germany, or Spain ; but the English fleet conquered the 
island of Sardinia, and terrified the pope into the acknowledgment of 
the archduke Charles as lawful king of Spain. 

The confidence of the allies now rose to the highest pitch ; Godol- 
phin and Marlborough found the English parliament ready to grant 
additional supplies ; the Dutch agreed to augment their troops, and the 
imperialists promised to lay aside their inactivity. Louis, on the con- 
trary, disheartened by defeat, his treasury exhausted, his councils dis- 
tracted, and his kingdom suffering from famine, offered to purchase 
peace by every concession that could reasonably be demanded (a. d. 
1709). Once more bis proffers were rejected, except upon conditions 



SSff. MODERN HISTORY. 

inconsistent with his personal honor and the safety of his kingdom, and 
once more he appealed to the hazards of war. The confederates in 
Flanders, finding that Marshal Villars had taken a position from which 
he could not be dislodged, laid siege to Tournay, and on the surrender 
of that place invested Mons. Villars, unable to relieve the place, took 
possession of a strong camp at Malplaquet, Avhence he trusted that he 
could harass the besiegers. The confederates, elated with past suc- 
cess, resolved to attack the French in their intrenchments. Few bat- 
tles, since the invention of gunpowder, have been more obstinate and 
bloody ; victory finally declared in favor of the allies, but it was dearly 
purchased by the loss of fifteen thousand men ; while the French, who 
had fought under cover, lost only ten thousand. Mons was now closely 
invested, and the surrender of that important place closed the campaign. 
Nothing of importance occurred in Germany, Italy, or Spain ; but Louis, 
finding his resources exhausted, once again made an unsuccessful effort 
to obtain peace. 

Conferences were opened at Gertruydenberg (a. d. 1710), but the 
allies, influenced by Marlborough and Prince Eugene, rejected the 
propositions of the French king ; he was, however, unwilling to break 
off the negotiations, and the conferences were continued even after the 
hostile armies had actually taken the field. The duke of Marlborough 
took several fortified places in Flanders ; but nothing of importance 
was done in Germany or Piedmont ; and the misfortunes of the allies 
in Spain more than counterbalanced their other successes. The arch- 
duke Charles, aided by the English general, Stanhope, twice defeated 
his rival, and a second time gained possession of Madrid ; instead of 
improving these advantages, he loitered in the capital until forced to 
retire by the united forces of the French and Spaniards, under the 
duke of Vendome. The allies retired toward Catalonia, and marched, 
for the sake of subsistence, in two bodies. Stanhope, who commanded 
the rear division, allowed himself to be surrounded at Brihuega, and 
was forced to surrender at discretion. Staremberg, who led the prin- 
cipal division, was soon after forced to engage at a disadvantage, but 
he made such able dispositions, that Vendome was compelled to retreat, 
and the imperialists continued their march in safety. They were, 
however, so weakened and dispirited by Stanhope's misfortune, that 
they could not check the victorious progress of Philip. 

A revolution in the English cabinet proved of more consequence to 
Louis than even the success of his arms in Spain. The queen, a wo- 
man of feeble mind, had long been under the influence of the dutchess 
of Marlborough, who did not always use her power with discretion. A 
new favorite, Mrs. Masham, supplanted the dutchess, and was gained 
over, by Harley and St. John, to induce the queen to make a total 
change in the administration. This would have been impossible if the 
whigs had continued to enjoy the confidence of the nation ; but many 
circumstances contributed to diminish their popularity. The weight 
of taxes, occasioned by the expenses of the war, began to be felt as a 
burden, when victories, from their verj' frequency, ceased to excite joy ; 
the conduct of the allies, who contrived that " England should fight for 
all and pay for all," gave just dissatisfaction ; and the rejection of the 
French king's ofiers at Gertruydnnberg was justly regarded as the tri- 



AUGUSTAN AGES OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE. 589 

umpli of private ambition over public policy. In addition to these 
grounds of discontent, the tories raised the cry that the " church was in 
danger," on account of the favor shown to the dissenters ; and the whigs, 
instead of allowing the imputation to refute itself, unwisely attempted 
to silence the clamor by force. Dr. Henry Sacheverell preached'a ser- 
mon before the lord mayor, in which he bitterly attacked the dissenters, 
and advocated the exploded, doctrines of passive obedience and non-re- 
sistance. Though it was but a poor contemptible production, such is 
the violence of party, that it was printed, and forty thousand copies are 
said to have been sold in a week. In another week, it would probably 
have been forgotten, had not Godolphin, who was personally attacked in 
the commons, persuaded his friends to make it the subject of a parlia- 
mentary impeachment. Common sense revolted from such an absurdi- 
ty ; the generous feelings of the nation were enlisted on the side of the 
preacher, and this sympathy was soon transferred to his cause. During 
his trial, the populace showed the liveliest zeal in his behalf ; and when 
he was found guilty, the house of lords, dreading popular tumults, passed 
a sentence so lenient, that it was hailed by the tories as a triumph. 

The persecution of Sacheverell was the ruin of the whigs ; the queen, 
aware of their unpopularity, dismissed all her ministers except the duke 
of Marlborough ; and a new cabinet .was formed under the auspices of 
Mr. Harley, who was soon after created earl of Oxford. A new parlia- 
ment was summoned, in which the tories had an overwhelming majority 
(a. d. 1711), but the ministers did not abandon the foreign policy of 
their predecessors, and copious supplies were voted for the maintenance 
of the war. 

At this crisis an unexpected event changed the situations and views 
of all parties. The emperor Joseph died without issue ; his brother 
Charles, the claimant of the Spanish crown, succeeded to the empire, 
and the liberties of Europe were thus exposed to as much danger from 
the aggrandizement of the house of Austria, as from that of the Bourbon 
family. The campaign was languidly conducted in every quarter, and 
ere its conclusion, the English ministers were secretly negotiating with 
France. 

After many disgraceful intrigues, in which all the actors sacrificed 
the interests of the nation to party purposes, the duke of Marlborough 
was stripped of all his employments, and conferences for a general 
peace commenced at Utrecht. The successive deaths of the dauphin 
of France, his son the duke of Burgundy, and his grandson the duke 
of Bretagne, left only the sickly duke of Anjou between Philip and the 
throne of France. The union of the French and Spanish monarchies 
filled the confederates with no unreasonable apprehension, and the Eng- 
lish ministers were obliged to threaten that they would renew the war, 
unless Philip renounced his right of succession to the throne of France 
(a. d. 1712). When this important point was obtained, the English 
and French agreed upon a cessation of arms ; the Dutch and the impe- 
rialists continued the campaign, but with such ill success, that they 
were induced to renew the conferences for peace. On the 31st of 
March, 1713, the treaties between the different powers were signed at 
Utrecht by the plenipotentiaries of France, England, Prussia (recently 
exalted into a kingdom), Savoy, and the United Provinces. The em- 



590 . MODERN HISTORY. 

peror held out until the following year, when he signed a treaty at Rad- 
stadt, less favorable than that which had been offered at Utrecht ; and 
the king of Spain, with more reluctance, gave his adhesion to the general 
arrangements. 

Few subjects have been more fiercely contested than the conduct of 
the English ministers in relation to the treaty of Utrecht. The reason 
is perfectly obvious : both the political parties that divided the nation 
had acted wrong ; the whigs continued the war after all its reasonable 
objects had been gained ; the tories concluded a peace in which the ad- 
vantages that England might have claimed, from the success of her 
arms, were wantonly sacrificed. The people of England generally dis- 
liked the peace, and the commercial treaty with France was rejected 
by a majority of nine votes in the house of commons. The whigs now 
began to pretend that the protestant succession was in danger, and the 
alarm spreading rapidly, brought back to their party a large share of its 
former popularity. Nor were these apprehensions groundless ; through 
the influence of the Jacobites, the earl of Oxford was removed from his 
office, and a new administration, more favorable to the house of Stuart, 
formed under the auspices of St. John, Lord Bolingbroke. But before 
the court of St. Germains could derive any advantage from this change, 
the queen, harassed by the intrigues and quarrels of her servants, sank 
into a lethargy, and her death disappointed the hopes of the Pretender 
and his adherents (August 1, 1714). Several whig lords, without being 
summoned; attended the council, which was of course held at the de- 
mise of the crown ; and the tories, overawed, concurred in issuing an 
order for the proclamation of the elector of Hanover, as George I., king 
of Great Britain and Ireland. 

Section VI. — Peter the Great of Russia. — Charles XII. of Sweden. 

In the last two sections, we have confined our attention to the wars 
which the ambition of Louis XIV. excited in the south and west of 
Europe. During this period, the northern and eastern divisions of 
Christendom were occupied by the rivalry of two of the most extraor- 
dinary men that ever appeared on the stage of human life — Peter the 
Great of Russia, and Charles XII. of Sweden. Before entering on 
their history, we must take a brief retrospect of the affairs of the north, 
after the accession of the Czar Alexis, and the resignation of Queen 
Christina. 

Under the administration of Alexis, Russia began rapidly to emerge 
from the barbarism into which it had been plunged by the Mongolian 
invasion and subsequent civil wars. He reformed the laws, encouraged 
commerce, and patronised the arts ; he recovered Smolensko from the 
Poles, and prevented the Turks from establishing their dominion over 
the Cossack tribes. His son Theodore, though of a weak constitution, 
steadily pursued the same course of vigorous policy. " He lived," says 
a native Russian historian, " the joy and delight of his people, and died 
amid their sighs and tears. On the day of his decease, Moscow was 
in the same state of distress which Rome felt at the death of Titus." 
John, the brother and successor of Theodore, was a prince of Aveak in- 
tellect ; his ambitious sister, Sophia, seized for a time on the sovereign- 



AUGUSTAN AGES OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE. 591 

ty, excluding her young brother Peter, to whom Theodore had bequeathed 
the crown. During seven years of boyhood Peter endured Sophia's 
galling yoke ; but when he reached his seventeenth year, he took advan- 
tage of the general indignation excited by the misconduct of the govern- 
ment, to shut that princess up in a nunnery, and banish her favorite into 
a distant part of the empire. 

Denmark was the scene of an extraordinary revolution (a.'^d. 1661). 
The tyranny of the aristocracy arose to such a height, that the clergy 
and commons voted for the surrender of their liberties to the king, and 
Ferdinand III., almost without any effort of his own, was thus invested 
with absolute power. On his death (a. d. 1670), his successor, Chris- 
tian v., commenced war against Charles XL, king of Sweden, who, 
though assailed by a powerful league, defended himself with great abili- 
ty and success. Charles XL, after the restoration of peace, tried to 
make himself as absolute as the kings of Denmark, but he died prema- 
turely (a. d. 1697), leaving his crown to his son Charles XIL, who has 
been deservedly styled the Alexander of the North. 

Peter the Great commenced his reign by defeating the Turks, from 
whom he wrested the advantageous port of Azof, which opened to his 
subjects the commerce of the Black sea. This acquisition enlarged his 
views ; he resolved to make Russia the centre of trade between Europe 
and Asia, to connect the Dwina, the Volga, and the Don, by canals, thus 
opening a water communication between the northern seas and the 
Black and the Caspian seas. To complete this magnificent plan, he de- 
termined to build a city on the Baltic sea, which should be the empori- 
um of northern commerce, and the capital of his dominions. A still 
greater proof of his wisdom, and of his anxiety to secure the prosperity 
of his subjects, was his undertaking a tour through Europe, for the pur- 
pose of acquiring instruction, and bringing back to his subjects the im- 
provements of more civilized nations. In 1698, having established a 
regency to direct the government during his absence, he departed from 
his dominions as a private gentleman, in the train of the ambassadors 
that he had sent to the principal courts of Europe. Amsterdam, at that 
time one of the most flourishing commercial cities in Europe, was the 
first place that arrested his attention ; he entered himself as a common 
carpenter in one of the principal dockyards, laboring and living exactly 
like the other workmen. Thence he went to England, where he ex- 
amined and studied the principal naval arsenals. King William present- 
ed the czar with a beautiful yacht, and permitted him to engage several 
ingenious artificers in his service. After a year's absence, Peter re- 
turned home, greatly improved liimself, and accompanied by a train of 
men well qualified to instruct his subjects. 

Anxious to extend his dominions on the eastern side of the Baltic, he 
entered into an alliance against Sweden with Frederick Augustus, elec- 
tor of Saxony, who had succeeded John Sobieski on the throne of 
Poland, and Frederick IV., king of Denmark (a. d. 1700). The Danes 
commenced the war by invading the territories of the duke of Holstein- 
Gottorp, brother-in-law and ally of the king of Sweden. Their progress 
was slower than they expected, and, in the midst of their career, they 
were arrested by intelligence of the dangers which menaced iheir own 
capital. Charles XIL, undaunted by the power of the league, resolved 



592 MODERN HISTORY. 

to carry the war into the dominions of Denmark, While his fleet, 
strengthened by an EngUsh squadron, blockaded Copenhagen, he sud- 
denly embarked his troops at Carlscrona, and having easily effected a 
passage, laid siege to tlie city, by land. Frederic, cut off from his do- 
minions by the Swedish cruisers, and alarmed by the imminent danger 
of liis fleet and capital, concluded a peace highly honorable to the 
Swedes, leaving his Russian and Polish allies to continue the contest. 

No sooner had Cliarles concluded the treaty, than he resolved to turn 
his arms against the Russians, who were besieging Narva with a force 
of eighty thousand men ; though hi?, own army did not exceed ten 
thousand, the heroic king of Sweden boldly resolved to attack his ene- 
mies in their intrenchments. As soon as his artillery had opened a 
small breach, he commanded his men to advance to the charge with 
fixed bayonets. A storm of snow, that blew full in their faces, added 
to the confusion into which the undisciplined Russians were thrown by 
this daring assault ; the very superiority of their numbers added to 
their confusion ; after a contest of three hours' duration they were to- 
tally routed ; eighteen thousand of the besiegers fell in the battle or 
flight, thirty thousand remained prisoners, all their artillery, baggage, 
and ammunition, became the prey of the conquerors. The czar was 
not disheartened by this defeat, which he attributed to the right cause, 
the ignorance and barbarism of his subjects ; " I knew," he said, " that 
the Swedes would beat us, but they will teach us to become conquer- 
ors in our turn." Though at the head of forty thousand men, he did 
not venture to encounter his rival, but evacuated the provinces that he 
had invaded. 

Having wintered at Narva, Charles marched against the Poles and 
Saxons, who were encamped in the neighborhood of Riga ; he forced 
a passage across the Duna, and gained a complete victory. Thence he 
entered as a conqueror into Courland and Lithuania, scarcely encoun- 
tering any opposition. Encouraged by this success, he formed the pro- 
ject of dethroning King Augustus, who had lost the affection of the 
Poles by the undisguised preference which he showed for his Saxon 
subjects. With this design he entered into a secret correspondence 
with Radzrewiski, the cardinal primate, by whose means such a spirit 
of opposition was raised in the diet and senate, that Augustus sought 
peace as his only means of safety. Charles refused to treat unless the 
Poles elected a new king ; and Augustus, convinced that he could only 
protect his crown by the sword, led his army to meet the Swedes, in a 
spacious plain near Clissau (a. d. 1702). The Polish monarch had 
"with him about twenty-four thousand men, the forces of Charles did 
not exceed half that number ; but the Sv/edes, flushed by recent con- 
quests, gained a complete victory ; and Augustus, after having made in 
vain the most heroic eflbrts to rally his troops, was forced to fly, leaving 
the enemy in possession of all his artillery and baggage. A second 
triumph at Pultusk, in the following campaign, gave such encourage- 
ment to the enemies of Augustus, that he was formally deposed by the 
diet (a. d. 1704), and the vacant crown given to Stanislaus Leczinski, 
who had been nominated by the king of Sweden. 

Peter had not been in the" meantime inactive ; though he had not 
given much assistance to his ally Augustus, he had made a powerful 



AUGUSTAN AGES OF ENGLAND AND PRANCE. 593 

diversion by invading Ingria, and taking Narva, so recently tlie scene 
of his misfortunes, by storm. At the same time he founded his pro- 
jected capital in the heart of his new conquests, and by his judicious 
measures protected the rising city from the attacks of the Swedish gen- 
erals. Sc. Petersburgh, founded on a marshy island in the river Neva, 
during a destructive war, and surrounded by countries recently subdued 
or still hostile, rose rapidly into importance, and remained in perfect se- 
curity while all around was in confusion. Augustus had not yet re- 
signed all hopes of recovering his crown ; he concerted a scheme of 
operations with Peter, and sixty thousand Russians entered Poland to 
drive the Swedes from their recent acquisitions. Charles was not 
daunted by the numbers of his enemies ; he routed the Russian divis- 
ions successively, and inspired such terror by the rapidity of his move- 
ments, which seemed almost miraculous, that the Russians retreated to 
their own country (a. d. 1706). In the meantime a victory obtained 
hj a division of the Swedish army over the Saxons, opened to Charles 
a passage into the hereditary dominions of his rival, and crossing the 
Oder, he appeared in Saxony at the head of twenty-four thousand men. 
Augustus was forced to conclude peace on the most humiliating condi- 
tions. Charles wintered in Germany, where his presence created con- 
siderable alarm. He demanded from the emperor toleration for the 
protestants of Silesia, and the relinquishment of the quota which Swe- 
den was bound to furnish for its German provinces. Involved in the 
war of the succession, Joseph submitted,* and the fears with which the 
presence of Charles filled the allied powers were soon dispersed by 
liis departure in quest of new adventures. f 

From Saxony Charles marched back into Poland, where Peter was 
making some ineffectual efforts to revive the party of Augustus. Pe- 
ter retired before his rival, who had, however, the satisfaction of de- 
feating an army of twenty thousand Russians, strongly intrenched. In- 
toxicated by success, he rejected the czar's offers of peace, declaring 
that he would treat at Moscow ;| and without forming any systematic 
plan of operations, he crossed the frontiers, resolved on the destruction 
of that ancient city. Peter prevented the advance of the Swedes, on 
the direct line, by destroying the roads and desolating the country ; 
Charles, after having endured great privations, turned off toward the 

* The pope was greatly displeased by the emperor's restoring the Silesian church- 
-es to the protestants ; Joseph facetiously replied to his remonstrances : " Had the 
king of Sweden demanded that I should become a Lutheran myself, I do not know 
what might have been the consequence." 

t The duke of Marlborough went into Saxony to dissuade the Swedish monarch 
from accepting the offers of Louis XIV. Marlborough was too cautious a poli- 
tician to enter immediately on the object of his mission. He complimented Charles 
on his victories, and even expressed his anxiety to derive instruction in the art of 
war from so eminent a commander. In the course of the conversation, Marlbo- 
rough perceived that Charles had a rooted aversion to, and was not, therefore, 
likely to form an alliance with Louis. A map of Russia lying open before the 
king, and the anger with which Charles spoke of Peter, revealed to the duke the 
real intentions of the Swedish monarch. He, therefore, took his leave without 
making any proposals, convinced that the disputes of Charles with the emperor 
might easily be accommodated, as all his demands would be granted. 

t When Peter was informed of this haughty answer, he coolly replied, 'f My 
brother Charles affects to play the part of Alexander, but I hope he will not find 
in me a Darius. '^ 

38 



604 MODERN HISTORY. 

Ukraine, whither he had been invited by Mazeppa, the chief of the 
Cossacks, who, disgusted by the conduct of the czar, had resolved to 
throw off his alleoiance. In spite of all the obstacles that nature and 
the enemy could throw in his way, Charles reached the place of ren- 
dezvous ; but he had the mortification to find Mazeppa appear in his 
camp as a fugitive rather than an ally, for the czar had discovered his 
treason, and disconcerted his schemes by the punishment of his asso- 
ciates. 

A still greater misfortune to the Swedes was the loss of the convoy 
and the ruin of the reinforcement they had expected from Livonia. 
General Lewenhaupt, to whose care it was intrusted, had been forced 
into three general engagements by the Russians ; and though he had 
eminently distinguished himself by his courage and conduct, he was 
forced to set fire to his wagons to prevent their falling into the hands of 
the enemy. Undaunted by these misfortunes, Charles continued the 
campaign even in the depth of a winter* so severe that two thousand 
men were at once frozen to death almost in his presence. At length 
he laid siege to Pultowa, a fortified city on the frontiers of the Ukraine, 
which contained one of the czar's principal magazines. The garrison 
was numerous and the resistance obstinate ; Charles himself was dan- 
gerously wounded in the heel while viewing the works ; and while he 
was still confined to his tent he learned that Peter was advancing with 
a numerous army to raise the siege. Leaving seven thousand men to 
guard the works, Charles ordered his soldiers to march and meet the 
enemy, while he accompanied them in a litter (July 8, 1709). The 
desperate charge of the Swedes broke the Russian cavalry, but the in- 
fantry stood firm, and gave the horse an opportunity of rallying in the 
rear. In the meantime, the czar's artillery made dreadful havoc in the 
Swedish line ; and Charles, who had been forced to abandon his can- 
non in his forced marches, in vain contended against this formidable 
disadvantage. After a dreadful combat of more than two hours' dura- 
tion, the Swedish army was irretrievably ruined ; eight thousand of 
their best troops were left dead on the field, six thousand were taken 
prisoners, and about twelve thousand of the fugitives were soon after 
forced to surrender on the banks of the Dnieper, from want of boats to 
cross the river. Charles, accompanied by about three hundred of his 
guards, escaped to Bender, a Turkish town in Bessarabia, abandoning 
all his treasures to his rival, including the rich spoils of Poland and 
Saxony. 

• This catastrophe is powerfully described by Campbell : — 

" Oh ! learn the fate that bleeding thousands bore, 

Led by their Charles to Dnieper's .^landy shore. 

Faint from his wounds, and shivering in the blast, 

The Swedish soldier sank and groaned his last ; 

File after file the stormy showers benumb. 

Freeze every standard sheet and hush the drum; 

Horseman and horse confessed the bitter pang, 

And arms and warrior fell with hollow clang. 

Yet, ere he sank in Nature's last repose, 

Ere life's warm curre:it to the fountain froze. 

The dying man to Sweden turned his eye, 

Thought of his home, and closed it with a sigh. 

Imperial pride looked sullen on his plight, 

And Charles beheld, nor shuddered at the sight." 



AUGUSTAN AGES OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE. 595 

Few victories have ever had such important consequences as that 
which the czar won at Puhowa ; in one fatal day Charles lost the 
fruits of nine years' victories ; the veteran army that had been the ter- 
ror of Europe was completely ruined ; those wh6 escaped from the 
fatal field were taken prisoners, but they found a fate scarcely better 
than death, for they were transported by the czar to colonize the wilds 
of Siberia ; the elector of Saxony re-entered Poland, and drove Stan- 
islaus from the throne ; the kings of Denmark* and Prussia revived 
old claims on the Swedish provinces, while the victorious Peter invaded 
not only Livonia and Ingria, but a great part of Finland. Indeed, but 
for the interference of the German emperor and the maritime powers, 
the Swedish monarchy would have been rent in pieces. 

Charles, in his exile, formed a new plan for the destruction of his 
hated rival ; he instigated the Turks to attempt the conquest of Russia, 
and flattered himself that he might yet enter Moscow at the head of a 
Mohammedan army. The bribes which Peter lavishly bestowed on 
the counsellors of the sultans, for a time frustrated these intrigues ; 
but Charles, through his friend Poniatowski, informed the sultan of his 
vizier's corruption, and procured the deposition of that minister. Pu- 
pruli, who succeeded to the office of vizier, was averse to a Russian 
war, but he was removed at the end of two months, and the seals 
of office given to the pacha of Syria, who commenced his administra- 
tion by sending the Russian ambassador to the prison of the Seven 
Towers. 

The czar made the most vigorous preparations for the new war by 
which he was menaced (a. d. 171 1 ). The Turkish vizier, on the other 
hand, assembled all the forces of the Ottoman empire in the plains of 
Adrianople. Demetrius Cantemir, the hospodar of Moldavia, believing 
that a favorable opportunity presented itself for delivering his country 
from the Mohammedan yoke, invited the czar to his aid ; and the Rus- 
sians, rapidly advancing, reached the northern banks of the Pruth, near 
Yassi, the Moldavian capital. Here the Russians found that the prom- 
ises of Prince Cantemir were illusory ; the Moldavians, happy under 
the Turkish sway, treated the invaders as enemies, and refused to 
supply them with provisions ; in the meantime, the vizier arriving, 
formed a fortified camp in their front, while his vast host of light cav- 
alry swept round their lines and cut off all foraging parties. The Rus- 
sians defeated three successive attempts to storm their intrenchments ; 
but they must have yielded to the effects of fatigue and famine, had not 
the emperess Catherine,! who accompanied her husband during the 
campaign, sent a private message to the vizier, which induced him to 
open negotiations. A treaty was concluded on terms which, though 
severe, were more favorable than Peter, under the circumstances, could 
reasonably have hoped ; the Russians retired in safety, and Charles 

• The Danish monarch invaded Schonen, but his troops were defeated by the 
Swedish militia, and a few regiments of the line, commanded by General Steen- 
bock. When intelligence of this victory was conveyed to Charles, he exclaimed, 
" Mv brave Swedes ! should God permit me to join you once more, we will beat 
them all." 

t Catherine was a Livonian captive, of low condition, whom the emperor first 
saw wailing at table. Her abilities and modesty won his heart, he raised her to 
his throne, and never had reason to repent of his choice. 



S&9 MODERN HISTORY. 

reached the Turkish camp, only to learn the downfall of all his expect- 
ations. 

A new series of intrigues in the court of Constantinople led to the 
appointment of a iffew vizier ; but this minister was little inclined to 
gratify the king of Sweden ; on the contrary, warned by the fate of his 
predecessors, he resolved to remove him from the Ottoman empire (a. d. 
1713). Charles continued to linger ; even after he had received a let- 
ter of dismissal from the sultan's own hand, he resolved to remain, and 
when a resolution was taken to send him away by force, he determined, 
with his few attendants, to dare the whole strength of the Turkish 
empire. After a fierce resistance, he was captured and conveyed a 
prisoner to Adrianople ; on his road, he learned that Stanislaus, whom 
he had raised to the throne of Poland, was likewise a Turkish captive ; 
but, buoyed up by ardent hopes, he sent a message to his fellow-suffer- 
er, never to make peace with Augustus. Another revolution in the 
divan revived the hopes of Charles, and induced him to remain in 
Turkey, Avhen his return to the North would probably have restored 
him to his former eminence. The Swedes, under General Steenbock, 
gained' one of the most brilliant victories that had been obtained during 
the war, over the united forces of the Danes and Saxons, at Gadebusch, 
in the dutchy of Mecklenburg ; but the conqueror sullied his fame by 
burning the defenceless town of Altona, an outrage which excited the 
indignation of all Europe. This, however, was the last service that 
Steenbock could perform to his absent master ; unable to prevent the 
junction of the Russians with the Danes and Saxons, he retreated be- 
fore superior numbers, and, by the artifices of Baron Goertz, obtained 
temporary refuge in a fortress belonging to the duke of Holstein. The 
allies, however, pursued their advantages so vigorously that Steenbock 
and his followers were forced to yield themselves prisoners of war. 
Goertz, however, in some degree averted the consequences of this 
calamity by a series of political intrigues, which excited various jeal- 
ousies and discordant interests between the several enemies of Sweden. 

The czar in the meantime pushed forward his conquests on the 
side of Finland ; and the glory of his reign appeared to be consumma- 
ted by a naval victory obtained over the Swedes near the island of 
Oelaftd (a. d. 1714). This unusual success was celebrated by a 
triumphal entry into St. Peterburgh, at which Peter addressed his 
subjects on the magnitude of the advantages they had derived from his 
government. Charles heard of his rival's progress unmoved ; but when 
he learned that the Swedish senate intended to make his sister regent, 
and to make peace with Russia and Denmark, he announced his 
intention of returning home. He was honorably escorted to the 
Turkish frontiers ; but though orders had been given that he should be 
received with all due honor in the imperial dominions, he traversed 
Germany incognito, and toward the close of the year reached Stralsund, 
the capital of Swedish Pomerania. 

Charles, at the opening of the next campaign, found himself sur- 
rounded with enemies (a. d. 1715). Stralsund itself was besieged 
by the united armies of the Prussians, Danes, and Saxons, while the 
Russian fleet, which now rode triumphant in the Baltic, threatened a 
descent upon Sweden. After an obstinate defence, in which the 



AUGUSTAN AGES OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE. 597 

Swedish monarch displayed all. his accustomed bravery, Stralsund was 
forced to capitulate, Charles having previously escaped in a small 
vessel to his native shores. All Europe believed the Swedish mon- 
arch undone ; it was supposed that he could no longer defend his own 
dominions, when to the inexpressible astonishment of every one, it was 
announced that he had invaded Norway. His attention, however, 
was less engaged by the war than by the gigantic intrigues of his new 
favorite Goertz, who, taking advantage of a coolness between the 
Russians and the other enemies of Sweden, proposed that Peter and 
Charles should unite in strict amity, and dictate the law to Europe. A 
part of this daring plan was the removal of the elector of Hanover from 
the English throne, and the restoration of the exiled Stuarts. But while 
the negotiations were yet in progress, Charles invaded Norway a second 
time, and invested the castle of Frederickshall in the very depth of 
winter. But while engaged in viewing the works, he was struck by a 
cannon-ball, and was dead before any of his attendants came to his 
assistance (a. d. 1718).* The Swedish senate showed little grief for 
the loss of the warlike king ; on the first news of his death, his 
favorite. Baron Goertz, was arrested, brought to trial, and put to death 
on a ridiculous charge of treason. The crown was conferred upon the 
late king's sister, but she soon resigned it to her husband, the prince 
of Hesse, both being compelled to swear that they never would attempt 

•Dr. Johnson's character of Charles XII. is the best comment on the life of that 
adventurous warrior : — 

" On what foundation stands the warrior's pride. 
How just his hopes, let Swedish Charles decide ; 
A frame of adamant, a soul of fire. 
No dangers fright him, and no labors tire ; 
O'er love, o'er fear, extends his wide domain, 
Unconquered lord of pleasure and of pain ; 
No joys to him pacific sceptres yield, 
War sounds the trump, he rushes to the field ; 
Behold surrounded kings their powers combine, 
And one capitulate, and one resign ; 
Peace courts his hand, but spreads her charms in vain : 
' Think nothing gained,' he cries, ' till naught remain : 
On Moscow's walls, till Gothic standards fly. 
And all be mine beneath the polar sky.' 
The march begins in military state. 
And nations on his eye suspended wait ; 
Stern famine guards the solitary coast. 
And winter barricades the realms of frost ; 
He comes, nor want, nor cold, his course delay 3 
Hide, blushing Glory, hide Pultowa's day : 
The vanquished hero leaves his broken bands. 
And shows his miseries in distant lands ; 
Condemned a needly supplicant to wait 
While ladies interpose, and slaves debate. 
But did not chance at length her error mend? 
Did no subverted empire mark his end ? 
Did rival monarchs give the fatal wound ? 
Or hostile millions press him to the ground ? 
His fall was destined to a barren strand, 
A petty fortress, and a dubious hand ; 
He left the name, at which the world grew pale, 
To point a moral, or adorn a tale." 



598 MODERN HISTORY. 

the re-establishment of arbitrary power. Negotiations for peace were 
commenced with all the hostile powers, and treaties concluded with all 
but Russia (a. u. 1720). The appearance of an English fleet in the 
Baltic, coming to aid the Swedish squadron, however, finally disposed 
the czar to pacific measures ; and he consented to grant peace, on con- 
dition of being permitted to retain Ingria, Livonia, and part of Finland 
(a. d. 1721). Thus the great northren war terminated, just as it was 
about to be connected with the politics of southern Europe. 



MERCANTILE AND COLONIAL SYSTEM. 599 



CHAPTER VIII. 

GROWTH OF THE MERCANTILE AND COLONIAL 

SYSTEM. 

Section I. — Establishment of the Hanoverian Succession in England. 

During the wars that had been waged against Louis XIV., the funding 
system was established in England ; it commenced by the founding of 
a national bank (a. d. 1 694), which lent its capital to the government 
at a lower rate of interest than was then usual. Further loans were 
contracted to support the exigences of the wars ; parliament guarantied 
the payment of the interest, without entering into any obligation to 
restore the capital, which was transferable to any one. The gradual 
extension of the wealth of the nation facilitated the growth of this 
system, which soon gave England commanding influence on the con- 
tinent. The facilities of raising money possessed by the English 
government enabled it to conclude subsidiary treaties, and set the 
armies of allied states in motion. Internally the funding system 
■wrought a still greater change ; a great portion of the political influ- 
1 ence previously possessed by the landed aristocracy was transferred to 
large capitalists and manufacturers; the banking and funding systems 
afforded great facilities for accumulating the profits of industry, and 
thus fostered the growth of an intelligent and opulent middle class, 
whose strength was soon displayed in the increasing importance of the 
house of commons. Even at the treaty of Utrecht, the mercantile 
system began to manifest itself in all its strength. Grants of com- 
mercial privileges were made the conditions of peace with the 
maritime powers, and territorial concessions were made with a regard 
to the interests of trade rather than power. Justly as the British 
negotiators at Utrecht may be blamed for not taking sufficient advan- 
tage of the position in which their country was placed by the victories 
of Marlborough, it is undeniable that the treaty they concluded laid the 
foundation of the commercial superiority of England ; it also contained 
the germes of two future wars, but these consequences were slowly 
developed ; and at the commencement of the eighteenth century, the 
republic of Holland was still the first commercial state in Europe. 

The accession of George I. produced a complete change in the 
English administration ; the tories were dismissed with harshness, the 
whigs were the sole possessors of office, and on the new election con- 
sequent on the demise of the crown, they obtained a decided majority 
in parliament. Unfortunately they used their power to crush their 



600 MODERN HISTORY. 

political adversaries ; the chiefs of the late ministry were impeached 
for high treason, and their prosecution was hurried forward so vindic- 
tively, that Lords Bolingbroke and Ormond fled to the continent. 
This seemed a favorable moment to make an effort in favor of the 
exiled Stuarts, but Louis XIV., broken down by age, infirmities, and 
misfortvmc.was unwilling to hazard a new war, which might disturb 
the minority of his great-grandson, for in consequence of the mortality 
in the royal familv, this remote descendant was destined to be his 
successor. The death of Louis (Sept. 1, 1715) further disconcerted the 
projects of the Pretender and his adherents ; the duke of Orleans, who 
was chosen regent by the parliament of Paris during the minority of 
Louis XV., adopted every suggestion of the English ambassador, the- 
earl of Stair, for counteracting the designs of the Jacobites ; and he 
did them irreparable injury by seizing some ships laden with arms and 
ammunition, at a time when it was impossible for them to purchase any 
fresh supply. The Jacobites, however, persevered, and a plan was 
formed for a general insurrection ; but this was defeated by the Pre- 
tender's imprudence, who prematurely gave the earl of Mar a commis- 
sion to raise his standard in Scotland. The earl of Mar possessed 
considerable influence in the highland counties ; no sooner had he pro- 
claimed the Pretender, under the title of James III., than the clans 
crowded to his standard, and he was soon at the head of nine thousand' 
men, including several noblemen and persons of distinction. Thus 
supported, he made himself master of Perth, and established his authori- 
ty in almost all that part of Scotland Avhich lies north of the Frith of 
Forth. In the meantime the government was alarmed ; the jacobite 
leaders who had agreed to raise the west of England were taken into 
custody, and the duke of Argyle was sent against xVIar with all the forces 
of North Britain. An ill-contrived and worse executed insurrection of 
the Jacobites exploded in the north of England ; its leaders, the earl of 
Derwentwater, Lord Widdrington, and Mr. Foster, a Northumbrian 
gentleman of great influence, were joined by several Scottish lords and 
a body of Highland infantry. But being unable to agree upon any 
rational plan of operations, they were surrounded by the royal forces in 
the town of Preston, and forced to surrender at discretion. It would 
have been better for the character of the government had lenity been 
shown to these unhappy men, but unfortunately most of the leaders 
were doomed to suffer the penalties of high treason. 

In the meantime the earl of Mar had fought an indecisive battle with 
the duke of Argyle, which proved nevertheless ruinous to the Pretend- 
er's cause. Many who had been previously in doubt, declared for the 
royal cause, and several of the insurgent leaders returned to their alle- 
giance. In this de.sperate state of his affairs, the Pretender landed 
with a small train in Scotland ; but finding his cause hopeless, he re- 
turned to France with such of the leaders as did not expect pardon, 
and the whole country quietly submitted to the duke of Argyle. 

Before entering on the singular changes wrought by the policy of 
the duke of Orleans in Europe, it will be convenient to cast a brief 
glance at the affairs of Russia and Turkey. No sooner had Peter the 
Great concluded peace with Sweden than he assumed the title of em- 
peror, with the consent of all the European powers. By sending an. 



MERCANTILE AND COLONIAL SYSTEM. 601 

auxiliary force to aid the lawful sovereign of Persia against an Afghan 
usurper, he obtained the cession of the provinces on the south and w^est 
of the Caspian sea ; and, while he thus extended his dominions, he did 
not neglect their internal improvement, but constructed canals, planned 
roads, and established manufactories. But Peter's own character re- 
tained many traces of barbarism, and his treatment of his eldest son,. 
Alexis, excited general horror. This unfortunate prince is said to have 
been induced by some of the Russian priests and boyars to promise, 
that in the event of his accession, he would restore the old state of 
things, and abolish the new institutions of his father. He was arrested 
and forced to sign an abdication of the crown ; soon after this, he died 
in prison, but whether violent means were used to accelerate his end, 
has never been satisfactorily ascertained. The second son of the 
Russian emperor died in infancy, and Peter chose his emperess as his 
successor. He assisted at her coronation after his return from the 
Persian war;, and on his death (a. d. 1725) she became emperess of all 
the Russias, and by the excellence of her administration justified the 
choice of her illustrious husband. 

The Turks were enraged at the diminution of their national glory in 
the war that was terminated by the treaty of Carlowitz, and eagerly 
longed for an opportunity of retrieving their lost honor. Ahmed HI., 
the most warlike sultan that had recently filled the throne, was far from 
being displeased by their martial zeal, and he took the earliest opportu- 
nity of declaring war against the Venetians, whom he expelled from 
the Morea in a single campaign (a. d. 1715). The emperor, Charles 
VL, was solicited Ijy the pope to check the progress of the Mohamme- 
dans ; he therefore interfered, as protector of the treaty of Carlowitz ; but 
finding his remonstrances disregarded, he assembled a powerful army, 
and published a declaration of war (a. d. 1716). Prince Eugene, at 
the head of the imperialists, crossed the Danube, and attacked the 
forces of the grand vizier, near Peterwaradin. He gained a complete 
victory, twenty-five thousand of the Turks were either killed or drown- 
ed, while the loss of the Austrians did not exceed one fifth of that num- 
ber. In the ensuing campaign, the prince laid siege to Belgrade, and 
having defeated with great slaughter the vast Turkish army that march- 
ed to its relief, became master of that important fortress. The conse- 
quence of these victories was the peace of Passarowitz (a. d. 1718) by 
which Austria and Russia gained considerable acquisitions ; but the 
republic of Venice, for whose sake the war was ostensibly undertaken, 
did not recover its possessions in Greece, and found its interests neg- 
lected by its more potent allies. 

These wars were very remotedly connected with the political con- 
dition of southern Europe, which now depended entirely on the main- 
tenance of the terms of the peace of Utrecht. Several powers were 
interested in their preservation ; England's flourishing commerce de- 
pended in many essential particulars on the articles of the treaty ; they 
were the best security to Austria, for the provinces lately ceded in 
Italy; and the Dutch, unable or unwilling to garrison the barrier towns, 
felt that peace was necessary to their security. But above all, the re- 
gent of France believed that this treaty was the sole support of his 
power, since it involved the Spanish king's renunciation of his claims 



60a MODERN HISTORY. 

to the French crown. Altogether opposed to these views were the de 
signs of the court of Spain ; the marriage of Philip to EUzabeth Far- 
nese, heiress to the dutchies of Parma, Placentia, and Tuscany, inspired 
him with the hope of recovering the provinces that had been severed 
from the Spanish monarchy ; his prime minister, Cardinal Alberoni, 
flattered him with hopes of success, and at the same time diligently la- 
bored to improve the financial condition of the country. Alberoni's 
projects included an entire change in the political system of Europe ; 
he designed to reconquer Sardinia and Sicily for Spain ; to place 
James III. on the throne of England by the aid of the Russian emperor 
and the king of Sweden ; to prevent the interference of the emperor, by 
engaging the Turks to assail his dominions. Pope Clement XL, a 
weak and stupid pontiff, could not comprehend the merits of Alberoni's 
schemes ; he refused to pay the ecclesiastical subsidies to Philip V., 
and before the ambitious cardinal could further develop his schemes, 
the Quadruple Alliance was formed by the alarmed potentates of Eu- 
rope, and Philip V., was forced to dismiss his intriguing minister. 
The pope had the mortification to find that his interests were totally 
disregarded in the new arrangements made for preserving the tranquilli- 
ty of Europe ; his superiorities in Parma and Placentia formed part of 
the bribe tendered to the court of Spain by the rulers of France and 
Germany ; he remonstrated loudly, but, in spite of his efforts, they were 
accepted and retained. 

On the death of Clement XI., Alberoni became a candidate for the 
papacy, and was very near being elected. Fortunately for the per- 
manency of Romish power, this violent prelate was excluded from the 
chair of St. Peter, and Innocent XIII. was chosen. During his pontifi- 
cate the society of freemasons began to be regarded with suspicion by 
the heads of the church, especially as several other secret associations 
were formed in Germany and Italy for the propagation of what were 
called philosophical tenets ; but these doctrines were, in reality, not 
only hostile to popery, but subversive of all religion and morality. 
Though Austria, France, England, and Holland, united against the 
dangerous schemes of Alberoni, and formed the Quadruple Alliance 
(a. d. 1716), yet the cardinal steadily pursued his course, and war was 
proclaimed against Spain by France and England. 

The strength of Spain, exhausted by the war of the succession, could 
not resist this powerful combination ; the English fleet rode triumphant 
in the Mediterranean ; a German army expelled the Spaniards from 
Sicily ; the French, under the command of the duke of Berwick, inva- 
ded Spain, and captured several important fortresses ; the duke of Or- 
mond failed in his attempt to land a Spanish army in Great Britain ; 
and Philip, completely subdued, dismissed Alberoni (a. d. 1720), and 
acceded to the terms of the Quadruple Alliance. 

During this war, France and England were involved in great 
financial difficulties, by the Mississippi scheme in one country, and the 
South sea speculation in the other. A Scotch adventurer, named Law, 
proposed a plan to the regent of France for speedily paying off the vast 
national debt, and delivering the revenue from the enormous interest by 
which it was overwhelmed. He effected this by an extraordinary issue 
of paper, on the security of the Mississippi company, from whose com- 



MERCANTILE AND COLONIAL SYSTEM. 



60^ 



niercial speculations the most extravagant results were expected. So 
rapid was his success, that in 1719, the nominal value of the funds was 
eighty times greater than the real value of all the current coin of the 
realm. This immense disproportion soon excited alarm ; when the 
holders of the notes tried to convert them into money, there was no 
specie to meet the demands, and the result was a general bankruptcy. 
Some efforts were made by the government to remedy this calamity, 
but the evil admitted only of slight palliation, and thousands were com- 
pletely ruined. 

The South sea scheme, projected by Sir John Blount, in England, 
was a close imitation of Law's plan. He proposed that the South sea 
company, to which great commercial advantages had been secured by 
the treaty of Utrecht, should become the sole creditor of the nation ; 
and facilities were offered to the owners of stock to exchange the se- 
curity of the crown for that of the South sea company. Never did so 
wild a scheme meet such sudden success ; South sea stock in a short 
time rose to ten times its original value ; new speculations were started, 
and for a time had similar popularity ; but when suspicion was excited, 
and some cautious holders of stock began to sell, a universal panic suc- 
ceeded to the general delusion. By the prompt interference of parlia- 
ment a general bankruptcy was averted, and the chief contrivers of the 
fraud, including many individuals of rank and station, were punished, 
and their estates sequestrated for the benefit of the sufferers. 

The confusion occasioned by the South sea scheme encouraged the 
Jacobites to make another effort in favor of the Stuarts (a. d. 1722). 
But their plans were discovered, a gentleman named Layer was capi- 
tally punished for enlisting men in the service of the Pretender, and 
Dr. Atterbury, bishop of Rochester, the soul of his party, was exiled. 

Fortunately for the repose of Europe, the prime ministers of France 
and England, Cardinal Fleury, who succeeded to power soon after the 
death of the duke of Orleans, and Sir Robert Walpole, were both bent 
on the preservation of peace, and for nearly twenty years they prevent- 
ed any active hostilities. Walpole's administration, however, began to 
lose its popularity, on account of his not gratifying the national hatred 
against Spain. A powerful opposition was formed against him, com- 
posed of the old tories, and some disappointed courtiers, which he con- 
tended against by unbounded parliamentary corruption. The death of 
George L (a. d. 1727) made no change in the position of parties, for 
George II. intrusted Walpole with the same power he had enjoyed 
under his father. 

The emperor Charles, having no prospect of male issue, was natu- 
rally anxious to secure the peaceful succession of his daughter, Maria 
Theresa, to his hereditary dominions ; and for this purpose he prepared 
a solemn law, called the Pragmatic Sanction, and procured its confirma- 
tion by the principal states of Europe. The guarantee of France was 
not obtained without war. Stanislaus Leczinski, father-in-law to the 
French monarch, was elected king of Poland, but was dethroned by the 
influence of the German powers (a. d. 1733). To avenge this insult, 
the French king formed a league with the courts of Spain and Sardinia 
against the emperor ; and, after a brief struggle, the court of Vienna 
was forced to purchase peace by considerable sacrifices. The success 



MODERN HISTORY. » 

of the Russians under the reign of the emperess Anne, niece to Peter 
the Great, against the Turks, induced the German emperor to commence 
a second unfortunate war. Scarcely was it concluded, when the death 
of Charles (a. d. 1740) involved Europe in the contentions of a new 
disputed succession. 

Sir Robert Walpole had long preserved England at peace ; but the 
interested clamors of some merchants engaged in a contraband trade 
■with the Spanish colonies, compelled him to commence hostilities (a. d. 
1739). Admiral Vernon, with a small force, captured the important 
city of Porto Bello, on the American isthmus. This success induced 
the minister to send out large armaments against the Spanish colonies. 
Vernon with a fleet, and Lord Cathcart with a numerous army, under- 
took to assail Spanish America on the side of the Atlantic, while Com- 
modore Anson sailed round Cape Horn to ravage the coasts of Chili 
and Peru. The death of Lord Cathcart frustrated these arrangements ; 
he was succeeded by General Wentworth, an officer of little experience, 
and very jealous of Vernon's popularity. An attack was made on 
Carthagena, but it failed lamentably, owing to the disputes between the 
naval and military commanders. Both were reinforced from England, 
but they effected nothing of any importance, and returned home after 
more than fifteen thousand of their men had fallen victims to the 
climate. Anson, in the meantime, encountered such a severe storm ia 
rounding Cape Horn, that two of his ships were forced to return, and 
one was lost. His diminished squadron, however, took several prizes 
off the coast of Chili, and plundered the town of Paita, in Peru. His 
force was finally reduced to one ship, but with this he captured the 
Spanish galleon, laden with treasure, that sailed annually from Acapul- 
co to Manilla. He then returned to England triumphant ; but the loss 
at Carthagena was so severely felt, that the English would not venture 
to renew their enterprises against Spanish America. 

Scarcely had Maria Theresa succeeded her father, the emperor 
Charles, when she found herself surrounded by a host of enemies. 
The elector of Bavaria laid claim to Bohemia ; the king of Sardinia 
revived some obsolete pretensions to the dutchy of Milan ; while the 
kings of Poland, Spain, and France, exhibited claims to the whole 
Austrian succession. An unexpected claimant gave the first signal for 
war. Frederic HL, who had just ascended the Prussian throne, in- 
herited from his father a rich treasury and a well-appointed army. 
Relying on the goodness of his troops rather than the goodness of his 
cause, he entered Silesia, and soon conquered that fine province (a. d. 
1741). At the same time he offered to support Maria Theresa against 
all competitors, on the condition of being permitted to retain his acquis- 
ition. The princess steadily refused, though she knew that France 
was arming against her, and that her enemies had resolved to elevate 
Charles Albert, elector of Bavaria, to the empire. The forces of the 
king of France entered Germany, and being joined by the Bavarian 
army, made several important conquests, and even threatened Vienna ; 
but Maria Theresa, repairing to Presburg, convened the states of Hun- 
gary, and appearing before them with her infant son in her arms, made 
such an eloquent appeal, that the nobles with one accord exclaimed, 
" We will die for our King, Maria Theresa." Nor was this a moment- 



^ MERCANTILE AND COLONIAL SYSTEM. 605 

ary burst of passion ; they raised a powerful army for the defence of 
their young and beautiful princess, and a subsidy was at the same time 
voted to her by the British parliament. So great was the attachment 
of the English people to her cause, that the pacific Sir Robert Walpole 
was forced to resign, and a new administration was formed by his politi- 
cal rivals. 

The new ministers had been raised to power by a sudden burst of 
popular enthusiasm, but they soon showed themselves unworthy of the 
nation's confidence. They took the lead in suppressing the measures 
which they had themselv^es declared necessary to the security of the 
constitution, and they far outstripped their predecessors in supporting 
German subsidies, standing armies, and continental connexions, which 
had been so long the theme of their severest censure. They augmented 
the army, sent a large body of troops into the Netherlands under the 
command of the earl of Stair, and granted subsidies to the Danes, the 
Hessians, and the Austrians. The French had some hopes of gaining 
the support of the Russians, who were now ruled by the emperess Eliz- 
abeth. On the death of the emperess Anne, her niece, the princess of 
Mecklenburgh, assumed the government, as guardian of her son John. 
Bm the partiality that the regent showed for her German countrymen 
displeased the Russian nobles ; their discontents were artfully increased 
by a French physician named Lestocq ; a bloodless insurrection led to 
the deposition of the Mecklenburgh princess, and Elizabeth, the daugh- 
ter of Peter the Great, was raised to the throne. She found the country 
involved in a war with Sweden, which she brought to a successful is- 
sue, and secured the inheritance to the Swedish crown for her favorite, 
Adolphus, bishop of Lubeck. Though the czarina owed her elevation 
in a great degree to French intrigue, she was inclined to support the 
Austrian cause ; but she did not interfere in the contest until she had 
completed all her arrangements. 

The republic of Holland showed still more reluctance to engage in 
the war ; and the English army in the Netherlands, deprived of the ex- 
pected Dutch aid, remained inactive. In Germany, the Bavarian elec- 
tor was driven not only from his conquests, but from his hereditary do- 
minions,* while the king of Prussia took advantage of a brilliant victory 
to conclude a treaty with Maria Theresa, by which he was secured in 
the possession of Silesia. The French army, thus deprived of its most 

• Dr. Johnson has powerfully described the fate of this unfortunate prince : — 

" The bold Bavarian, in a luckless hour, 
Tries the dread summits of Csesarean power, 
With unexpected legions bursts away, 
And sees defenceless realms receive his sway : 
Short sway ! fair Austria spreads her mournful charms, 
The queen, the beauty, sets the world in arms ; 
From hill to hill the beacons' rousing blaze 
Spreads wide the hope of plunder and of praise; 
The fierce Croatian and the wild hussar, 
With all the sons of ravage, crowd the war ; 
The baffled prince, in honor's flattering bloom. 
Of hasty greatness finds the fatal doom ; 
His foes' derision, and his subjects' blame. 
And steals to death, from anguish and from shame.'* 



609 MODERN HISTORY. 

powerful ally, must have been ruined but for the abilities of its general, the 
count do Bellisle, who effected one of the most masterly retreats record- 
ed in history, from the centre of Bohemia to the frontiers of Alsace. 
The Spaniards failed in their attacks on the imperial territories in Italy, 
chiefly owing to the activity of the English fleets in the Mediterranean ; 
and the court of Versailles, disheartened by these repeated failures, 
made proposals of peace. Maria Theresa, intoxicated with success, re- 
jected all the proffered conditions (a. d. 1743). She urged forward her 
armaments with such vigor, that the French were driven to the Rhine, 
and the unfortunate elector of Bavaria, abandoned by his allies, and 
stripped of his dominions, sought refuge in Frankfort, where he lived in 
indigence and obscurity. The errors of the French in Flandei-s led to 
their defeat at Dettingen, just when a little caution would have insured 
the ruin of the English and Austrians. But the allies made no use of 
their victory, owing to the irresolution of George II., who took the man- 
agement of the campaign into his own hands, and superseded the earl of 
Stair. The war lingered in Italy, but the haughtiness and ambition of 
the emperess began to excite the secret jealousy of the German princes ; 
and the French and Spanish courts, alarmed by her treaty with the 
king of Sardinia, drew their alliance closer by the celebrated Family 
Compact, which bound them to maintain the integrity of each other's 
dominions. 

England had now become a principal in the war, and the monarchs 
of France and Spain resolved to invade that country, and remove the 
Hanoverian dynasty. A powerful army was assembled, and a fleet pre- 
pared to protect the transports ; but the French ships were shattered in 
a storm, and forced to take refuge in Brest from a superior English force 
(a. d. 1744). The English navy was less successful in the Mediterra- 
nean : the combined fleets of France and Spain were met by the British 
admirals, Matthews and Lestock ; but owing to the misconduct of some 
captains, and Lestock's remaining aloof with his whole division, the re- 
sult of the engagement was indecisive. It is a sad proof of the violence 
and injustice of faction, that when these officers were brought to trial, 
Matthews, who had fought like a hero, was condemned, and Lestock 
acquitted. The war in Italy was sanguinary, but indecisive. In Ger- 
many, however, the king of Prussia once more took up arms against 
Maria Theresa, and invaded Bohemia. He was defeated with great 
loss, and forced to retire precipitately into Silesia. Soon afterward, 
the death of the elector of Bavaria removed all reasonable grounds for 
the continuance of hostilities ; his son, who had no pretensions to the 
empire, concluded a treaty with Maria Theresa, and promised to sup- 
port the election of her husband, the grand duke of Tuscany, to the im- 
perial dignity. 

But the national animosity between the French and English prevent- 
ed the restoration of peace (a. d. 1745). The Austrians were completely 
vanquished in Italy by the united forces of the French and Spaniards, 
whose vast superiority of numbers could not be resisted ; and on the 
side of the Netherlands, the misconduct of the allies gave a signal tri- 
umph to the Bourbons. The French army under Marshal Saxe was 
strongly posted at Fontenoy, but was, notwithstanding, attacked by the 
English, Dutch, and Germans. In few battles has the valor of the 



^ MERCANTILE AND COLONIAL SYSTEM. 607 

British infantry been displayed more signally or more uselessly. Form- 
ing themselves into a column, they bore down everything before them, 
until, deserted by their Dutch and German auxiliaries, they were out- 
flanked and driven back by the entire force of the French army. The 
loss on both sides was nearly equal ; but though the victory was not 
decisive, it enabled Marshal Saxe to reduce some of the most consider- 
able towns in the Netherlands. Tranquillity was restored to Germany 
by the election of the grand duke of Tuscany to the empire, under the 
name of Francis I. ; and about the same time Maria Theresa, as queen 
of Hungary, concluded the treaty of Breslau with the king of Prussia, 
and thus quieted her most dangerous enemy. 

The discontent occasioned by the loss at Fontenoy induced the grand- 
son of James II., commonly called the Young Pretender, to attempt the 
restoration of his family. He landed in Scotland with a small train, but 
being soon joined by the enthusiastic Highland clans, he descended from 
the mountains and marched toward Edinburgh. The city surrendered 
without any attempt at resistance, but the castle still held out. Sir 
John Cope, the royal commander in Scotland, had marched northward 
to raise the loyal clans ; having collected some reinforcements, he pro- 
ceeded from Aberdeen to Dunbar by sea, and hearing that the insurgents 
were resolved to hazard a battle, he encamped at Preston Pans. Here 
he was unexpectedly attacked by the Young Pretender, at the head of 
about three thousand undisciplined and half-armed soldiers. A panic 
seized the royal troops ; they fled with the most disgraceful precipita- 
tion, abandoning all their baggage, cannon, and camp-equipage, to their 
enemies. 

The reduction of the French colony of Cape Breton, in North Amer- 
ica, had revived the spirit of the English ; and the time that the Pre-, 
tender wasted in idle pageantry at Edinburgh afforded the ministers an 
opportunity of bringing over some regiments from Flanders. Notwith- 
standing the formidable preparations thus made, the Pretender, probably 
relying on promised aid from France, crossed the western borders, and 
took Carlisle. But the vigilance of Admiral Vernon prevented the 
French fleet from venturing out ; and the Pretender having failed to 
raise recruits in Lancashire, and unable to force a passage into Wales, 
baflled the royal armies by an unexpected turn, and suddenly marched 
to Derby. Had he continued to advance boldly, London itself might 
have fallen : but he delayed at Derby until he was nearly enclosed be- 
tween two powerful armies, and was forced either to retreat or to hazard 
a battle on very disadvantageous terms. It was finally determined that 
they should return to Scotland, and this retrograde movement was effect- 
ed by the Highlanders with extraordinary courage and expedition. 

This retreat did not produce the dispiriting effect on the insurgents 
that had been anticipatecf The Pretender's forces were greatly aug- 
mented after his return to Scotland ; but finding that Edinburgh had 
been secured by the royal army during his absence, he marched to Stir- 
ling, captured the town, and besieged the castle. General Hawley was 
sent with a strong force to raise the siege, but despising the undisci- 
plined Highlanders, he acted so imprudently that he suffered a complete 
defeat near Falkirk (a. d. 1746). The Pretender, instead of following 
up his advantage, returned to the siege of Stirling castle, while the royal 



608 MODERN HISTORY. ^ 

army, reinforced by fresh troops, was placed under the command of the 
duke of Cumberland, a prince of the blood, who, though by no means a 
skilful general, was a great favorite with the soldiery. The insurgent 
army retired before the royal troops until they reached Culloden Moor, 
where they rcfsolved to make a stand. Warned by the errors of Cope 
and Hawley, the duke of Cumberland took the most prudent precautions 
to meet the desperate charge of the Highlanders ; they rushed on with 
their usual impetuosity, but being received by a close and galling fire 
of musketry, while their ranks were torn by artillery, they wavered, 
broke, and in less than thirty minutes were a helpless mass of confu- 
sion. The victors gave no quarter : many of th^ insurgents were mur- 
dered in cold blood, and their unfortunate prince was only saved from 
capture by the generous devotion of one of his adherents, who assured 
the pursuers that he was himself the object of their search. 

The cruelties of the royalists after their victory were perfectly dis- 
graceful ; the country of the insurgent clans was laid waste with fire 
and sword ; the men were hunted like wild beasts on the mountains, the 
women and children, driven from their burned huts, perished by thou- 
sands on the barren heaths. When all traces of rebellion, and almost 
of population, had disappeared, the duke of Cumberland returned to 
London, leaving a large bodyof troops to continue the pursuit of the 
surviving fugitives. During five months the young Pretender remained 
concealed in the Highlands and Western isles of Scotland, though a re- 
ward of thirty thousand pounds was set on his head, and more than fifty 
persons were intrusted with his secret. At length he escaped on 
board a French privateer, and, after enduring incredible hardships, 
arrived safely in Brittany. The vengeance of the government fell 
.heavily on his adherents : numbers of the leaders were tried and exe- 
cuted, and though they died with heroic firmness, their fate excited little 
commiseration. 

In the meantime the French, under Marshal Saxe, had overrun the 
greater part of the Netherlands ; Brussels, Antwerp, and Namur, were 
captured, while the confederate army was defeated in a sanguinary but 
indecisive engagement at Raucoux. In Italy, the allies were more suc- 
cessful ; taking advantage of the mutual jealousies between the French 
and Spaniards, the Austrians, reinforced by the king of Sardinia, drove 
their enemies from Italy, and pursued them into France. The death 
of their monarch had abated the vigor of the Spaniards, for the designs 
of Ferdinand VI., Philip's son and successor, were for some time un- 
known ; but when he declared his resolution to adhere to the Family 
Compact, the hopes of the partisans of the house of Bourbon were re- 
vived. About the same time the imperialists were compelled to evacu- 
ate the south of France by the judicious measures of the marshal de 
Bellisle ; and the Genoese, irritated by the severity with which they 
were treated, expelled the Austrian garrison, and baffled every attempt 
that their oppressors made to recover the city. The national animosity 
between the French and English was aggravated by commercial jeal- 
ousy ; they mutually fitted out armaments against each other's colonies ; 
but these expeditions, badly contrived and worse executed, led to no 
decisive results, and all parties began to grow weary of a war which 
produced no consequence but a lavish waste of blood and treasure. 



MERCANTILE AND COLONIAL SYSTEM. 609 

Conferences were commenced at Breda, but the demands of the French 
appeared so exorbitant to the allies, that the negotiations were abruptly 
terminated, and the hostile powers made the most vigorous preparations 
for a decisive struggle (a. d. 1747). The exertions of the allies were 
long paralyzed by the indecision of the Dutch rulers ; even when their 
own country was invaded, they could not be induced to adopt more vig- 
orous councils, until a popular revolt compelled them to revive the office 
of stadtholder, and confer that dignity on the prince of Orange. 

Though this revolution gave more vigor to the operations of the allies, 
the whole weight of the war was ungenerously thrown upon the Eng- 
lish. The obstinate and bloody battle of Val would have been won by 
British valor, but for the timidity and slowness of the Dutch and Aus- 
trians : in consequence of their misconduct it terminated to the disad- 
vantage of the confederates. Soon after, the fortress of Bergen-op- 
Zoom, generally believed to be impregnable, was captured by the French, 
who thus became masters of the whole navigation of the Scheldt. In 
Italy, the allies, though forced to raise the siege of Genoa, were gener- 
ally successful, while the British navy gained several important triumphs 
at sea. A valuable French convoy was attacked by Admirals Anson and 
Warren, off Cape Finisterre, and, after an obstinate engagement, six 
ships-of-the-line and several armed Indiamen were taken. Seven weeks 
after, a fleet laden with the rich produce of St. Domingo fell into the 
hands of Commodore Fox ; and at a later period of the year, Admiral 
Hawke, after a sharp battle, took six ships-of-the-line in the latitude of 
Bellisle. These reverses, and the sailing of a powerful British arma- 
ment to the East Indies, so alarmed the court of Versailles, that nego- 
tiations for peace were Once more commenced. 

While conferences were opened at Aix-la-Chapelle (a. d. 1748), Mar- 
shal Saxe continued to carry on the war with great Adgor : he laid siege 
to Maestricht, which was obstinately defended, but before the contest 
could be decided, intelligence w^s received that the preliminaries of 
peace had been signed. The basis of the treaty was a restitution of all 
conquests made during the war, and a mutual release of prisoners with- 
out ransom. It left unsettled the clashing claims of the Spaniards and 
British to the trade of the American seas, and made no mention of the 
. light of search which had been the original cause of the war ; the only 
advantage, indeed, that England gained, was the recognition of the Han- 
overian succession, and the general abandonment of the Pretender, 
whose cause was henceforth regarded as hopeless. This result, from 
so expensive a contest, gave general dissatisfaction ; but the blame 
should fall on the authors of the war, not of the peace ; England had no 
interest in the contests for the Austrian succession ; under the peaceful 
administration of Sir Robert Walpole, her commerce and manufactures 
had rapidly increased ; but through an idle ambition for military glory, 
and a perverse love of meddling in continental affairs, the prosperity of 
the country received a severe check, and an enormous addition was 
made to the national debt. 

Section II. — The Colonial Struggle hetween France and Great Britain. 
The peace of Aix-la-Chapelle was soon discovered to be little better 
than a suspension of arms. Two causes of a very different nature 

39 



610 MODERN HISTORY. 

united to produce a new and fiercer struggle, which no arts of diploma- 
cy could long avert. The first of these was the jealousy with which the 
court of Austria regarded the great increase of the Prussian monarchy ; 
the extorted renunciation of Silesia could neither be forgiven nor forgot- 
ten, and its recovery had long been the favorite object of the court of 
Vienna. The Prussian monarch was not popular with his neighbors — 
all new powers are naturally objects of jealousy — and the selfish policy 
which Frederic displayed, both in contracting and dissolving alliances, 
prevented him from gaining any permanent friend ; he was the personal 
enemy of Elizabeth, emperess of Russia, and of Count Bruhl, the lead- 
ing minister in the court of Saxony, and both readily joined in the plans 
formed for his destruction. 

But with these confederates, the Austrian cabinet was reluctant to 
engage in hostilities, while France might at any time turn the balance, 
by renewing its former relations with Prussia. Prince Kaunitz, the 
real guide of the court of Vienna, and, during four reigns, the soul of the 
Austrian councils, resolved to unite the empire and France in one com- 
mon project for sharing the rule of Europe. Louis XV., who had sunk 
into being the slave of his mistresses, was induced, by this able diplom- 
atist, to depart from the course of policy which for two centuries had 
maintained the high rank of France among the continental powers ; from 
being the rivals and opponents of the Austrian dynasty, the house of 
Bourbon sank into the humble character of assistants to that power — a 
change which eventually brought the greatest calamities on themselves 
and their country. 

The commercial jealousy with which the English regarded the French,. 
was the second cause for the renewal of the war. During the late war, 
the French navy had been all but aimihilated, and the exertions made 
for its restoration were viewed vvitli secret anger. Owing to incapacity, 
or defective information, the negotiators at Aix-la-Chapelle had left most 
of the colonial questions at issue between England and France wholly 
undecided. The chief subjects contested were, the limits of the Eng- 
lish colony of Nova Scotia, the right claimed by the French to erect 
forts along the Ohio, for the purpose of connecting the Canadas with 
Louisiana, the occupation of some neutral islands in the West Indies by 
the French, and, finally, the efibrts of both nations to acquire political 
supremacy in Hindustan. 

The maritime war between England and France had no immediate 
connexion with the struggle between Prussia and Austria. But when 
the French king, at the commencement of the contest, menaced Han- 
over, George H., who preferred the interests of this petty principality 
to those of the British empire, entered into a treaty with Frederic for 
its defence. Thus these two wars, so distinct in their origin and na- 
ture, were blended into one ; but before their termination, they were 
again separated and concluded by distinct treaties of peace. 

The empire which the descendants of Baber had established in Hin- 
dtistan, touched the summit of its greatness in the reign of Aurungzebe ; 
under his feeble successors the imperial power rapidly declined, and 
after the successful eruption of Nadir Shah (a. d. 1738), it was almost 
annihilated. The governors of provinces and districts became virtually 
independent sovereigns, and the allegiance they paid to the court of 



MERCANTILE AND COLONIAL SYSTEM. 611 

Delhi was merely nominal. Both the French and the English East 
India companies took advantage of this state of things to extend their 
influence and enlarge their territories. Dupleix, the French governor 
of Pondicherry, had long sought an opportunity of interfering in the 
troubled politics of India ; it was afforded him by the contests which 
arose on the vacancies in the souhbadary of the Deccan, and the nabob- 
ship of the Carnatic. He supported the claims of Chundah Saheb to 
the latter post, and endeavored to make Murzafa .Ting souhbadar, or 
viceroy of the Deccan. He succeeded in these objects, but his favor- 
ites did not long retain their elevation ; still, however, a precedent was 
established for the interference of the French in the contests between 
the native powers, and their aid was purchased by fresh concessions in 
every revolution. The rapid progress of their rivals roused the Eng- 
lish from their supineness, and, fortunately, they found a leader whose 
abilities, both as a general and statesman, have scarcely been surpassed 
by any European that ever visited the east. Mr. Clive, the son of a 
private gentleman, had been originally employed in the civil service of 
the East India company ; but war no sooner broke out than he exchanged 
the pen for the sword, and the union of courage and skill which he 
displayed at the very commencement of his career, excited just expect- 
ations of the glory which marked its progress. He gained several 
brilliant advantages over the allies of the French, and greatly strength- 
ened the English interest in the Deccan or southern division of Hin- 
dustan. But the French East India company had begun to distrust the 
flattering promises of Dupleix ; they found that his plans of territorial 
aggrandizement involved them in expensive wars, and were, at the 
same time, destructive of their commerce. A similar feeling, though 
to a less extent, prevailed in England, and the rival companies prepared 
to adjust their differences by the sacrifice of Dupleix. No regard was 
paid by his countrymen to his defence ; he was loaded with obloquy, 
as a selfish and ambitious man, though it was notorious that he had 
sacrificed his entire private fortune to the support of what he believed 
to be the true interests of France. 

The successor of Dupleix concluded a treaty with the English au- 
thorities, in which all the objects of that able governor were' abandoned. 
Mohammed Ali, the friend of the English, was recognised as the nabob 
of the Carnatic ; the claims of the French upon the northern Circars 
were relinquished, and it was agreed that the colonists from each na- 
tion should, for the future, abstain from all interference with the affairs 
of the native princes. It was scarcely possible that these stipulations 
could be strictly observed ; indeed, the treaty had scarcely been signed, 
Avhen mutual complaints were made of infractions ; but, in the mean- 
time, events had occurred in another part of the globe, which frustrated 
it altogether. 

After the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, the British ministry, anxious to 
secure the province of Nova Scotia, as a barrier for the other American 
colonies, induced many disbanded soldiers and sailors to settle in that 
country. The town of Halifax was built and its harbor fortified, and 
Nova Scotia began to rise rapidly in importance. The French, who 
had hitherto viewed the province as little better than a barren waste, 
began now to raise disputes concerning its limits ; and the settlers, 



612 MODERN HISTORY. 

from both countries, did not always arrange their controversies by 
-peaceful discussion. Still more important were the differences which 
arose in the interior of North America. The French were naturally 
-anxious to form a communication between the Canadas in the north and 
Louisiana in the south. This could only be effected by depriving the 
English of their settlements west of the Allegany mountains, and 
seizing the posts which the British settlers in Virginia and the Caroli- 
nas had established beyond that chain for the convenience of trade with 
the Indians. Hostilities were commenced by the colonial authorities, 
without the formality of a declaration of war ; the Virginian post of 
Logs' town was surprised by a French detachment, and all .its inhab- 
itants but two inhumanly murdered ; the North American Indians were 
stimulated to attack the British colonists, and large supplies of arms 
and ammunition were imported from France (a. d. 1755). The British 
ministers immediately prepared for hostilities ; all the French forts 
within the limits of Nova Scotia were reduced by Colonel Monckton ; 
but an expedition against the French forts on the Ohio was defeated, 
owing to the rashness of General Braddock, who refused to profit by 
the local knowledge of the provincial officers. He fell into an ambus- 
cade of French and Indians, and instead of endeavoring to extricate 
iimself, attempted to make a stand. At length he was slain, while 
vainly striving to rally his troops, and the regular soldiers fled with dis- 
graceful precipitation. It deserves to be remarked, that the provincial 
militia, commanded by Major Washington, did not share the panic of 
the royal army, but displayed great coolness, courage, and conduct. 

Two other expeditions, against the forts of Niagara and Crown Point, 
failed, though General Johnson, who commanded the latter, gained a vic- 
tory over the hostile army. But at sea the British strength was more 
effectually displayed ; two sail-of-the-line were captured by Admiral Bos- 
cawen, off Newfoundland ; and more than three hundred merchant-ships 
were brought as prizes into the ports of Great Britain. Notwithstanding 
these hostilities, a formal declaration of war was delayed ; its publica- 
tion was the signal for one of the fiercest stru^sles in which modern 
JEurope had been involved. Before, however, we enter on this part of 
our history, we must briefly notice the important events that for a time 
threatened the total ruin of the English in Bengal, but whose final re- 
sults made their power paramount in northern India. 

The privileges which the emperor of Delhi had granted to the Eng- 
lish settlers in Calcutta excited great jealousy among the provincial 
governors, and were violently opposed by Jaffier Khan, the souhbadar 
of Bengal. Means were taken, however, to conciliate this powerful 
feudatory, and peace was preserved until the accession of the ferocious 
Suraja Dowla, who was enraged at the shelter which the English af- 
forded to some of his destined victims (a. d. 1756). He advanced 
against Calcutta, when most of the local authorities were seized with 
a scandalous panic ; the governor and the military commanders escaped 
in boats, leaving Mr. Holwell, Mr. Perks, and about one hundred and 
ninety more, to provide for their own safety as they best might. 

After endeavoring vainly to bring back even one vessel to aid their 
removal, this handful of men, after a vigorous defence, fell into the 
power of the ferocious Suraja. They were all thrust into a roomtwen- 



MERCANTILE AND COLONIAL SYSTEM. 613 

ty feet square, where, from the heat and foulness of the atmosphere, 
all but twenty -three died before the morning. The news of this catas- 
trophe reached Madras just when Colonel Clive and Admiral Watson, 
flushed by their recent victory over the celebrated pirate Angria, had 
arrived at Madras to aid in the destruction of the French influence in 
the Deccan. The troops assembled for that purpose were now sent to 
recover Calcutta, and this object was effected by the mere appearance 
of the fleet before the city. Several of the Suraja's own places were 
taken and plundered, and the French fort of Chandernagore reduced ; 
conspiracies were formed against Suraja Dowla, and that haughty 
chieftain felt that the sovereignty of Bengal must be decided by a battle. 
Contrary to the opinion of all his officers, Clive resolved to hazard an 
engagement, and took up a position in the grove of Plassy (June 23, 
1757). The British force consisted of three thousand two hundred, 
not more than nine hundred of whom were Europeans ; their artillery 
consisted of eight six-pounders, and two howitzers. On the other 
hand, Suraja Dowla had with him fifty thousand foot, eighteen thousand 
horse, and fifty pieces of cannon. Though the engagement continued 
the greater part of the day, the British did not lose more than seventy 
in killed and wounded ; they owed the victory, indeed, more to the 
errors of their adversaries than to their own merits ; for the contest 
seems to have been little better than an irregular cannonade, occasion- 
ally relieved by ineffectual charges of cavalry. Its consequences were 
not the less decisive from the ease with which it was won ; Suraja 
Dowla, after wandering for some time as a fugitive, was murdered by 
one of his personal enemies ; and the viceroyalty of Bengal was given 
to Jaffier Khan, who purchased the favor of the British by large public 
grants and larger private bribes. This brief campaign established the 
supremacy of the English in northern India, where their power has 
never since been shaken. 

Section III. — The Seven Years'' War. 

When the French government received intelligence of the events 
that had taken place in India and America, vigorous preparations for 
war were made throughout the kingdom, and England itself was 
menaced with invasion (a. d. 1756). Never was the national character 
of the British nation so tarnished as it was by the panic which these 
futile threats diffused ; Hessians and Hanoverians were hired to protect 
the kingdom, while the presence of these mercenaries was justly re- 
garded as dangerous to public liberty. It is more honorable to Britain 
to relate, that when Lisbon, on the very eve of this war, was almost 
destroyed by an earthquake, parliament voted one hundred thousand 
pounds for the relief of the sufferers. But the French government 
menaced an invasion only to conceal its project for the reduction of 
Minorca ; a formidable force was landed on the island, and close siege 
laid to Fort St. Philip, which commands the principal town and harbor. 
Admiral Byng, who had been intrusted with the charge of the English 
fleet in the Mediterranean, was ordered to attempt the relief of the 
place ; he encountered a French squadron, of equal force, but instead 
of seeking an engagement, he would not even support Admiral West, 
who had thrown the French line into confusion. After tliis indecisive 



eii4. MODERN HISTORY. 

skirmish, he returned to Gibraltar, abandoning Minorca to its fate. 
General Bhikeney, the governor of Fort St. Philip, made a vigorous de- 
fence, though his garrison was too small by one third ; but finding that 
he had no prospect of relief from England, he capitulated. But his 
conduct was so far from being disapproved of, that he was raised to 
the peerage by his sovereign, and welcomed as a hero by the people. 

The rage of the people at the loss of Minorca was directed against 
the unfortunate Byng ; popular discontent was still further aggravated 
by the ill-success of the campaign in America, where a second series 
of expeditions against the French forts signally failed ; while the mar- 
quis de Montcalm, the governor of Canada, captured Oswego, where 
the British had deposited the greater part of their artillery and military 
stores. Our ally, the king of Prussia, displayed more vigor ; unable to 
obtain any satisfactory explanation from the court of Vienna, he resolved 
to anticipate the designs of the Austrians, and invade Bohemia. For 
this purpose it was necessary that he should secure the neutrality of 
Saxony, but the elector was secretly in league with Frederic's enemies ; 
and the Prussian monarch, finding pacific measures inejffectual, advanced 
against Dresden. The elector Augustus, who was also king of Poland, 
fortified himself in a strong camp at Pima, where he resolved to wait 
for the junction of the Austrian forces. Frederic blockaded the Saxon 
army and cut off its supplies ; the imperialists, who marched to the 
relief of their allies, were defeated at Lowositz, and the Saxons, thus 
left to their own resources, were forced to lay down their arms. Au- 
gustus fled to his kingdom of Poland, abandoning his hereditary domin- 
ions to the Prussians, who did not use their success with extraordinary 
moderation. 

But the victories of their ally only exasperated the rage of the Eng- 
lish people against their rulers ; the king was forced to yield to the 
storm, and dismiss his ministers. William Pitt (afterward earl of 
Chatham), the most popular man in the kingdom, was appointed head 
of the new administration, though the duke of Devonshire was nomi- 
nally premier ; a spirit of confidence was spread abroad, and abundant 
supplies voted for the war. Unfortunately, as a concession to popular 
clamor, the unhappy Byng, whose Avorst fault appears to have been an 
error' of judgment and the dread of the fate of Admiral Matthews,* was 
brought to trial, found guilty of a breach of the articles of war, and sen- 
tenced to death. Great exertions were made to save the life of the 
unhappy admiral, but all in vain ; he was ordered to be shot on board 
the Monarque, and he met his fate with, an intrepidity which efl^ectually 
clears his memory from the stain of cowardice (a. d. 1757). In France, 
the attention of the court was engaged by an attempt on the king's life. 
A maniac, named Damien, stabbed Louis with a penknife as he was 
entering his carriage ; the wound was not dangerous, but it was sup- 
posed that the assassin might have accomplices in his treason. Every 
refinement of cruelty that scientific ingenuity could devise was exhaust- 
ed in the tortures of this unhappy wretch, whose manifest lunacy made 
him an object of compassion rather than punishment. 

The danger to which Louis had been exposed did not prevent him 
from making vigorous exertions to continue the war. Two armies 

• See page 606. 



MERCANTILE AND COLONIAL SYSTEM. 615 

Tvere sent into Germany, one destined to invade Hanover, the other to 
join the imperial forces against Prussia. George II., anxious to save 
Hanover, wished to send over a body of British troops for the defence 
of the electorate, but being opposed by the Pitt administration, he 
dismissed his ministers, and tried to form a new cabinet. The 
burst of national indignation at the removal of the popular favorite 
was, however, so great, that Pitt was soon recalled to power, but not 
xmtil he had evinced a desire to make some concession to the royal 
inclinations. 

At the commencement of the campaign, the prospects of the king of 
Prussia were very gloomy ; the Russians were advancing through 
Lithuania, the Swedes threatened him in Pomerania, the united forces 
of the French and imperialists were advancing through Germany, and 
the emperess-queen, Maria Theresa, covered her hereditary dominions 
with four armies, whose united strength amounted to one hundred and 
eighty thousand men. 

Frederic, baffling the Austrians by a series of masterly movements, 
opened a passage into Bohemia, where he was joined by the prince of 
Bevern and Marshal Schwerin, who had defeated the Austrian divisions 
that opposed their progress. Confident in the excellence of his troops 
he resolved to engage without delay, though his enemies were posted 
in a camp strongly fortified by nature (May 6). The memorable battle 
of Prague was vigorously contested, and success continued doubtful until 
the Austrian right wing, advancing too rapidly, was separated from the 
left. Frederic poured his troops through the gap, so that when the 
Austrian right was forced back by the intrepidity of Marshal Schwerin, 
it suddenly found itself surrounded, and fled in confusion. The centre 
and left, thus abandoned, could not resist the successive charges of the 
Prussians, and sought shelter in Prague. Frederic ventured to besiege 
this city, though the numbers of the garrison nearly equalled those of 
his own army ; and his delay before the walls gave the Austrians time 
to recover their courage and recruit their forces. Count Daun began 
soon to menace the Prussian communications ; Frederic sent the prince 
of Bevern to drive him back ; Daun, though his forces were superior, 
retreated before the prince, until he could procure such additional 
strength as to render victory certain. When this was eff'ected, he re- 
sumed the offensive, and Frederic was forced to hasten to the prince's 
assistance. A junction was effected at Kolin, and Frederic marched 
to attack the imperial camp (June 18). The Prussians charged their 
enemies with their usual vigor, but they were unable to force the Aus- 
trian lines, and were finally driven from the field. 

In consequence of this defeat, the Prussians were forced, not only to 
raise the siege of Prague, but to evacuate Bohemia. Nor were the 
arms of Frederic and his allies more successful in other quarters. The 
Russians having defeated General Lehwald, invaded the Prussian do- 
minions on the side of Germany, and committed the most frightful devas- 
tations ; the British and Hanoverian troops, under the duke of Cumber- 
land, were forced to accept the disgraceful convention of Closterseven, 
by which thirty-eight thousand soldiers were reduced to a state of inac- 
tivity ; and the French, thus released from an enemy that might inter- 
rupt their communications, advanced to join the Austrians in the invasion 



616 MODERN HISTORY. 

of Prussia ; finally, an Austrian army, by a rapid march, arrived at the- 
very gates of Berlin, and laid that city under contribution. 

An expedition, planned by Mr. Pitt soon after his restoration to 
power, was defeated by the weakness and indecision of the officers in- 
trusted with its execution. The object of attack was the French port 
and arsenal of Rochefort, which would have fallen an easy prey, had it 
been assailed when first the fleet arrived before the place. But the 
time which ought to have been employed in action was wasted in de- 
liberations, and the expedition returned ingloriously home. The con- 
duct of British affairs in America was equally disastrous ; an armament 
■was sent against Louisbourg, but it returned without having made any 
eflbrt to effect its object ; while the French, under the marquis de Mont- 
cahii, captured the strong fort William Henry, the bulwark of our nor- 
thern frontier, without meeting the slightest interruption from a British 
force posted in its immediate neighborhood. 

These disasters would have proved fatal to the new ministry, had 
it not been generally understood that the officers, whose cowardice or 
incapacity had led to such inglorious results, were the choice of their 
predecessors, and were maintained in their posts by court favor. This 
conviction proved favorable to Mr. Pitt, the king was compelled to grant 
full powers to his ministers, and the secret intrigues by which the cab- 
inet was controlled were rendered powerless for a season. An unex- 
pected change of fortune on the continent brightened the prospects of 
the British and Prussians toward the close of the year. Frederic, 
though his dominions were invaded by three hostile armies, never lost 
courage ; though his army did not exceed half the number of his ene- 
mies, he resolved to give battle to the united forces of the French and 
Austrians (Nov. 5). Frederic, by a series of judicious movements, led 
his enemies to believe that he dreaded an engagement ; confident of 
victory, they hasted to force him to action, near the village of Rosbach. 
They advanced so precipitately, that their lines were thrown into dis- 
order ; and before they could remedy the error, they were broken by 
the headlong charge of the Prussian horse. Every effort made by 
generals of the combined army to retrieve the fortunes of the day was 
anticipated by the genius of Frederic ; they were forced to retreat in 
great confusion, having lost nearly nine thousand men in killed, wound- 
ed, and prisoners, while the total loss of the Prussians did not exceed 
five hundred. 

From this field Frederic hasted to another scarcely less glorious. 
The Austrians and Hungarians, under Prince Charles of Lorraine, 
entered Silesia, captured the important fortress of Schweidnitz, drove 
the prince of Bevern from his intrenchments, and made themselves 
masters of the greater part of the province. Frederic, by a rapid march, 
formed a junction with the relics of the prince of Bevern's army, and thus 
reinforced, attacked the Austrians at Lissa (Dec. 5). Pretending to 
direct all his force against the Austrian right, Frederic suddenly poured 
his chief strength against their left wing, which was speedily broken ; 
Prince Charles attempted to restore the courage of his flying soldiers 
by sending reinforcements iVom the centre and right, but these fresh 
troops were unable to form under the heavy fire of the Prussians, and 
thus the Austrian battalions were defeated one after another. Night 



MERCANTILE AND COLONIAL SYSTEM. 617 

alone prevented the total ruin of the vanquished army. About five 
thousand men were killed and wounded on each side ; but within a 
week after the battle the Prussians pressing vigorously the pursuit of 
their retiring foes, captured twenty thousand prisoners, three thousand 
wagons, and two hundred pieces of cannon. The Austrians abandoned 
all Silesia except the town of Schweidnitz, which surrendered in the 
following spring. The eftects of the victories of Rosbach and Lissa 
were felt throughout Europe ; the French had flagrantly violated the 
convention of Closterseven ; it was now disavowed by the British and 
Hanoverians (a. d. 1758). Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick was chosen 
by George II. to command his electoral forces, and this able general in 
a short time not only recovered Hanover, but drove his adversaries 
across the Rhine. Mr. Pitt changed his policy, and consented to rein- 
force Prince Ferdinand with a body of British troops, while liberal sup- 
plies were voted to subsidize the German princes. The campaign was 
honorable to Prince Ferdinand's abilities, but its most important result 
was the diversion it made in favor of the king of Prussia, by compelling 
the French to employ their chief force on the Rhine. 

Frederic in this campaign endured several vicissitudes of fortune. 
Having taken Schweidnitz, he unexpectedly entered Moravia, which 
had hitherto escaped from the ravages of war, laid that fine province 
under contribution, and even menaced Vienna. He failed, however, 
at the siege of Olmutz, but he effected a retreat as honorable as a vic- 
tory, and suddenly directed his march against the Russians, whose rav- 
ages in Brandenburgh were shocking to humanity. He gained a com- 
plete victory over the invaders at Zomdorff", and then, without resting a 
moment, hasted to relieve his brother Henry, who was almost surrounded 
with enemies in Saxony. Count Daun, the commander of the impe- 
rialists, was a worthy rival of Frederic ; he surprised and routed the 
Prussian right wing at Hochkirchen ; but the judicious measures of the 
king saved the rest of his army, and Daun was unable to pursue his 
advantages. Indeed so little was Frederic affected by the reverse, that 
he drove the Austrians a second time from Silesia, and then returning, 
compelled Daun to raise the sieges, of Dresden and Leipsic, and even 
retreat into Bohemia. 

The enterprising spirit of Mr. Pitt, freed from the trammels which 
secret intrigues had formed, diffused itself through the British empire, 
and particularly animated the officers of the army and navy. Several 
French ships-of-war were captured by the British ; an armament, 
destined for North America, was dispersed and driven on shore by Sir 
Edward Hawke, whose fleet rode triumphant in the channel. From 
apathy and despair the nation passed at once to the opposite extreme 
of overweening confidence. It was resolved to carry the war into 
France itself, and two successive expeditions were sent against the 
French coast. As might reasonably have been anticipated, these 
armaments produced no important result ; the only consequence arising 
from such a waste of blood and treasure, was the destruction of Cher- 
bourg, a triumph dearly purchased by the subsequent loss of some of 
the best of the troops in the hurried embarkation. 

But in North America, where the British arms had been tarnished 
by delay, disaster, and disgrace, the removal of the earl of Loudon- 



618 MODERN HISTORY. 

from the command, led to a complete change in the fortune of the war. 
His successor, General Abcrcrombie, planned three simultaneous ex- 
pedition, two of which produced triumphant results. General Amherst 
laid siege to Louisbouvg, and aided by the talents of Brigadier Wolfe, 
■who was fast rising into eminence, forced that important garrison to 
surrender. This was followed by the entire reduction of the island of 
Cape Breton, and the inferior stations which the French occupied in 
the gulf of St. Lawrence. Brigadier Forbes was sent against Fort du 
Quesne, which the French abandoned at his approach, and fled down 
the Mississippi. Abercrombie marched in person against Ticonderoga, 
which he found better fortified than he had anticipated, and after a 
useless manifestation of desperate valor, he Was forced to retire with 
considerable loss. The French were, at the same time, deprived of all 
their settlements on the coast of Africa ; but the count de Lally not only 
preserved their East Indian possessions, but wrested from the English, 
Fort St. David and Cuddalore. 

Great anxiety was felt at the opening of the next campaign (a. d. 
1759). Early in the year, the Prussians destroyed the Russian maga- 
zines in Poland, laid Bohemia under contribution, and reduced the 
imperial armies to inactivity. But Prince Ferdinand was unable to 
prevent the French from sending succors to the Austrians ; and his 
ill-success once more exposed Hanover to an invasion. Had Ferdinand 
wavered, the British and Hanoverians might have been forced to a 
second convention as disgraceful as Closterseven, but his courage rose 
with the crisis, he engaged the French at Minden, and gained a complete 
victory. Minden, indeed, would have been as illustrious and decisive a 
battle as Blenheim, but for the unaccountable conduct of Lord George 
Sackville, who commanded the cavalry, and either misunderstood or 
disobeyed the order to charge the discomfited French. There had been 
some previous disputes between the prince and Lord George ; they threw 
the blame mutually on each other, but which ever was in fault, it is 
certain that on this occasion the best opportunity that could have been 
desired for humbling the power of France was irretrievably lost. 

The victory of the British, at Minden, Avas more than counter- 
balanced by the defeat of the Prussians by the united forces of Austria 
and Russia, at CunersdorfF. But the heroic Frederic soon retrieved 
this disaster, and he would probably have triumphed in his turn, had 
he not exposed a large division of his troops in the defiles of Bohemia, 
wlaich was surrounded and taken by Count Daun. Still the only per- 
manent acquisition that the Austrians made was Dresden, for Frederic's 
vigor and rapidity of movement rendered even their victories fruitless. 

This indecisive campaign greatly diminished the ardor of the English 
for their ally, the king of Prussia, while their victories in North America 
and the West Indies, directed their attention to their colonial interests. 
Immediately after the conquest of Louisbourg, which was justly con- 
sidered the key of Canada, an expedition was planned against Quebec. 
The colonists were prepared to submit to a change of masters by the 
politic protection granted to the French settlers in Gaudaloupe, which 
had been subdued early in the year (a. d. 1758) ; and by the guarantee 
given to the inhabitants for the enjoyment of religious freedom. When 
General Wolfe, therefore, proceeded up the St. Lawrence, he did not 



MERCANTILE AND COLONIAL SYSTEM, 619 

encounter any serious opposition from the Canadians, who seemed to 
view the struggle with indifference. While Wolfe advanced toward 
Quebec, General Amherst conquered Ticonderoga and Crown Point, 
and Sir William Johnson gained possession of the important fortress of 
Niagara. But Amherst, as had been originally intended, was unable to 
form a junction with General Wolfe, who was thus employed in a 
hazardous enterprise, with very inadequate means. Though he almost 
despaired of success, Wolfe resolved to persevere ; he adopted the dar- 
ing plan of landing at night under the Heights of Abraham, leading his 
men up the steep, and securing this position, which commanded the 
town. The stream was rapid, the landing-place narrow, and the pre- 
cipices formidable even by day, but the soldiers, animated by their 
heroic commander, triumphed over these difficulties ; and when morning 
dawned, the marquis de Montcalm was astonished to learn that the 
British army occupied those heights which he had deemed inaccessible. 
A battle was now inevitable, and both generals prepared for the contest 
with equal courage The battle was brief but fierce ; the scale of 
victory was just beginning to turn in favor of the British, when Wolfe 
fell mortally wounded. This loss only roused the English regiments to 
fresh exertion, their bayonets broke the French lines, and a body of High- 
landers, charging with their broad swords, completed the confusion. 
The French fled in disorder; the intelligence was brought to Wolfe, 
he collected his breath to exclaim, " I die happy !" and instantly expired 
(September 13). 

The marquis de Montcalm fell in the same field ; he was not infe- 
rior to his rival in skill and bravery, nor did he meet death with less 
intrepidity. When told, after the battle, that his wounds were mortal, 
he exclaimed, " So much the better : I shall not live to witness the 
surrender of Quebec." Five days after the battle, that city opened its 
gates to a British garrison, and this was soon followed by the complete 
subjugation of the Canadas, which have ever since remained subject to 
the crown of Great Britain". 

The success of the English in the East Indies was scarcely less 
decisive than in America. Lally, the French general, possessed more 
courage than prudence ; he engaged in enterprises beyond his means, 
and especially wasted his limited resources in a vain attack on Madras. 
Colonel Coote, the commander of the English forces, was inferior to 
his adversaries in numerical strength, but he enjoyed ampler pecuniary 
resources, and was far superior to Lally, both as a general and a state- 
man. Coote and Lally came to an engagement at Wandewash (Jan. 21, 
1760), in which the French were completely overthrown, and their 
influence in the Caniatic destroyed. During the campaign. Admiral 
Pococke defeated a French fleet off the coast of Ceylon ; the English, 
in consequence, became masters of the Indian seas, and began to form 
reasonable expectations of driving their rivals from Hindustan. A Dutch 
armament arrived in Bengal, under suspicious circumstances, but Clive 
ordered that it should be immediately attacked by land and sea ;* the 

* Chve was engaged in a rubber of whist, when an express from Colonel Forde 
brought him intelligence of the advance of the Dutch. He replied by the follow- 
ing pencil-note, on a slip of paper torn from the colonel's letter : " Dear Forde— 
Fight them immediately, and I'll send you an order of council to-morrow." 



MODERN HISTORY. 

Dutch were forced to surrender, and ample apologies were made by the 
authorities of Holland for this infraction of treaties. 

The French court threatened to take revenge for the destruction of 
Cherbourg, by invading Great Britain and Ireland ; but the ports were 
so strictly blockaded by the English squadrons, that no vessel could 
venture to appear in the channel. Admiral Boscawen pursued a squad- 
ron from Toulon, that tried to slip unnoticed through the straits of 
Gibraltar, overtook it off Cape Lagos, on the coast of Portugal (August 
18), destroyed two ships-of-the-line, and captured two more. A still 
more important triumph was obtained by Sir Edward Hawke, between 
Belleisle and Quiberon (November 20). Conflans, the French admiral, 
taking advantage of the gales that drove the blockading squadrons off 
the coast, put to sea, but was soon overtaken by Hawke. Conflans, 
unwilling to hazard a battle, sought shelter among the rocks and shallows 
of his own coast. Hawke unhesitatingly encountered the perils of a 
stormy sea and a lee shore ; he gained a decisive victory, destroying 
four ships-of-the-line, and compelling another to strike her colors. A 
tempestuous night alone saved the French fleet from destruction. 
Though this victory delivered the English from all fears of the invasion, 
some alarm was excited by the enterprises of Commodore Thurot, who 
sailed from Dunkirk with five frigates, and hovered round the coasts 
of North Britain. Having failed to make any impression on Scotland, 
he entered the Irish sea, and landing at Carrickfergus, stormed and 
pillaged that town.* Having heard the news of Conflans' defeat, he 
steered homeward, but was swiftly pursued by a squadron imder Com- 
modore Elliot, and overtaken near the Isle of Man (February 28, 1760). 
After a fierce engagement, Thurot was killed, and all his vessels forced 
to surrender. 

Vigorous preparations were made by all parties for the maintenance 
of the war in Germany, although the people of England had become 
weary of continental connexions, and the French finances had fallen 
into a state of lamentable disorder (a. d. 1760). The conduct of the 
people of France to their sovereign was, indeed, truly generous ; the 
principal nobility and gentry sent their plate to the treasury to be 
coined for the public service ; an army of nearly one hundred thousand 
men was assembled in Westphalia, under the duke de Broglio, while 
an inferior army was formed upon the Rhine, under Count St. Germain. 
Prince Ferdinand could not have coped with such an overwhelming 
force, had not the French generals quarrelled with each other. Several 
battles were fought, but they were all more or less indecisive ; and 
rarely has there been a campaign in which such numerous and well- 
appointed armies were opposed that produced so few memorable 
events. 

The king of Prussia resolved to act on the defensive in Saxony, 
while his brother Henry opposed the Russians and Austrians in Silesia. 

• An interesting example of humanity softened the horrors of war during the 
attack on Carrickfergus. While the French and the garrison were engaged in 
the streets, a beautiful child, unconscious of its danger, ran between both parties. 
A French grenadier, moved with compassion, threw down his musket, rushed inta 
the midst of the fire, took up the child, and having placed it in safety, returned tO' 
his companions, who with loud shouts applauded the heroic deed. 



MERCANTILE AND COLONIAL SYSTEM. 621 

But his plans were deranged by the enterprise of Marshal Laudohn, 
who surrounded the Prussian general, Fouquet, slew three thousand 
of his army, and compelled the remainder to surrender at discretion. 
Frederic attempted to retrieve his aflairs by a sudden advance on Dres- 
den, but he failed to capture the city ; his brother, Prince Henry, was 
more fortunate in raising the siege of Breslau, which Laudohn had in- 
vested after his victory. But Frederic's ruin seemed unavoidable, as 
the Russians were advancing with overwhelming forces, and he was 
himself surrounded by three Austrian armies at Lignitz. Count Daun 
marched to storm the Prussian camp, in full confidence of victory ; but, 
to his astonishment, he found it deserted, Frederic having marched that 
very night to meet the army of Marshal Laudohn, who was eagerly 
pressing forward to share, as he fondly believed, in assured victory. 
The heights of PfafFendorfF, judiciously protected by a formidable array 
of artillery, prevented Daun from marching to the assistance of his 
colleague ; Laudohn was completely defeated, and the Austrian grand 
army driven from Silesia. But this victory did not prevent the success 
of the enemy in other quarters ; the Russians, being joined by a con- 
siderable body of Austrians, under G'eneral Lascy, pushed forward 
through Brandenburgh, and made themselves masters of Berlin. They 
levied a heavy contribution on the city, and destroyed its arsenals, foun- 
dries, and public works. 

The Prussians were equally unfortunate in Saxony, but Frederic 
resolved to run every risk to recover a country that had hitherto sup- 
plied the chief support to his armies. Daun, equally convinced of the 
importance of Saxony, protected the electorate with a force of seventy 
thousand men, advantageously posted in a fortified camp, near Torgau. 
Frederic, with only fifty thousand men, resolved to attack the Austrians 
in their intrenchments, and to stake his life and crown on the hazard 
of the engagement (November 3). The battle was furious, but the ardor 
of the Prussians, who felt that they fought for the very existence of 
their country, was irresistible. Dunn was borne from the field severely 
wounded ; the Austrians were broken by separate charges, and night 
alone saved them from total ruin. The result of this glorious victory 
was, that Frederic recovered all Saxony except Dresden, and compelled 
the Russians, Austrians, and Swedes, to evacuate his dominions. 

The Canadian war was not terminated by the capture of Quebec ; 
the French had still formidable forces in the country, and they made a 
vigorous effort to recover that city. They were baffled by the intre- 
pidity of General Murray ; and General Amherst soon after having ob- 
tained reinforcements from England, advanced to Montreal, and com- 
pelled the entire French army to capitulate. The savage tribes of 
Indians who had been induced by French gold to attack the British 
settlements, were now severely chastised, and compelled to make the 
most humiliating submissions. 

Not less complete was the success of the English arms in India ; 
Pondicherry and Mahie were reduced by Colonel Coote, the French 
power in the east completely subverted, and the English rendered mas- 
ters of the commerce of the vast peninsula of Hindustan. These im- 
portant acquisitions made the English very impatient of the German 
war ; they complained of the inactivity of the navy, and asserted that 



622 MODERN HISTORY. 

the French islands in the West Indies, more valuable to a commercial 
people than half the German empire, might have been gained with far 
less risk and loss than attended the protection of the useless electorate 
of Hanover. In the midst of these disputes, George II. died suddenly, 
in the seventy-seventh year of his age (October 25). He was succeeded 
by his grandson, George III., a young prince in his twenty-third year, 
■who had hitherto taken no active part in public life. 

The death of George II. produced little change in European politics ; 
but that of the peaceful Spanish monarch, Ferdinand VI. (a. d. 1759), 
led to some important results. His successor, Charles III., was king 
of the Two Sicilies, and by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, it had 
been agreed, that on his accession to the throne of Spain, his former 
kingdom should devolve to Don Philip, duke of Parma and Placentia, 
and that these dutchies should be resigned to the empire. By the me- 
diation of France with Austria, Charles was enabled to procure the 
Neapolitan throne for his third son, Ferdinand, while Philip was per- 
mitted to retain Parma and Placentia. Grateful for such a benefit, 
Charles signed the family compact, which bound the Bourbon princes 
to afford each other mutual assistance, and secretly prepared to join 
France in the war against Great Britain. The haughty conduct of the 
English diplomatists, which was not unjustly offensive to Spani-sh 
pride, greatly contributed to strengthen the resolution of the court of 
Madrid, especially as the naval superiority of the English menaced the 
communications of Spain with her American colonies. 

Negotiations for peace were commenced by the courts of France and 
Great Britain, soon after the accession of George III., but with little 
sincerity on either side (a. d. 1761). Mr. Pitt was firmly resolved to 
humble the house of Bourbon ; the duke de Choiseul, the French min- 
ister, relied on the secret promises of Spanish aid, and thus it was im- 
possible to arrange preliminaries. The war languished in Germany; 
Prince Ferdinand succeeding in protecting Hanover, but he could not 
prevent the French from ravaging Westphalia and East Friesland. The 
king of Prussia, exhausted even by his victories, was forced to act on 
the defensive ; though he lost no battle, he had the mortification to see 
the Russians make themselves masters of Colberg, and the Austrians 
surprise Schweidnitz. The possession of these important places ena- 
bled the Russians to establish their winter-quarters in Pomerania, and 
the Austrians in Silesia. On sea, the honor of the British flag was 
maintained in several actions between single ships and small squad- 
rons. The island of Belleisle, on the coast of France, was captured 
by a British armament, but at a very disproportionate cost of blood and 
treasure. 

This languid campaign seemed to prove that all parties were weary 
of the war, and negotiations were resumed. In their progress, Mr. 
Pitt discovered the intimate connexion that had been formed between 
the courts of Versailles and Madrid ; and he proposed to anticipate the 
hostile designs of the latter by seizing the plate-fleet, laden with the 
treasures of Spanish America. But the colleagues of Mr. Pitt, already 
dissatisfied with his imperious manners, refused to adopt such bold 
measures, and he instantly resigned the seals of office. The kmg, 
anxious to introduce his favorite, the earl of Bute, into the cabinet. 



MERCANTILE AND COLONIAL SYSTEM. 623 

adopted the opinions of the majority of his council, and accepted the 
resignation. Fierce political disputes arose, whose effects were felt 
throughout Europe ; the hopes of the French court were raised, and the 
German allies of Great Britain were greatly dispirited. 

But the new ministry showed no want of alacrity in maintaining the 
honor of the country. One of their earliest measures was a declaration 
of war against Spain, the conduct of the court of Madrid having amply 
justified Mr. Pitt's anticipations of its hostile designs (a. d. 1762). 
The superiority of the British navy over the combined fleets of France 
and Spain, hindered these powers from making any attempt at colonial 
conquests ; but they believed themselves equally superior by land, and 
therefore resolved to attack Britain through the side of its ancient ally, 
Portugal. 

Few kingdoms had sunk into such a state of degradation as Portugal 
at this period. Trusting to the protection of England, and enriched 
by the treasures of Brazil, the court of Lisbon reposed in ignorance 
and indolence ; its fortresses were neglected, its army mouldering 
away, its subjects destitute of martial spirit. The earthquake that laid 
Lisbon in ruins was followed by a dangerous conspiracy against the life 
of Joseph, the reigning sovereign. This monarch, less superstitious 
than most Portuguese kings, had banished the Jesuits from his court, 
and had resented with spirit the encroachments of his nobles. Some 
of the dissatisfied Jesuits and nobles formed a plot to murder the king, 
and he was dangerously wounded by assassins while on his road from 
his country-seat to Lisbon. The principal conspirators were arrested 
and punished by cruel deaths ; and all the Jesuits banished from the 
kingdom (a. d. 1759). But the nobles continued discontented; the 
pope and the clergy resented the expulsion of the Jesuits, while the 
superstitious Portuguese seemed ready to renounce their allegiance to 
a sovereign who had incurred the resentment of the church. Such 
was Joseph's situation, when the ministers of France and Spain pre- 
sented a joint demand that he should instantly renounce his alliance 
with Britain, under pain of incurring their resentment, and allowing 
him only four days to deliberate on his answer. Joseph at once returned 
a spirited refusal to such an insolent memorial, and the Spanish army 
crossed the frontiers. An auxiliary British force of eight thousand men 
was sent to Portugal, together with a large supply of arms and ammu- 
nition. Joseph intrusted the command of his army to the count 
de la Lippe, who had already distinguished himself in Germany. The 
skill of this commander, and the valor of the British officers, compelled 
the Spaniards to evacuate the kingdom with loss and disgrace, before 
the close of the campaign. 

Ihe French hoped that the invasion of Portugal would facilitate the 
progress of their arms in Germany ; but Prince Ferdinand, and the mar- 
quis of Granby, not only protected Hanover, but recovered the greater 
part of Hesse. An unexpected event delivered the king of Prussia from 
the ruin that seemed to threaten him at the close of the last campaign. 
Elizabeth, emperess of Russia, died, and was succeeded by her nephew, 
Peter HI., who entertained a romantic admiration of Frederic. The 
new emperor not only put an end to hostilities, but entered into alliance 
with the Prussian monarch ; and Europe saw with astonishment the 



624 MODERN HISTORY. 

unprecedented spectacle of an army marching off from its former allies 
to the camp of its enemies. Sweden followed the example of Russia 
in concluding peace ; and Frederic, taking advantage of these favorable 
circumstances, recovered Schweidnitz and drove the Austrians from Si- 
lesia. 

A new revolution in Russia compelled the Prussian king to halt in 
his victorious career. The reforms of Peter III. had given offence to 
a great body of his subjects ; he was dethroned by his wife, who 
usurped the throne, with the title of Catherine II. Peter died in prison 
a few days after his deposition, but it has not been ascertained whether 
he was the victim of disease or violence. Catherine did not renew the 
war against Prussia, as had been at first expected, but she withdrew 
her forces, and resolved to observe a strict neutrality. Frederic's vic- 
tories had in the meantime, so seriously alarmed the Austrians, that 
they consented to a cessation of hostilities for Silesia and Saxony. 
This impolitic truce laid Bohemia open to Frederic : one division of his 
army advanced to the very gates of Prague and destroyed a valuable 
magazine ; another laid the greater part of Egra in ashes, while de- 
tachments ravaged Franconia, and even Suabia. The princes of the 
empire hasted to conclude treaties of neutrality, and the war was left 
to be decided by the powers of Prussia and Austria, between wliich 
the contest had begun. 

In the meantime the English conquered the chief islands that the 
French still retained in the West Indies, Martinique, St. Lucie, Gre- 
nada, and St. Vincent ; while the Spaniards suffered the more severe 
loss of Havana, the capital of Cuba, and the large fleet that lay in 
its harbor. Nor was this the least alarming of the consequences that 
resulted to the court of Madrid from its unwise interference ; an arma- 
ment from Madras, under the command of Admiral Cornish and General 
Draper, captured Manilla, and the fall of this city involved the fate of 
the whole range of the Philippine islands. 

France and Spain, heartily tired of a war which threatened ruin to 
the colonies of both, became desirous of peace, and they found the earl 
of Bute, who now ruled the British cabinet, equally anxious to termi- 
nate the war. Indeed, so anxious was that minister to avoid a contin- 
uance of hostilities, that he not only stopped the career of colonial 
conquest, but consented to sacrifice several acquisitions that Britain had 
already made. Still the British nation gained by the war the whole of 
Canada and part of Louisiana, the chief settlements on the western 
coasts of Africa, and a decided superiority in India ; had the war lasted 
another year, had even the fair claims of Britain's position been sup- 
ported by her negotiators, these gains would have been more extensive 
and more secure. Contrary to all expectation, the preliminaries were 
sanctioned by a majority of the British parliament, and soon after the 
definite treaty was signed at Paris (Feb. 10, 1763). The king of 
Prussia and the emperess of Austria, deserted by their respective allies, 
agreed to a reconciliation about the same time, on the basis of a resti- 
tution of conquests and an oblivion of injuries. 

The result of the continental war was, that Prussia and Austria be- 
came the principal European powers, France lost her political pre- 
eminence when united to the empire, and England abandoned her ia- 



MERCANTILE AND COLONIAL SYSTEM. 



6^^ 



fluence in the European system, maintaining an intimate relation only 
with Portugal and Holland. Britain, by the colonial war, obtained com- 
plete maritime supremacy ; she commanded the entire commerce of 
North America and Hindustan, and had a decided superiority in the 
West Indian trade. But during the seven years' war a question arose 
which led to very important discussions ; France, unable to maintain a 
commercial intercourse with her colonies, opened the trade to neutral 
powers ; England declared this traffic illegal, and relying on her naval 
superiority, seized neutral vessels and neutral property bound to hostile 
ports. The return of peace put an end to the dispute for a season, but 
it became the subject of angry controversy in every future war. The 
internal condition of England improved rapidly during the contest by 
the extension of the funding system ; the pecuniary affairs of the gov- 
ernment became intimately connected with those of the nation ; by far 
the greater part of the loans required for the war was raised at home, 
so the increase of the national debt more closely united the rulers and 
the people in the bonds of a common interest. This altered state of 
things scarcely excited notice, though it was the chief source of the 
permanence and stability displayed by the British government when 
revolutionary movements threatened to subvert the other dynasties of 
Europe. 

4a W 



626 MODERN HISTORY. 



CHAPTER IX. 
THE AGE OF REVOLUTIONS. 

Section I. — Change in the Relations of the Catholic Powers to the Holy See. 
Dismemberment of Poland. 

No country had suffered so severely as France during the late war ; 
the finances had long been in confusion, and the profligate expenditure 
of a demoralized court aggravated the indignation produced by national 
distress. Louis XV., though not destitute of abilities, was the slave 
of his sensual appetites ; ruled by his mistresses, and other unworthy fa- 
vorites, he connived at glaring abuses, and sanctioned the grossest acts 
of tyranny and rapacity. A spirit of opposition spread through the 
kingdom, several of the parliaments refused to register the edicts for the 
continuance of war-taxes, and others remonstrated in a tone of censure 
to which the French monarchs had been longimaccustomed. This un- 
usual liberty of the parliaments had been in some degree fostered by 
the court itself ; the king permitted these bodies to set bounds to eccle- 
siastical tyranny, and to suppress the order of the Jesuits in France 
(a. d. 1762) ; and their spirit was further increased by the intrigues of 
the duke de Choiseul, who persuaded the king to allow the Parisian 
parliament to pass sentence on Lally, the unfortunate commander of 
the French in India, whose only crime was failure under circumstances 
that rendered success impossible. 

Popular discontent was at the same time rapidly spreading in Spain, 
where the reforms of the prime minister, Squillace, offended the obsti- 
nate prejudices of an ignorant and bigoted nation. Charles III. yielded 
to the clamors of his subjects and dismissed the minister, but he firmly 
resolved to take vengeance on the Jesuits, who were supposed to have 
secretly instigated the insurrection. A reforming minister in Portugal 
maintained his post in spite of opposition ; the marquis of Pombal 
ruled the land with iron sway, and confident in the rectitude of his in- 
tentions, scorned all opposition. But though he removed all impedi- 
ments, including the higher order of nobility and the society of Jesuits, 
his reforms took no root in the land, and the institutions which he es- 
tablished by force perished when that force was taken away. 

The enmity of Pombal and Choiseul to the Jesuits was felt in the 
Spanish cabinet ; the king was indignant at their share in the late dis- 
turbances, his minister. Count d'Aranda, regarded the order as hostile 
to all existing governments. Both took their measures with profound 
secresy (a. d. 1767). The houses of the Jesuits in Madrid were sur- 
rounded at night, and the inmates commanded to set out instantly for 



THE AGE OF REVOLUTIONS. 627 

the coast. An edict was then issued for the banishment of the regu- 
lars of that community from Spain and its colonies, and the confiscation 
of their temporalities. The Jesuits in Mexico and Peru were similarly- 
seized ; and in Paraguay, where they had established an almost inde- 
pendent empire, they were suddenly deposed and transported to Europe. 
The king of Naples and the duke of Parma followed the example of 
the court of Spain, in spite of the urgent remonstrances of Pope Clem- 
ent XIII. ; they also placed new restrictions on the pontiff's jurisdic- 
tion in their states, and when Clement made a vigorous effort to sup- 
port the ancient privileges of the holy see, he found himself opposed 
to all the Italian powers, except the king of Sardinia, to the remon- 
strances of Spain and Portugal, and the active hostility of France. 

While these disputes between the catholic powers and the head of 
their church proved that the supremacy of the papacy no longer exist- 
ed, but in name, the struggles of a small insular people to maintain 
their national independence excited general sympathy. The Genoese 
transferred their nominal claims over the island of Corsica to the 
crown of France, and Choiseul sent a large army to occupy this new 
acquisition. But the Corsicans, justly enraged at the transfer of their 
allegiance without the formality of asking their consent, boldly flew to 
arms, and under the command of the heroic Paoli, prepared for an ob- 
stinate resistance. Had the British ministry interfered, the result of 
the contest would have been very doubtful ; but Paoli could not resist 
the entire force of France, he was driven by the vast superiority of 
numbers from post to post, until every strong place had yielded to the 
invaders, when he cut his way through the enemy, and embarked for 
Leghorn (a. d. 1769). The island submitted to Louis, but many of the 
Corsicans long continued to harass the French by a guerilla war in 
their mountain fastnesses. 

Choiseul, finding his influence with Louis XV. on the decline, sought 
to strengthen it by cementing the alliance between the courts of Paris 
and Vienna. He effected a marriage between the king's grandson and 
heir and Marie Antoinette, daughter of the emperess-dowager. These 
ill-omened nuptials were celebrated with extraordinary splendor during 
a season of great public distress : during the festivities a fatal accident 
cast a shade of melancholy over all parties ; some confusion arose in 
the crowd of spectators, and nearly two hundred persons lost their lives 
in the tumult. Choiseul involved the king in a quarrel with the parlia- 
ments, which precipitated the fall of that able minister ; the king re- 
luctantly consented to abandon the new forms of jurisdiction which 
were proposed, and allow the old courts to resume their functions. 
This unfortunate and dishonorable proceeding completed the abasement 
of France ; it was notorious that the duke de Choiseul owed his dis- 
grace to the intrigues of the king's profligate mistress ;* and whatever 
may have been the faults of that minister, he would certainly never 
have permitted the influence of his country to sink so low as it did 
during the administration of his successor, the duke d'Aguillon. 

While France was thus declining, the Russian empire was rapidly 
acquiring a preponderating influence in eastern Europe. The eraperess 

* Madame du Barri. She was subsequently one of the victims of the French 
revolution. 



#* 



eS^ MODERN HISTORY. 

Catherine procured the throne of Poland for one of her favorites, Stan- 
islaus Augustus (a. d. 1765), having sent a Russian army to overawe 
the diet, when it assembled to choose a sovereign. Frederic of Prus- 
sia, anxious to remedy the calamities which the seven years' war had 
brought upon his country, did not venture to oppose the schemes of the 
ambitious czarina ; on the contrary, he was gained over by some com- 
mercial concessions to aid her projects with all his influence. The 
new sovereign of Poland, opposed by a licentious aristocracy and a big- 
oted people, was unable to remedy the disorders of the state, or control 
the events that soon furnished a pretext for the interference of his pow-' 
erful neighbors. Poland had long been agitated by religious disputes ; 
the oppressions of the catholics compelled the dissidents, as the dis- 
senting sects were called, to seek foreigTi protection ; those of the 
Greek church appealed to the emperess of Russia, while the Lutherans 
sought aid from the kings of Prussia and Denmark. Catherine, with 
great promptitude, sent an array to enforce the claims of the dissidents, 
and paying little regard to the remonstrances of Stanislaus, acted as if 
Poland had been one of her own provinces. The catholic lords formed 
a confederacy to maintain the purity of their religion, and the indepen- 
dence of their country, but they were unable to compete with the over- 
whelming forces of Russia ; Cracow, where they attempted to make a 
stand, was taken by storm, the fugitives were pursued beyond the Turk- 
ish frontiers, and the country that had afforded them refuge was cruelly 
devastated. 

Mustapha III. was more peacefully inclined than most of the sultans 
that have filled the throne of Constantinople, but he felt that the power 
which Russia was acquiring in Poland would be dangerous to the se- 
curity of his northern provinces ; he was indignant at the violation of 
his dominions, and he was secretly instigated by the French court. 
The king of Prussia vainly remonstrated with the sultan ;* Mustapha 
had formed an extravagant estimate of his military resources, and he is 
said to have been animated by a personal dislike of Catherine. The 
war was commenced by the Turks (a. d. 1769) ; their irregular troops 
entered southern Russia, and committed the most frightful ravages ; 
but when they hazarded a regular engagement at Choczim, they suffered 
a severe defeat. Catherine prepared to strike a decisive blow against 
the Turkish power ; she sent a fleet from the Baltic round to the Med- 
iterranean, to support an insurrection which her emissaries had exci- 
ted in Southern Greece (a. d. 1770). The insurgents, aided by a Rus- 
sian force, at first gained some advantages, but on the first reverse they 
were abandoned by their allies to the brutal retaliations of their Turkish 
masters. Soon after, the Turkish fleet of fifteen ships-of-the-line was 
burned by a Russian squadron in the bay of Chesme, with the excep- 
tion of a single vessel that was captured. This was followed by the 
defeat of the grand Ottoman army near the Pruth, the capture of Ben- 
der, Akerman, and Ismail, and the occupation of the entire province of 
Bessarabia. 

Stanislaus was forced to join in the war against the Turks, though 
he knew that one of the chief causes of their taking up arms was to 

• Frederic, who loved to indulge in sarcasm, said that a war between the Rus- 
sians and the Turks would be a contest between the one-eyed and the blind. 



^ 



THE AGE OF REVOLUTIONS. 629 

defend the independence of Poland. But Joseph, who had succeeded 
his father in the German empire (a. d. 1765), began to dread the dan- 
gerous ambition of Russia ; and even his motlier, Maria Theresa, began 
to court the friendship of her old rival, Frederic, as a counterpoise to 
the governing power of the czarina. It was obviously the interest of 
the northern states, Denmark and Sweden, to adopt a similar course 
of policy ; but the governments of both countries were too deeply en- 
gaged by their domestic affairs to attend to the state of their foreign, 
relations. 

Frederick V., one of the best monarchs that ever occupied the throne 
of Denmark, was succeeded by Christian V., a prince of weak intellect 
and dissipated habits (a. d. 1766). Soon after hi?, accession, Christian 
married Caroline Matilda, one of the sisters of the queen of England, 
and the engaging manners of this princess won her the favor of the 
Danish king and people. To maintain her ascendency over the mind 
of her husband, Caroline favored the ambition of Struensee, a foreign 
adventurer, who was raised to the office of prime minister, or rather, 
sole ruler of Denmark. Struensee's administration was vigorous and 
useful, but his haughtiness gave great offence to the Danish nobles ; a 
conspiracy was formed against him, of which the king's step-mother and 
her son Frederic were the principal instigators, and it was resolved to 
involve the unfortunate queen Caroline in his fate. Struensee and his 
friend Brandt were arrested at midnight, by virtue of an order which 
had been extorted from the imbecile Christian ; they were insulted with 
the mockery of a trial, and put to a cruel death. The queen was also 
arrested and sent a prisoner to Cronenberg castle ; dread of British ven- 
geance, however, saved her from personal violence. She was permitted 
to retire to Hanover, where the remainder of her life was spent in com- 
parative obscurity. The queen dowager, having removed her rival, 
usurped the royal authority ; a young nobleman named BernstorfF was 
appointed prime minister, and the court of Copenhagen became remark- 
able for its subserviency to that of St. Petersburgh. 

Gustavus III., a young prince -'of great vigor and sagacity, ascended 
the Swedish throne on the death of his father, Adolphus Frederic (a. d. 
1771) ; he had early formed a project for removing the restrictions 
which the senate had imposed on the royal authority after the death of 
Charles XII., and his efforts were seconded by the bulk of the nation, 
long weary of aristocratic tyranny. The senate, suddenly surrounded 
by armed bands, was intimidated into assenting to the instrument of 
government which Gustavus had prepared, and a revolution which 
changed Sweden from one of the most limited into one of the most ab- 
solute monarchies of Europe, was effected without spilling a drop of 
blood. Dread of a counter-revolution, and the necessity of providing 
some remedy for the distress which prevailed in Sweden, prevented 
Gustavus from interfering in the affairs of Poland, a country that had 
often occupied the anxious cares of his predecessors. 

Stanislaus was sincerely anxious to confer the blessings of tranquil- 
lity and good government on Poland ; but all his judicious measures 
were frustrated by the Polish nobles, who clung to their tyrannous and 
absurd privileges, though they were known to be as pernicious to them- 
selves as they were ruinous to the country. An attempt on the personal 



^,630 MODERN HISTORY. 

liberty of the unhappy king gave Catherine a pretext for sending a Rus- 
sian army into the country, and suggested to the Prussian king a scheme 
for the (iismembernieat of Pohmd. A treaty was concluded between 
Austria, Russia, and Prussia, for dividing the Polish provinces between 
them. Their armies instantly occupied their several shares ; and the 
diet, overawed by the united forces of the three powers, was forced to 
acquiesce in an arrangement that left Poland a merely nominal exist- 
ence (a. n. 1773). The unhappy Stanislaus, reproached for calamities 
which it was not in his power to avert, could not avoid retorting on his 
accusers, and attributing the national calamities to the bigotry, the fac- 
tious spirit, and the incessant contentions, of the turbulent nobles. By 
the intervention of Prussia, a treaty was subsequently concluded be- 
tween Russia and Turkey, by which the emperess gained several im- 
portant fortresses, a large acquisition of territory, and permission for her 
subjects to navigate the Black sea (a. d. 1774). Great as these gains 
were, they were less valuable in themselves than as means for obtain- 
ing other objects of Catherine's secret ambition. 

Degraded as Louis XV. was, he could not receive, without emotion, 
intelligence of events which showed the low ebb to which the influence 
of France was reduced. When informed of the partition of Poland, he 
could not refrain from exclaiming, " Had Choiseul been still in the cabi- 
net, this disgraceful transaction might have been averted." The duke 
d'Aguillon merited this reproach, but he resolved to atone for his negli- 
gence by gratifying the national hatred against the Jesuits, though he 
had long been suspected of secretly favoring that order. The death of 
Clement XIII. fa\'ored his projects (a. d. 1769). Ganganelli, who suc- 
ceeded to the papacy under the title of Clement XIV., felt that the time 
was for ever gone by when the extravagant claims of the pontifls could 
be maintained, and he therefore souglit a reconciliation with the catho- 
lic sovereigns by making reasonable concessions. After a long but not 
unjustifiable delay, he issued a bull suppressing the order of Jesuits ; and 
most of the catholic prelates, who had long been jealous of that fraterni- 
ty, eagerly enforced the papal edict (a. d. 1773). Little opposition was 
made by the Jesuits to this decree, but the insurrection in Sicily and 
the deaths of Louis XV. and Pope Ganganelli (a. d. 1774) were at- 
tributed to their secret practices, though not a shadow of proof could be 
adduced to support such severe accusations. Indeed, it is notorious 
that Louis died of small-pox, and Ganganelli of a constitutional disease 
to which he had long been a martjT. Louis XVI., of whom his sub- 
jects had long been taught to form the most favorable expectations, as- 
cended the throne of France : Angelo Braschi was elected to the papacy, 
under the title of Pius VI., by the influence of the more bigoted cardi- 
nals, who believed that he would be a more zealous supporter of the 
church than his predecessors. 

Section II. — Ilinlory of England from the Peace of Paris to the Commence- 
ment of the American War. 

When the British ministry concluded a separate treaty with France, 
they dissevered their country from its expensive connexion with the 
continent, but at the same time they diminished its influence in Euro- 



THE AGE OF REVOLUTIONS. 631 

pean politics. Extensive colonies, rapidly increasing commerce, and 
improving manufactures, aiForded the nation ample amends for this loss ; 
but a spirit of faction began to appear in the national councils, which 
produced a pernicious influence on the growing prosperity of the nation. 
While there was any reason to apprehend danger from the house of 
Stuart, the Brunswick dynasty was necessarily thrown for support on 
the whigs, for the tories were from principle more or less disposed to 
favor the claims of the exiled house ; but when all fears from the Pre- 
tender had disappeared, the zeal which the tories had ever shown for 
the maintenance of the royal prerogative naturally recommended them 
to royal favor. Personal friendship induced George III. to introduce 
the earl of Bute into his cabinet ; his influence excited the jealousy of 
the whigs, who had long monopolized the favor of the king and the na- 
tioA ; they accused him of an attachment to toryism, of partiality to his 
Scottish countrymen, and of having sacrificed the interests of the nation 
at the peace. Unable or unwilling to face popular clamor, the earl of 
Bute resigned his office, but it was believed he privately retained his in- 
fluence in the cabinet ; and thus no small portion of his unpopularity 
was inherited by his successors. 

John Wilkes, member of parliament for Aylesbury, assailed the min- 
isters with great bitterness in a paper called the North Briton. The for- 
ty-fifth number of this periodical contained a fierce attack on the king's 
speech at the opening of the parliamentary session ; and the ministers, 
forgetting discretion in their rage, issued a general warrant against the 
authors, printers, and publishers of the libel. Wilkes was arrested, but 
was soon liberated, on pleading privilege of parliament. The house of 
commons, in opposition to the legal authorities, voted that privilege of 
parliament did not extend to the case of libel ; but it subsequently joined 
with the lords in voting the illegality of general warrants. Wilkes, in 
the meantime, quitted the country, and not appearing to take his trial, 
was outlawed. So much was the nation engrossed by this dispute be- 
tween the government and an individual, that little attention was paid to 
colonial aff"airs ; but during this period the East India company acquired 
several rich districts in Bengal, and displayed a grasping ambition, 
which threatened the independence of the native powers. 

A more dangerous prospect was opened in the American states. The 
French being removed, and the Indians driven into the backwoods, the 
colonies began to increase rapidly in wealth, and their prosperity sug- 
gested to Mr. Grenville a scheme for making them share in the burden 
of taxation. The late war had been undertaken principally for the se- 
curity of the colonists, they had been almost exclusively the gainers by 
its successful termination, and it was therefore deemed equitable that 
they should pay a portion of the cost. But the Americans were not 
represented in the British parliament, and they, together with a large 
party in Britain, maintained that they could not be constitutionally taxed 
without their own consent. Mr. Grenville, supported by his royal mas- 
ter, disregarded opposition, and an act was passed imposing stamp-duties 
on a multitude of articles (a. d. 1765), 

The dispute seemed to be allayed by a change in the British minis- 
try ; the marquis of Rockingham, much against the king's will, repealed 
the obnoxious Stamp Act ; but he was forced to assert, in strong terms, 



632 MODERN HISTORY. 

the right of the king and parliament to enact laws, binding the colonies in 
all cases whatsoever. The marquis of Rockingham was soon obliged to 
give way to Mr. Pitt, who had been created earl of Chatham ; but the cabi- 
net constructed by this once-popular minister had no principle of union, 
and soon fell to pieces. The appointment of Lord North to the chan- 
cellorship of the exchequer aggravated party animosities (a. d. 1767) ; 
the new minister was suspected of hostility to the American claims, and 
had taken a prominent part against Wilkes. That demagogue returned 
to England ; he was chosen member for the county of Middlesex at the 
general election, after which he surrendered himself to justice, obtained 
the reversal of his outlawry, and was sentenced to imprisonment for the 
libel he had published. When parliament met, it was supposed that 
Wilkes would take his seat for Middlesex, and a crowd assembled to 
escort him to the house ; some rioting occurred, the military were called 
out, and a scuffle ensued, in which some lives were lost. Wilkes stig- 
matized the employment of the soldiers on this occasion in the most 
immeasured terms ; the ministers took advantage of this second libel to 
procure his expulsion from the house of commons, but the electors of 
Middlesex re-elected him without any hesitation. The commons re- 
solved that an expelled member was incapable of sitting in the parlia- 
ment that had passed such a sentence upon him, and issued a writ for a 
new election. Once more Wilkes was unanimously chosen, and once 
more the commons refused to admit him. A new election was held, 
and Wilkes Avas returned by a great majority over Colonel Luttrell, the 
ministerial candidate. The house of commons persevered in its decla- 
ration of Wilkes's incapacity, and resolved that Colonel Luttrell should 
be the sitting member. 

In their anxiety to crush a worthless individual, the ministers had now 
involved themselves in a contest on an important point of constitutional 
law, with all the constituencies of the nation. A fierce opposition was 
raised against them in England, and this not a little encouraged the 
Americans to persevere in their resistance. 

The resignation of the duke of Grafton, who wished to conciliate the 
colonies, the removal of Earl Camden, who disapproved of the decision 
respecting the Middlesex election, and the appointment of Lord North 
as premier, added to the exasperation of parties (a. d. 1770). The im- 
position of a light duty on tea kept alive the dispute with America, while 
the concessions made to the court of Spain, in a dispute respecting the 
Falkland islands, were represented as a deliberate sacrifice of the honor 
of the country. The only beneficial result from these disputes was, the 
indirect license given to the publication of the parliamentary debates, 
which had hitherto been deemed a breach of privilege. The commons 
sent a messenger to arrest some printers and publishers, but the execu- 
tion of their orders was opposed by the civic magistrates, Crosby, Oli- 
ver, and Wilkes. The two former were sent to the Tower ; but Wilkes 
refused to attend, unless permitted to take his seat for Middlesex, and 
the commons gave up the point by adjourning over the day on which 
he had been summoned to appear. Since that time the debates have 
been regularly published in the newspapers. 

The abuses in the government of the dominions of the East India 
company having attracted considerable attention, a law was passed for 



THE AGE OP EEVOLUTIONS. • 633 

bringing the affairs of that commercial association in some degree under 
the control of government ; but to reconcile the company to such inter- 
ference, a loan was granted on favorable terms ; and also permission to 
export teas Avithout payment of duty. A quantity of tea was shipped for 
Boston, and Lord North hoped that the lovsr price of the commodity 
would induce the New Englanders to pay the small duty charged on 
importation ; but when the vessels arrived at Boston, they were boarded 
during the night by a party of the townsmen, and the cargoes thrown 
into the sea. This outrage, followed by other acts of defiance, gave 
such offence in England, that acts were passed for closing the port of 
Boston, and altering the constitution of the colony of Massachusetts 
(a. d. 1774). It was hoped that the other colonies would be warned 
by this example ; but, on the contrary, they encouraged the people of 
Massachusetts in their disobedience, and signed agreements against the 
importation of British merchandise, until the Boston port bill should be 
repealed, and the grievances of the colonies redressed. But though the 
colonists acted firmly, they showed the greatest anxiety for reconcilia- 
tion ; they prepared addresses to the government and their fellow- 
subjects, and they sent a memorial to the king, couched in terms equally 
spirited and respectful. The address to his majesty was not received, 
as it had emanated from an illegal assembly ; and the determination 
evinced by the new parliament, which met in 1775, to support ministe- 
rial measures, defeated all hopes of an accommodation. 

The continental powers, jealous of the maritime and commercial pros- 
perity of England, exulted in the contest thus unwisely provoked. 
Even the moderate king of France, though severely harassed by the 
disordered state of his finances, and the embarrassing disputes which 
had been raised by his grandfather between the court and the parlia- 
ments, seemed disposed to favor the revplted colonies ; several of his 
ministers urged him to offer them support, but the opinion of Turgot, 
the wisest of the French cabinet, prevailed for a season ; he strenuously 
condemned such interference as impolitic and unjust. Spain, involved 
in a disastrous war with the piratical states of Barbary, and in a less 
formidable dispute with Portugal, respecting the boundaries of their 
South American colonies, was slow to engage in fresh hostilities, and 
was resolved to imitate the example of France. The king of Prussia, 
indignant at the desertion of his interests in the peace of 1763, openly 
rejoiced in the embarrassment of the British ministry ; and Catherine 
of Russia exulted in the hope of seeing the naval power most likely to 
oppose her ambitious schemes preparing to destroy what was believed 
to be the secret source of its strength. Undervaluing the power and 
the fortitude of the provincials, the king and his ministers resolved to 
force them into obedience, parliament seconded these views, and the 
great bulk of the people applauded their determination. It is useless 
to conceal that the American war was popular at its commencement. 
The vague notion of dominion over an entire continent flattered Eng- 
lish pride, and the taxes which the ministers demanded, promised some 
alleviation to the public burdens. The colonial revolt was regarded by 
many as a rebellion, not against the British government, but the British 
people, and the contest was generally looked upon in England as an 



634 MODERN HISTORY. 

eftbrt to establish, not the royal authority, but the supremacy of the 
nation. 

Section III. — The American War. 

Blood having once been shed, it was manifest that the dispute be- 
tween Britain and her American colonies could only be decided by the 
sword. Both parties, therefore, prepared for the struggle, but ap- 
parently with some lingering hope of a restoration of peace. Mutual 
forbearance was exhibited by the hostile generals, when the English 
were compelled to evacuate Boston ; Howe, the British commander, 
made no attempt to injure the town, and Washington permitted the 
royal army to retire unmolested. But the employment of German mer- 
cenaries, by the English ministry, completed the alienation of the 
colonists ; they resolved to separate themselves wholly from the mother- 
country, and on the 4th of July, 1776, the congress published the 

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE OF THE THIRTEEN UNITED STATES. 

The first campaign, after some important successes gained by the 
British forces under General Howe, terminated in the entire destruc- 
tion of the army of the north commanded by General Burgoyne. But 
this did not abate the confidence of the British ministers or the British 
people. Conciliatory acts were, indeed, passed by the parliament, but 
before intelligence of this altered policy could be received in America, 
France had entered into a treaty recognising the independence of the 
United States (a. d. 1778). There were already some in Britain who 
advocated this extreme measure ; the earl of Chatham vehemently op- 
posed the dismemberment of the empire, but while addressing the 
lords, he was struck down in a fit, and died within a few days. The 
nation mourned his loss, but it did not the less prepare vigorously to 
meet impending dangers. A declaration of war was issued against 
France, and a respectable fleet, commanded by Admiral Keppel, sent 
to cruise in the channel. Keppel met and engaged the French fleet 
off" Ushant, but being badly supported by Sir Hugh Palliser, the second 
in command, he was unable to make any use of the slight advantage he 
obtained. 

Th6 peace of the continent was momentarily menaced by the efTorts 
of the emperor Joseph to obtain possession of Bavaria, but the prompt 
interference of the king of Prussia, the remonstrances of the emperess 
Catharine, and the unwillingness of France to second the ambitious 
designs of Austria, compelled Joseph to relinquish his prey when it 
was almost within his grasp (a. d. 1779). France alone, of the conti- 
nental powers, had yet interfered in the American contest, but the in- 
timate connexion between that country and Spain, led to a general be- 
lief that the latter would not long remain neutral. Nor was the expect- 
ation groundless ; the court of Madrid, after an insincere offer of media- 
tion, threw oiT the mask, and openly prepared for active hostilities. 
Washington adopted a cautious defensive policy, by which his adversa- 
ries were more exhausted than by a loss of a battle. The English sub- 
dued Georgia, and made some progress in the Carolinas ; but the 
French captured sev ral islands in the West Indies, and a Spanish 



THE AGE OF REVOLUTIONS. 635 

fleet, for a time rode triumphant in the channel, and even insuUed 
Plymouth. 

Serious riots in London tended more to lower the character of the 
English, among foreign nations, than these reverses. Some of the 
penal laws against the catholics having been repealed, an association 
was formed by some ignorant fanatics for the protection of the protestant 
religion ; they stimulated the passions of the mob, and roused an im- 
mense multitude to acts of outrage. For several days, London was at 
the mercy of an infuriate populace ; some catholic chapels were burned, 
and many private houses destroyed. Tranquillity was at length re- 
stored by the interference of the military, and several of the rioters 
capitally punished. These disgraceful transactions alienated the court 
of Madrid at a time when it was disposed to negotiate, and the promise 
of the French to aid in the reduction of Gibraltar, confirmed the hostile 
dispositions of the Spaniards. 

The English had reduced all the French settlements in the East 
Indies in 1778, and humbled the Mahrattas ; but a new and formidable 
enemy now appeared. Hyder Ali, a soldier of fortune, raised by 
chance to the throne of Seringapatam, resolved to drive the European 
intruders from Hindustan, and entered the Carnatic with overwhelming 
forces. The local government of Madras was unprepared for this 
event, and the resources at its command were wasted by the obstinacy 
and incapacity of the council. Owing to this mismanagement, the 
English forces, commanded by Baillie and Fletcher, were all either 
slain or taken by Hyder and his son Tippoo. 

The maritime glory of England was ably maintained by Sir George 
Rodney ; he captured four Spanish ships-of-the-line off Cape St. Vin- 
cent, drove two more on shore, and burned another: thence proceeding 
to America, he thrice encountered the French fleet, under the count de 
Guichen, and though he obtained no decisive success, he prevented 
Washington from receiving naval aid in his meditated attack on New 
York. But the progress of the war now threatened to involve England in 
a new contest with all the maritime powers, respecting the trade of neu- 
tral vessels. The emperess of Russia took the lead in demanding freedom 
of trade for neutral vessels not laden with the munitions of war, to all 
ports not actually blockaded ; she proposed that the northern powers 
should unite to support this right ; a confederacy, called the Armed Neu- 
trality, was formed by Russia, Denmark, and Sweden ; Holland promptly 
acceded to the league ; the courts of Vienna, Berlin, and Naples, adopted 
its principles ; the republic of Venice, and even Portugal, the oldest ally 
of England, joined the association. The British ministry temporized, 
they expected, probably, that the smothered jealousy between Austria 
and Prussia might lead to a war that would divert the attention of the 
continental powers, but these hopes were frustrated by the death of 
Maria Theresa, whose inveterate hatred of the Prussian monarch was 
not inherited by her successor. 

The conduct of the Dutch government had long been suspicious ; but 
proof was at length obtained of its having concluded a treaty with the 
American congress, and the remonstrances of the British minister were 
treated with disdain. War was instantly declared, and several of the 
Dutch colonies in the South American seas were subdued by the Eng- 



636 MODERN HISTORY. 

lish forces. Nor was this the only calamity that befell the Dutch re- 
public ; no sooner had the emperor .Joseph succeeded to the ample in- 
heritance of Maria Theresa, than he commanded a series of important re- 
forms, among which was included the dismantling of the barrier towns in 
the Netherlands, which had been fortified at a vast expense to save Hol- 
land from the encroachments of France (a. d. 1781). A Dutch fleet, 
under Zoutman, was defeated by Admiral Parker, at the Doggers' bank ; 
but the English had less success in the American seas, where Sir 
Samuel Hood was reduced to inactivity by the superior force of Count 
de Grasse. 

The defeat of Lord Comwallis, and the loss of the second British 
army that had been forced to surrender, led to a general feeling in Eng- 
land that any further protraction of the contest would be hopeless (a. d. 
1782). The ministers, indeed, seemed at first resolved to continue the 
war, but they could no longer command a parliamentary majority, and 
were forced to resign. A new ministry, formed by the marquis of 
Rockingham and Mr. Fox, commenced negotiations for peace, without 
at all relaxing in their efforts to support the war ; but before the results 
of the change could be fully developed, the ministry was dissolved by 
the death of the marquis. But ere this event produced any eff"ect on 
the political aspect of affairs, two signal triumphs shed lustre on the 
arms of Britain. Admiral Rodney gained a decisive victory over the 
French fleet under Count de Grasse, between the islands of Martinique 
and Guadaloupe ; and General Elliott, who had long been besieged in 
Gibraltar, defeated the formidable attack of the combined French and 
Spanish forces on that fortress, and burned, by showers of red-hot balls, 
the floating batteries, which the besiegers had fondly believed irresisti- 
ble. In the East Indies, Sir Eyre Coote partly retrieved the fortunes 
of the company ; he recovered the Carnatic, and totally routed Hyder's 
army at Porto Novo (a. d. 1781) ; and again at Pollalore. All the 
Dutch settlements were captured (a. d. 1782), but this success was 
interrupted by the defeat of Colonel Braithwaite, whose forces were 
surprised, surrounded, and cut to pieces by Tippoo and an auxiliary 
French force under M. Lally. Several indecisive engagements took 
place between Suflrein and Hughes, the French and English admirals, 
in the Indian seas ; and the operations of the British by land were im- 
peded by the jealousies of the civil and military authorities (a. d. 1783). 
The death of Hyder, and the restoration of peace between France and 
England, induced Tippoo to listen to terms of accommodation, and the 
English terminated this most unfortunate and disgraceful war, by sub- 
mitting to humiliations from the son of Hyder, which greatly diminished 
the respect that had hitherto been paid to their name in Asia. 

The changes of ministry in England protracted the negotiations for 
peace. The earl of Shelburne succeeded the marquis of Rockingham ; 
but he was forced to yield to the overwhelming parliamentary strength 
of Lord North and Mr. Fox, who formed an unexpected coalition. 
The independence of America was recognised by the signature of pre- 
liminaries at Versailles (November 30,1782); little difficulty was 
found in arranging terms with France and Spaia ; but the English 
wished to gain some compensation for their losses from Holland, and 



THE AGE OF REVOLUTIONS. 637 

this circumstance occasioned a delay in the final arrangement of the 
treaty. 

Section IV. — The British Umpire in India. 

The British empire in India was, as we have already stated, founded 
on the ruins of the empire of Delhi. The French were the first who 
aimed at acquiring sovereignty by interfering in the contests of the local 
governors who had established their independence ; they gained a de- 
cided superiority in the Carnatic and on the Coromandel coast, until 
the naval supremacy of England, in the seven years' war, intercepted 
their communications, and enabled their rivals to seize all their settle- 
ments. It was soon discovered that Coromandel cost more than it was 
worth, and that the territorial acquisitions most desirable were the coun- 
tries round the Ganges. Under the government of Lord Clive, the 
English obtained the sovereignty of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, on the 
condition of paying twelve lacs of rupees annually to the emperor of 
Delhi. No sooner had the company acquired the sovereignty of this 
rich and opulent country, than an opposition of interest arose between 
the directors at home and their officers in India. The former were 
anxious to augment their commercial dividends by the territorial rev- 
enues, the latter were as obstinate in applying the surplus income to 
their own advantage. The want of control over the subordinate au- 
thorities in India led to most calamitous results ; the officers of the 
company established monopolies in all the principal branches of domes- 
tic trade, rendered property insecure by arbitrarily changing the tenure 
of land, and perverted the administration of justice to protect their 
avarice. The injustice with which the native princes were treated, 
roused a formidable enemy to the English in Hyder Ali, sultan of My- 
sore ; and had he been supported by European aid as efl'ectively as he 
might have been, the company's empire in Hindustan would soon have 
ended. Some improvements were made in 1774, by concentrating the 
power of the three presidencies in the governor-general and council of 
Bengal, and the establishment of a supreme court of judicature. But 
Warren Hastings, the first governor-general, by a series of oppressions 
and extortions, provoked a second war with Hyder and the Mahratta 
states, the general results of which have been stated in the preceding 
chapter. 

Notwithstanding the fortunate termination of the Mysorean and 
Mahratta wars, and the extension of the company's territory in Bengal, 
by the capture of Negapatam from the Dutch, the aspect of affairs was 
very gloomy and threatening. All the exactions of the company did 
not enable it to fulfil its engagements with the government ; and its af- 
fairs were considered as fast approaching bankruptcy. It had also 
been found very inconvenient to have a mercantile association existing 
as a state within the state, and all parties agreed that the company 
ought to be placed more directly under the control of the government. 

Under the administration of the marquis of Rockingham, Mr. Fox 
had taken the lead in arranging the affairs of Ireland. That country 
had been left unprotected during the late war ; the inhabitants, menaced 
by invasion, armed in their own defence, and the volunteers thus raised, 



638 MODERN HISTORY- 

resolved, while they had the power, to secure the legislative indepen- 
dence of their country. The prudence of their leaders averted the 
horrors of a civil war, which would probably have ended in the separa- 
tion of the islands ; but they could not long have restrained the impa- 
tience of their followers, had not the Rockingham administration showed 
early its desire to comply with their demands. The legislative inde- 
pendence of Ireland was acknowledged (a. d. 1782), and a federal 
union of the two governments arranged, which promised to produce 
permanent advantages to both countries. His success in Ireland in- 
duced Mr. Fox to prepare a measure for regulating the complicated 
affairs of India ; and a bill was introduced, on whose success he staked 
the existence of the coalition ministry. The principle of Mr. Fox's 
measure was to place the whole civil and military government of India 
under a board of nine members, chosen for four years, and not remov- 
able without an address from either house of parliament. Such a board 
would manifestly be an independent authority in the state ; and it was 
said that its design was to make the power of a party rival that of the 
king. When the • bill had passed the commons, his majesty, through 
Earl Temple, intimated to the peers his hostility to the measure, and 
the lords rejected it by a considerable majority. A new ministry was 
formed under the auspices of Mr. Pitt, second son to the great earl of 
Chatham ; and as it was impossible to resist the strength of the coali- 
tion in the house of commons, the parliament was dissolved at the ear- 
liest moment that the state of public business would permit (a. d. 1784). 
The success of this measure surpassed the expectations of the new 
minister ; the nation had been disgusted by the coalition of parties, that 
had been so long and so bitterly opposed to each other as those of Mr. 
Fox and Lord North ; their friends were in most places beaten by the 
supporters of the new cabinet, and Mr. Pitt found himself firmly estab- 
lished in the plenitude of power. A new bill was framed for the gov- 
ernment of India, which transferred to the crown the influence which 
Mr. Fox had designed to intrust to parliamentary commissioners ; but 
some share of power, and the whole management of commercial affairs, 
was allowed to remain with the court of directors. The most important 
branch of commerce monopolized by the company was the tea trade 
with China, and this was thrown completely into their hands by a re- 
duction of the duty, which removed all temptation to smuggling. 

This change in the government of India was followed by the mem- 
orable impeachment of Mr. Hastings, whose trial lasted several years. 
It ended in the acquittal of that gentleman, at least of intentional error; 
but his fortune and his health were ruined by the protracted prosecu- 
tion. A wise selection of rulers greatly improved the condition of the 
British empire in India ; under the administration of Lord Cornwallis, 
the situation of the natives was greatly ameliorated ; but the seeds of 
corruption, arising from ancient misgovernment and internal wars, could 
not be wholly eradicated. 

The great extension of the British colonies gave a fresh stimulus to 
the spirit of maritime discovery, and the English penetrated into the 
remotest seas, stopping only where nature had Interposed impenetrable 
barriers of ice. The three voyages of Captain Cook awakened a spirit 
of enterprise scarcely inferior to that which had been roused by the 



THE AGE OF REVOLUTIONS. 639 

discoveries of Columbus. The islands of the south Pacific ocean be- 
came soon as well known as those of the Mediterranean sea, and their 
natural productions speedily formed articles of trade. Cook himself 
suggested the expediency of forming a settlement on the coast of New 
Holland ; in less than half a century this colony has risen into great 
importance as an agricultural community ; it promises, at no very dis- 
tant day, to outgrow the fostering care of the mother-country, to afford 
her a rich reward, and become one of her most flourishing descendants. 
From the period of Mr. Pitt's accession to power until the commence- 
ment of the French revolution, there was little beyond the strife of par- 
ties remarkable in the domestic history of England. The illness of the 
king (a. d. 1787), gave indeed alarming proof that the federal union of 
the English and Irish legislatures was by no means sufficient to secure 
the permanent connexion of the countries ; for, while the British parlia- 
ment adopted a restricted regency, the Irish offered the entire royal 
power to the prince of Wales. The speedy recovery of the king avert- 
ed the evils that might have resulted from so marked a discrepancy, but 
from that time Mr. Pitt seems to have determined on his plan for uni- 
ting the two legislatures. The chief parliamentary struggles were for 
a repeal of the disqualifying laws that affected the dissenters, and the 
abolition of the infamous slave-trade ; but the success of both these 
measures was reserved for later times. 



Section V. — History of Europe, from the end of the American War to the 
commencement of the French Revolution. 

During the progress of the American war, a gradual improvement 
in the science of government began to be manifested in the European 
states. Many of the German princes began to moderate the stern ex- 
ercise of their despotic authority, to reform their expenditure and mili- 
tary establishments, and to adopt new institutions suited to the advanced 
state of civilization. The emperor Joseph was the most enterprising 
of the royal reformers ; his measures for regulating the church involved 
him in a contest with Pope Pius VI., who hated and dreaded innova- 
tion, and was bigotedly attached to the ancient pretensions of the Romish 
see. Persuaded that his personal influence would be sufficient to dis- 
suade Joseph from pursuing his course of change, the pontiff undertook 
an expensive journey to Vienna, but the emperor only gave him an abun- 
dance of compliments, and persevered in his resolutions. His failure 
covered the pontiff with ridicule, especially as he had to endure similar 
disappointments in his negotiations with the courts of Russia and Prus- 
sia. Joseph was willing to join the emperess Catherine in the dis- 
memberment of Turkey, and permitted that princess to seize the 
Crimea ; but the principal western powers still dreaded the aggrandize- 
ment of Austria, and the threat of their confederacy saved the Ottoman 
empire. The king of Prussia was foremost in checking the encroach- 
ments of the emperor ; he secretly instigated the Dutch to refuse the 
free navigation of the Scheldt to the ships of the Austrian Netherlands, 
and he planned a confederacy for maintaining the integrity of the Ger- 
manic states. Frederic died when he had completed the consolidation 
of a kingdom which his conquests had nearly doubled (a. d. 1786) ; he 



640 MODERN HISTOaY. 

was succeeded by his nephew Frederic William, whose attention was 
early directed to the affairs of Holland. 

The success of the Americans in establishing a commonwealth, in- 
duced many of the Dutch to aim at restoring their old republican con- 
stitution, and abridging or destroying the power of the stadtholder, 
which had become in all but name monarchical. The French secretly 
encouraged the opponents of the prince of Orange, hoping to obtain 
from the popular party an addition to their East Indian colonies, or at 
least such a union of interests as would counterpoise British ascend- 
ency in Asia ; but the new king of Prussia, whose sister was married 
to the stadtholder, resolved to prevent any change, and the English am- 
bassador vigorously exerted himself to counteract the intrigues of the 
French. An insult offered to the princess of Orange brought matters 
to a crisis ; Frederic William immediately sent an army to redress his 
sister's wrongs ; the republicans, deserted by France, made but a feeble 
resistance, and the stadtholder was restored to all his former authority. 

The disordered state of the French finances was the cause of this 
desertion of their party by the ministers of Louis ; through mere jeal- 
ousy of England, they had involved their country in the American war, 
and had thus increased the confusion in which the prodigality of the 
preceding year had sunk the treasury. Minister after minister had at- 
tempted to palliate the evil, but M. de Calonne, who owed his eleva- 
tion to the unwise partiality of the queen, Marie Antoinette, aggravated 
the disorder by a series of measures formed without prudence, and sup- 
ported with obstinacy. Opposed by the parliaments, Calonne recom- 
mended the king to convene an assembly of the notables, or persons 
selected from the privileged orders (a. d. 1787) ; but these orders had 
hitherto paid far less than their fair proportion of the imposts, and an 
equitable system of taxation could not be expected from such an inter- 
ested body. Necker, a Swiss banker, who had been for a short time 
the French minister of finance, joined in the opposition to Calonne, and 
it must be confessed that he demonstrated the total inadequacy of the 
proposed measures to remedy the decline of public credit. Louis dis- 
missed Calonne, but he would not gratify his subjects by recalling 
Necker to the cabinet ; and he dismissed the notables, whose uncom- 
plying' disposition rendered all hopes of aid from that assembly fruitless. 

But the derangement of the finances was not the only evil that the 
French court suffered from its interference in the American war ; the 
oflicers and soldiers who had fought for liberty in one hemisphere be- 
came dissatisfied with despotism in the other. A general desire for the 
establishment of a free constitution, like that of England, was difiused 
through the nation, and some more ardent spirits began to speculate on 
a republic. The connexion of the court with Austria was the cause of 
much secret discontent ; the decline of the influence and the power of 
France was traced to its unfortunate alliance with the court of Vienna 
during the seven years' war, and the queen, who was naturally inclined 
to perpetuate this unpopular union, became an object of suspicion and 
dislike. It was mortifying to find that France no longer held the bal- 
ance of power on the continent ; that she could not save Turkey from 
the aggressions of the ambitious Catherine, nor protect the republican 
party in Holland from punishment for acts done in her service. 



THE AGE OF REVOLUTIONS. pl4^ 

While France was thus disturbed, the progress of reform in other 
states was unimpeded ; the rulers of Spain and Portugal improved 
their kingdoms by institutions for the protection of trade, and by placing 
checks on the exorbitant powers of the clergy. They joined in an ef- 
fort to chastise the piratical powers in the Mediterranean, but the 
strength of the Algerine capital frustrated the attempt. The emperor 
Joseph and his brother Leopold, grand duke of Tuscany, distinguished, 
themselves by enacting new and salutary codes of law ; they abol- 
ished the use of torture to extort confessions, and they greatly limited 
the number of offences to which the penalty was affixed. Their ex- 
ample was followed by the emperess Catherine, whose code was the 
greatest blessing that her glorious reign conferred on Russia ; and even 
the sultan evinced a desire to improve the institutions of Turkey. 

But the .course of events in France soon inspired all the sovereigns 
of Europe with a horror of innovation. After the dismissal of the no- 
tables, M. de Brienne, archbishop of Toulouse, had become minister 
of finance, and he soon involved himself in a dispute with the parlia- 
ments, by refusing to produce the accounts, which they insisted on ex- 
amining before registering" any new edicts of taxation. The great ob- 
ject of the parliament was to maintain the immunities of the privileged 
orders ; the minister justly recommended a less partial system, when 
his opponents, yielding to temporary irritation, demanded the convoca- 
tion of the states-general. The nobles and the clergy joined in the 
demand, without any expectation of its being granted, but merely to 
annoy the court ; the people, however, took up the matter in earnest, 
and determined to enforce compliance. Various schemes were tried 
by the archbishop to overcome this powerful opposition, but all his 
plans were disconcerted by the obstinacy of the parliaments, and the 
king, finding every expedient fail, consented to recall Necker (a. d. 
1788). At the same time, a solemn promise was given for the speedy 
assembly of the states-general, a body that had not been convened since 
the year 1614. 

Before the assembling of this legislative body, it was necessary to 
determine the number of representatives that should be sent by each of 
the three orders, the nobles, the clergy, and the people ; the majority 
of the notables voted that an equal number of deputies should be sent 
by the respective classes, but it was subsequently determined that the 
representatives of the third estate should equal in number those of the 
nobles and clergy conjoined. The king declared that the three estates 
should form separate chambers, but this very important matter was not 
so detinitely fixed as to prevent future discussion. On the 5th of May, 
1780, the slates-general met at Versailles, and the democratic party, 
confident in its strength, demanded that the three orders should sit and 
vote together. After a short struggle, the court was compelled to con- 
cede this vital point, and the united bodies took the name of the National 
Assembly. 

A spirit of insubordination began to appear in Paris, caused in some 
degree by the pressure of famine ; artful and ambitious men fanned the 
rising flame, and directed the popular indignation against the king and 
his family. The arms in the Hospital of Invalids were seized by the 
mob, and the insurgents immediately proceeded to attack the Bastile, or 

41 



642 MODERN HISTORY. ^ 

State-prison of Paris. After a brief resistance, the governor, having an* 
insufficient garrison, capitulated, but the conditions of the surrender 
were not observed by the infuriate muUitude ; the governor was torn to 
pieces, and many of the soldiers inhumanly massacred. Louis, greatly- 
alarmed, tried by every means to conciliate his subjects ; he removed 
the regular troops from Paris and Versailles, intrusting the defence of 
the capital to a body of civic militia, called the National Guards. The 
command of this new force was intrusted to the marquis de la Fayette^ 
who had acquired great popularity by his liberal sentiments and his 
services to the cause of freedom in the American war. But all the 
king's concessions failed to conciliate .the democratic, or rather, as we 
may henceforth call it, the republican party ; relying on the support of 
the Parisian populace, the leaders of this band resolved that the legis*- 
lature should be removed to the capital, and a mob was secretly insti- 
gated to make the demand. A crowd of the lowest rabble, accompa- 
nied by some of the national guards, proceeded to Versailles, the palace 
was violently entered, several of its defenders slain, and the king com- 
pelled instantly to set out for Paris, a prisoner in the hands of a licen- 
tious crowd, whose insults and indecencies were revolting to human 
nature. 

This atrocious outrage may fairly be regarded as the commencement 
of the French Revolution ; thenceforth the royal authority was an empty 
name, and all the ancient forms of government set aside ; visionaries 
indulged in speculations on a new order of things, ardent patriots hoped 
to establish a constitution more perfect than the world ever yet had 
witnessed, but the base and the depraved sought to gain their own selfish 
ends by stimulating popular violence ; and the last class was the only 
one whose expectations were realized. 

Section VI. — The French Revolution. 

From the moment that Louis XVL was brought a prisoner to his 
capital, the ancient constitution of France was overthrown ; the mon- 
archy continued to exist only in name, and the abolition of feudal 
rights, the extinction of hereditary titles, and the secularization of ec- 
clesiastical property, established popular sovereignty on the ruins of the 
ancient structure. Several German princes, who had possessions in 
Alsace, protested against these violent changes, but the popular rulers 
would not listen to any proposal of a compromise, and thus the leaders 
of the revolution were embroiled with the empire in the very outset of 
their career. A club, called from its place of meeting, the Jacobin As- 
sociation, was formed by the leading democrats, and from this body de- 
nunciations were issued against all who were believed favorable to the 
ancient institutions of the country. Through the machinations of the 
Jacobins, popular hatred was directed against the court, and violent tu- 
mults excited in various parts of France. Infinitely more dangerous to 
the repose of Europe were the emigrations of the nobles, who were 
dissatisfied with the revolution ; instead of remaining at home and or- 
ganizing a constitutional resistance, they resolved to seek the restora- 
tion of the old government, with all its abuses, by the intervention of 
foreign powers. A meeting and conference took place at Pilnitz, be- 



THE AGE OP REVOLUTIONS. 643- 

tween the emperor of Germany, the king of Prussia, and the elector 
of Saxony ; the Count d'Artois, brother to the French monarch, and 
head of the emigrants, came uninvited, and he engaged the sovereigns 
to issue a vague declaration in favor of the rights of kings. Louis, 
wearied by the violence of the Jacobins, the licentiousness of the Par- 
isian mob, and the disappointments he was daily forced to meet, re- 
solv>'d to escape from the captivity in which he was detained, and seek 
refuge on the frontiers. He fled from Paris, accompanied by his queen 
and children, but was unfortunately discovered at Varennes, seized, 
and brought back a prisoner to his capital. This failure exposed the 
royal family to suspicions of which the Jacobins took advantage ; but 
the more moderate of the patriots were for a time sufficiently powerful 
to restrain their violence ; and after a long deliberation, they prepared 
a constitutional code, which was tendered to the king for acceptance. 
The readiness with which Louis assented to this instrument of govern- 
ment, and his frank communication of his satisfaction with the arrange- 
ment to his ambassadors at the different European courts, for a time 
restored his popularity. The emperor Leopold notified to the other 
powers that all danger of war was averted, and the external and inter-- 
nal tranquillity of France seemed to be assured. 

But the constitution, thus established, could not be permanent; it 
was itself defective ; and the minds of the French people, once ani- 
mated by the desire of change, could not rest satisfied with any fixed 
form of government. The assembly by which it had been framed was 
dissolved, and a new legislative body chosen, according to the system 
recently established, and in this assembly the more violent partisans of 
democracy had more influence than in the preceding. It was the 
great object of the revolutionary party to involve the kingdom in foreign 
war ; and the suspicious proceedings of the emigrants, their intrigues 
in the German courts, and the avowed determination of the emperor ta 
maintain the feudal rights of the German princes in Alsace, furnished 
plausible pretexts for the commencement of hostilities. The death of 
the emperor Leopold accelerated a rupture ; his successor, Francis IL, 
continued to make alarming military preparations, and on his refusal to 
give any satisfactory explanation, Louis was compelled to declare war 
against him (a. d. 1792). But the strife of parties in the royal cabinet 
and the national assembly, led to such confusion in the councils of the 
French, that their armies, though superior in number, were defeated 
with loss and disgrace ; while the Jacobins, whose intrigues were the 
real cause of these misfortunes, ascribed them to royalist treachery, and 
to the influence that Austrian councils possessed over the court from 
its connexion with the queen. These malignant slanders, industriously 
circulated, and generally believed, stimulated the Parisian mob to dis- 
graceful acts of violence and disorder, against which La Fayette and 
the friends of rational liberty protested in vain. 

A new incident gave fresh strength to the Jacobin party ; Frederic 
William, king of Prussia, engaged to co-operate with the emperor 
Francis to restore the royal authority in France ; their united forces 
were placed under the command of the duke of Brunswick ; and this 
prince issued a sanguinary and insulting manifesto, which had the effect 
of uniting all the French factions in the defence of their common 



644 MODERN HISTORY. 

country. A declaration issued soon after by the emigrant brothers 
and relatives of Louis, in which the revolution was bitterly condemned, 
proved still more injurious to the unfortunate king ; scarcely did intelli- 
gence of the publication reach Paris, when the palace was attacked by 
an infuriate mob, the Swiss guards ruthlessly massacred, and Louis, 
with his family, forced to seek shelter in the hall of the national assem- 
bly. The deputies protected his person, but they suspended his regal 
functions, and committed him a prisoner to a building called the Tem- 
ple, from having been once a monastery of the knights of that order. 

La Fayetle was equally surprised and indignant at these outrages of 
the Jacobins ; he tried to keep the army firm in its allegiance ; but 
all his exertions not being sufficient to accomplish this result, he 
fled into the Netherlands, when he was seized and imprisoned by the 
Austrians for his former opposition to the royal power. He was suc- 
ceeded in the command of the army by Dumouriez, who made energetic 
preparations to resist the coming invasion. Confident in their strength, 
the allied armies entered France Avith the proudest anticipations, and 
their rapid progress in the beginning seemed to promise the most 
decisive results. To diminish the number of their internal enemies, 
Robespierre, Marat, and other chiefs of the Jacobins, planned the mas- 
sacre of all the suspected persons confined in the prisons of Paris, and 
this diabolical plot was executed by the licentious populace. Similar 
horrors were perpetrated in other parts of France ; a reign of terror 
was established, and no man dared to remonstrate against these shock- 
ing excesses. In the meantime the invaders had met Avith unexpected 
reverses ; trusting to the representations of the emigrants, that the rev- 
olution had been the work of a few agitators, not of the nation, and that 
there was a general reaction in favor of royalty, the allies had advanced 
without providing adequate stores, and when they received a check at 
Valmy, their camp was attacked by famine and disease ; they were 
soon compelled to retreat, and to purchase an inglorious security by 
resigning the fortresses they had occupied. Dumouriez pursued the 
Austrians into the Netherlands, and gained a decisive victory, which 
encouraged the Belgians to throw off the imperial yoke ; Flanders and 
Brabant were soon in possession of the victors, and their arms had 
made considerable progress in the reduction of Luxemburg. The con- 
vention, as the national assembly began to be called, having made their 
own country a republic, resolved to extend the revolution into other 
' states ; they offered their alliance to every nation that desired to recover 
its liberties, and they ordered the ancient constitutions of all the coun- 
tries occupied by the French troops to be subverted. As the republican 
arms had conquered Savoy, and were fast gaining ground in Germany, 
the adoption of such a decree was virtually a declaration of war against 
all the kings of Europe. 

The Jacobins, aided by the Parisian mob, and still more by the cow- 
ardice and indecision of their opponents, were now masters of the con- 
vention, and the first use they made of their power was to bring the 
unfortunate king to trial, on the ridiculous charge of his having engaged 
in a conspiracy for the subversion of freedom. Louis defended himself 
with great spirit and energy, but his judges were predetermined on his 
conviction: six hundred and eighty-three deputies pronounced him 



THE AGE OF REVOLUTIONS. 645 

guilty of treason against the sovereignty of the nation, while there 
were only thirty-seven who took a more favorable view of his conduct. 
A motion for an appeal to the people was rejected ; but the sentence of 
death was passed by a very inconsiderable majority, and this probably 
induced the Jacobins to hasten the execution. On the twenty-jfirst of 
January, 1793, the unfortunate Louis was guillotined in his capital 
city ; and the severity of his fate was aggravated by the insults of his 
cruel executioners. 

This judicial murder excited general indignation throughout Europe ; 
Chauvelin, the French ambassador, was dismissed from the British 
court, and many persons in England, who had hitherto applauded the 
efforts of the French people, became vehement opposers of revolu- 
tionary principles. A similar result was produced in Holland, where 
the government had been justly alarmed by the progress of the French 
in the Netherlands. 

The convention did not wait to be attacked ; a vote was passed that 
the republic was at war with the king of England and the stadtholder 
of Holland, by which artful phraseology it was intended to draw a 
marked distinction between the sovereign and the people of both coun- 
tries. Spain was soon after added to the enemies of France, and the 
new republic had to contend against a coalition of all the leading powers 
of Europe. None of the allies threatened more loudly than the em- 
peress Catherine ; she had just concluded a successful war against 
Turkey, in which her general, Suwaroff, had won a large addition of 
territory for his mistress, and the power of Russia in the Black sea 
was secured ; she had also triumphed over the king of Sweden, more, 
however, by the insubordination of her rival's officers, than by the valor 
of her own troops. Poland was in everything but name subjected to 
Russia, and the emperess was secretly maturing a plan to blot that coun- 
try from the list of nations. As the coalition against the French repub- 
lic was regarded as a v/ar in the defence of the rights of kings, it was 
intended that a king should be placed at the head of the allied armies ; 
and Gustavus, who had subverted the free constitution of Sweden, of- 
fered his services ; but while he was preparing for the expedition, a 
conspiracy was formed against him by his discontented nobles, and he 
was murdered at a masked ball by Ankarstrom, an officer who believed 
himself personally injured by the king (a. d. 1792). After the death 
of Gustavus, the insincerity of Catherine became more manifest ; she 
issued violent proclamations against the French, but carefully abstained 
from active hostility ; indeed, it was manifestly her purpose to involve 
the continental powers in a war, which would prevent them from 
watching too jealously the aggrandizement of Russia. 

The English and Prussians, deeming the defence of Holland a mat- 
ter of primary importance, combined to check the progress of Dumou- 
riez, who had overrun Dutch Brabant, with little opposition (a. d. 1793). 
But the progTess of the Austrians, on the side of Germany, stopped the 
French in their career of conquest. Dumouriez quitted Holland to 
defend Louvain ; he suffered a complete defeat at Neer-winden, by 
which his soldiers were so discouraged, that they deserted in great 
numbers. Dumouriez, finding himself suspected by the two great par- 
ties which divided the republic, and weary of the disorganized state of 



646 MODERN HISTORY. 

the French government, entered into negotiations with the allied gen- 
erals, and arrested the deputies sent by the convention to watch his 
movements. But the army did not share the anti-revolutionary feel- 
ings of Dumouriez, and he was forced to seek shelter in the Austrian 
camp. 

Custine, the successor of Dumouriez, was unable to check the prog- 
ress of the allied armies ; being reinforced by a British force under 
the duke of York, they captured the important fortress of Valenciennes, 
and seemed to have opened a way to Paris. The revolutionary gov- 
ernment punished Custine's failure by a public execution, and employed 
the terrors of the guillotine as an incentive to patriotism. But the sep- 
aration of the allied forces was more serviceable to the cause of the 
convention than the cruelties of the " Committee of Public Safety," to 
which the supreme power in France Avas intrusted. Austria, Prussia, 
and England, had separate interests, in the pursuit of which the com- 
mon cause was forgotten ; the imperialists laid siege to Le Quesnoi, 
while the English and Dutch proceeded to invest Dunkirk. The duke 
of York attacked Dunkirk with great spirit, but not receiving the sup- 
port by sea that he had expected, and the Hanoverian force that cov- 
ered his operations having been routed by Houchard, he was obliged to 
raise the siege and abandon the greater portion of his artillery and mil- 
itary stores. The Austrians were for a time more successful, but when 
Hoche, the defender of Dunkirk, was promoted to the command of the 
republican armies, they were driven from all their conquests in Alsace, 
and forced to seek shelter within the imperial frontiers. In Italy, the 
French maintained their hold of Savoy, but they experienced some se- 
vere reverses on the Spanish frontier. 

The revolutionary excitement produced the most dreadful effects be- 
yond the Atlantic ; the colored population in the French division of St. 
Domingo took arms to force the whites to grant them equal privileges ; 
their claims were supported by the three deputies sent by the conven- 
tion to regulate the affairs of the colony, the negroes were seduced, by 
offers of liberty, to revolt against their masters, and St. Domingo, which 
had been one of the most flourishing islands in the West Indies, was 
devastated by a civil war, scarcely to be paralleled for its sanguinary 
fury and the wanton destruction of life and property. 

The wars of southern and western Europe permitted Catherine of 
Russia to accomplish the favorite object of her policy, the dismember- 
ment of Poland. Austria and Prussia joined in this iniquitous scheme, 
for the purpose of sharing the plunder, but the Poles made a gallant 
struggle to maintain their independence. Kosciusko, who had served 
in America, under Washington, was the chief of the patriots, and his 
heroic efforts protracted a struggle which from the first was hopeless. 
Kosciusko, severely wounded, fell into the hands of his enemies, War- 
saw was stormed by the brutal Suwaroft', and the kingdom of Poland, 
erased from the list of nations, was divided between the three confed- 
erates (a. D. 1795). The king of Prussia, more anxious to secure his 
new acquisitions than to support the objects of the coalition, made 
peace with the French, and offered to mediate between the repubhc and 
Austria. 

Scarcely had the Austrians been driven from France, when that 



THE AGE OF REVOLUTIONS. 647 

country was convulsed by civil vpar (a. d. 1793.) The jacobins hav- 
ing, by the aid of the Parisian populace, triumphed over the rival faction 
in the convention, mercilessly proscribed their political adversaries as 
traitors, and after a mockery of trial, hurried them to execution. Among 
ihe victims to their fury was the unfortunate queen of France, Marie 
Antoinette, but death was to her not a punishment, but a release from 
-suffering. The tyranny of the Jacobins provoked formidable insurrec- 
tions in the south of France, and encouraged the royalists of La Vendee 
to take up arms in the cause of their church and their king. Nothing 
coidd exceed the fury of the Jacobins when they heard of these revolts ; 
severe decrees were passed against the cities which had resisted their 
authority, but no place was so cruelly punished as Lyons, which had 
continued for four months in a state of insurrection. After having en- 
dured a furious bombardment, it was forced to surrender at discretion ; 
five deputies, of whom Callot and Fouche were the chief, received a 
communication from the convention to punish the Lyonese revolters by 
the summary process of military law, and about four thousand victims 
were shot or guillotined after the mockery of trial before this savage 
tribunal. But, in the midst of their butcheries, the Jacobins did not 
neglect the military defence of their country ; a decree of the conven- 
tion declared, that all the French were soldiers, and a levy of the pop- 
ulation, en masse, was ordered. To support such numerous armies, 
private property was seized and paid for in promissory notes, called 
assignats, whose value was speedily depreciated, a circumstance which 
ruined public credit in France. 

Toulon having revolted, an English garrison, strengthened by Span- 
ish and Neapolitan detachments, occupied that important seaport. It 
was soon besieged by the troops of the convention ; the artillery of the 
besiegers was directed by a young Corsican, Napoleon Bonaparte, 
who had risen by his merits from an inferior station. Owing to his 
exertions, the English soon found the place untenable ; they evacuated 
Toulon, without loss, after having destroyed the arsenal and shipping, 
but they abandoned the inhabitants to the fury of the conquerors, who 
punished their revolt with indiscriminate severity. 

In the Netherlands and Germany, the French, under Pichegru and 
Jourdan, gained many important advantages over the imperialists and 
their allies ; but though many battles were fought, nothing of any con- 
sequence was effected in the early part of the campaign (a. d. 1794). 
A more important event was the downfall of the sanguinary faction 
which had so long deluged France with the blood of its best citizens ; 
Robespierre's enormities were too numerous and too shocking to be 
borne, even by many of the Jacobin party ; a conspiracy was formed 
against him ; the convention was induced to resume its authority, and 
order his arrest, and, after a brief struggle, he and his accomplices 
were hurried before the revolutionary tribunal, which they had them- 
selves organized, and sent to the scaffold. This revolution did not pro- 
duce the beneficial results that had been expected ; Robespierre's suc- 
cessors were little better than himself, and they were confirmed in their 
hostility to Britain by the recent defeat of their navy. Lord Howe, 
who had been distinguished as a naval commander in the two preceding 
wars, encountered a French fleet of rather superior force (June 1), and 



MODERN HISTORY. 

having broken the enemy's line, took six ships-of-war and sank two. 
This success revived the declining spirits of the English nation, dis- 
couraged by the ill success of the war in Holland. Corsica was soon 
after annexed to the dominions of England, but the French were victo- 
rious on the Spanish frontier, and Holland was completely subdued by 
Pichegru and Moreau. The prince of Orange and the English forces 
escaped by sea ; the Dutch abolished the office of stadtholder, and 
adopted a new form of government, similar to that of the French repub- 
lic. If there were any in Holland who expected to derive advantage 
from this revolution, they were grievously disappointed ; the French 
despised their new confederates, and treated them as a conquered peo- 
ple, while the English seized the colonies and destroyed the remains 
X)f the once unparalleled commerce of Holland. 

The alarm which the French revolution excited in England, led the 
government to prosecute some enthusiastic advocates of reform in par- 
liament for high treason ; three of them were brought to trial and ac- 
quitted, upon which the prosecutions of the others were abandoned. 
There were few in the country anxious to make a change in the estab- 
hshed institutions, the crimes and follies of the French Jacobins had 
rendered innovation unpopular, and many who had hitherto been in 
opposition to the court, tendered their aid to the minister ; the most 
remarkable of these converts was the eloquent Burke, whose denuncia- 
tions of French principles, produced a powerful efiect on the national 
mind. 

The dismemberment of Poland, and the desertion of the coalition by 
the king of Prussia, gave great dissatisfaction to the British parliament, 
and the character of our faithless ally was made the theme of severe 
and not unmerited censure. He had accepted a large subsidy from 
England, and employed the money lavishly" granted him, against the 
Polanders instead of the French. But the defection of Prussia* did not 
dishearten the English or the Austrians, who were encouraged to con- 
tinue the war by the distracted state of France. In Paris, the conven- 
tion partially succeeded in throwing off the yoke of the Jacobins, but 
the city was frequently endangered by their machinations, and the in- 
surrections of the ferocious populace who supported them. The royalist 
war was renewed in La Vendee, and the south of France continued 
discontented. But the allies profited little by these commotions. The 
Spaniards, completely humbled, were forced to make peace with the 
republicans ; the Austrians barely maintained their ground in Italy, and 
success was evenly balanced on the side of Germany. Great Britain, 
however, maintained its supremacy at sea; Admiral Cornwallis com- 
pelled a fleet of very superior force to retire, and Lord Bridport, with 
ten sail-of-the-line, attacked twelve of the enemy, three of which were 
compelled to strike their colors. The French were deprived of Mar- 
tinique, Gaudaloupe, and St. Lucie, in the West Indies, and their re- 
luctant allies, the Dutch, lost their settlements at the Cape of Good 
Hope, and in the island of Ceylon. 

The convention, by an attempt to perpetuate its authority, provoked 
a formidable insurrection in Paris; Bonaparte- had a considerable 
share in subduing the revolters, more than two thousand of whom were 
mercilessly slaughtered. Soon afterward, France had a new constitu- 



THE AGE OF REVOLUTIONS. 



6^$) 



tion, consisting of a legislative assembly, an upper house, called the 
council of ancients, and a directory of five members, intrusted with the 
executive functions of government. The directors soon began to limit 
the powers of the legislative body, and the new constitution was found to 
be a delusion. But an approach had been made to regular government, and 
the war was carried on with fresh vigor by the directory (a. d. 1796). 
Marshals Jourdan and Moreau made successful irruptions into Ger- 
many, but they encountered a formidable antagonist in the archduke 
Charles of Austria. He stopped the invaders in their mid-career of 
victory, completely routed Jourdan at Kornach, and then suddenly 
marching against Moreau, he nearly succeeded in surprising and over- 
whelming that general. Moreau's celebrated retreat was more honor- 
able to his abiUties than the most brilliant victory ; he led his forces 
through the black forest, from position to position, often compelled to 
yield his ground, but never thrown into confusion, until he safely crossed 
the Rhine with all his artillery and baggage. 

The campaign in Italy, where the French were commanded by 
Napoleon Bonaparte, was more eventl'ul. The king of Sardinia, 
completely routed and cut off' from his communications with the 
Austrians, was forced to purchase a dishonorable peace from the re- 
public, by the cession of his most important fortresses. Napoleon then 
led his forces against the Austrians, forced, but with great loss, a pas- 
sage over the bridge of Lodi, and gained possession of Milan and the 
principal cities of Lombardy. The victors made a harsh use of their 
triumph, the unfortunate Lombards were treated with great cruelty, the 
duke of Tuscany was compelled to exclude the English from the port 
of Leghorn, and the pope was forced to purchase the forbearance of the 
republicans by ceding to them Bologna, and several other towns, pay- 
ing a heavy ransom, and sending three hundred precious manuscripts 
and pictures to enrich the national museum at Paris. The dukes of 
Modena and Parma were subjected to similar exactions, but the king 
of Naples had providently made a truce with the French before they 
approached his frontiers. Mantua, the last stronghold of the Austrians 
in Italy, was closely besieged, but the court of Vienna made vigorous 
preparations for its relief. Marshal Wurmser twice pushed forward 
against the French, but was each time defeated with great loss, a 
calamity owing to his unwisely dividing his forces. Alvinzi, who 
succeeded to the command of the Austrians, committed the same fault, 
and was compelled to retire ; Mantua, however, was still obstinately 
defended, but the garrison ceased to entertain sanguine hopes of 
success. 

In the meantime, the Corsicans grew weary of their connexion 
with Great Britain, drove the English from the island, and placed 
themselves under the protection of France. Ireland was exposed to 
the horrors of an invasion ; a formidable squadron, having a large 
body of troops on board, appeared in Bantry Bay. Hoche, who had 
acquired considerable fame by his suppression of the insurrection in 
La Vendee, commanded the expedition, and, could he have effected a 
landing, the safety of the British empire would have been perilled ; 
but a violent storm dispersed the ships, most of which were subse- 
quently either sunk or captured. The death of the emperess Catherine 



MODERN HISTORY. 

iBspired the English minister with the hope of gaining more effective 
assistance IVo.ni Russia ; but her successor, the emperor Paul, disre- 
garded all the solicitations addressed to him by the courts of London 
and Vienna. 

A new enemy appeared against England ; the Spanish government, 
always jealous of British naval power, and overawed by the French 
directory, entered into alliance with the republic, and began to increase 
its navy (a. d. 1797). At this moment, when the existence of England 
depended on its sailors, a formidable mutiny broke out in the fleet at 
Spithead ; the officers were suspended from their authority and dismissed 
from their ships ; the malcontents blockaded the mouth of the Thames, 
and committed several acts of depredation. Fortunately the sailors grew 
alarmed themselves and hastened to return to their allegiance ; a few 
of the ringleaders were hanged, but the great body of the revolters was 
conciliated by an act of amnesty. 

The war in Italy was not discontinued during the winter ; Alvinzi 
made a desperate effort to retrieve the fortunes of Austria, but he was 
again defeated, and Mantua soon capitulated. Having very severely 
punished the pope for his attachment to the imperial interests. Napoleon 
resolved to carry the war into the hereditary states of Austria. The 
territory of Friuli was quickly subdued, and a great part of the Tyrol 
occupied by the French ; the archduke Charles made a bold defence, 
but the emperor Francis, terrified by the advance of Hoche and Moreau 
in Germany, sued for peace, in spite of the remonstrances of his English 
allies. While the terms of pacification were under discussion. Napo- 
leon subverted the ancient constitution of Genoa and Venice, and made 
both republics virtually dependant on France. 

Spain suffered severely in the war she had so rashly commenced. 
Admiral Jervis encountered a Spanish fleet of very superior force off 
Cape St. Vincent, and by a dexterous manoeuvre cut off nine of their 
ships from the line, so that he could engage the rest on more equal 
terms. Four ships-of-the-line were taken in this brilliant engagement, 
to the success of which Nelson, who was now commencing his brilliant 
career, mainly contributed. The Spaniards lost also the valuable island 
of Trinidad, but an attack made by the British on Teneriffe was unsuc- 
cessful. The Dutch, too, were punished for their alliance with France. 
Three ships-of-the-line and four frigates were taken by the British, after 
an unsuccessful attempt to recover the cape. But they suffered a more 
severe loss on their own coast ; an English squadron, commanded by 
Admiral Duncan, got between thieir ships and the shore, and took eleven 
out of fifteen sail-of-the-line. Two of the prizes, however, in con- 
sequence of the difiiculties of the navigation, were abandoned. 

A new revolution in France- invested the directory with supreme 
power, and their opponents were banished to the unhealthy swamps of 
Guiana, where they were treated with great rigor. Negotiations for 
peace were commenced, but those with England were broken oft' abruptly 
by the extravagent demands of the French plenipotentiaries. This did 
not prevent the conclusion of a treaty between the republic and Austria, 
when the emperor was renumerated for the loss of Mantua by the ces- 
sion of Venice, which he meanly accepted, and the frontiers of France 
were extended to the Rhine. 



THE AGE OF REVOLUTIONS. 651 

Great Britain was now the only power at war with France, and 
the directory prepared a large army for its invasion. This threat pro- 
duced a noble display of patriotism throughout the country, volunteer 
associations for defence were formed, and every man was ready to act 
as a soldier. But while the British navy rode triumphant in the chan- 
nel, the menace of invasion was an idle boast, and Bonaparte only 
used it as a pretext to cover his ulterior designs. While the French 
were modelling, at their pleasure, the governments of Italy, Switzerland, 
and Holland, Napoleon planned an expedition to Egypt, with the hope 
of rendering the French influence as predominant in the east as it was 
in western Europe (a. d. 1798). Convoyed by a fleet, under Admiral 
Brueys, he sailed first to Malta, which was betrayed by the French 
knights. A garrison was left to secure the forts of this important 
island ; the rest of the expedition escaping the vigilance of the English 
fleet, safety reached Egypt, and having effected a landing, took Alexandria 
by storm. The Mameluke beys, who were then masters of the country, 
led their brilliant cavalry to check the progress of the invaders ; but 
tliese undisciplied warriors were unable to break the firm squares of 
the French infantry, and they were almost annihilated in the battle of 
Embaba. 

But the hopes inspired by such success were soon dashed by the 
ruin of the French fleet. After a long search. Admiral Nelson dis- 
covered Brueys, in the bay of Aboukir, and immediately formed a bold 
plan of action. He led a part of his fleet between the French and the 
shore, so as to place his enemies between two fires. The victory was 
complete, nine sail-of-the-line were captured, L'Orient, a ship of uncom- 
mon size, blew up with the greater part of her crew ; another ship-of- 
the-line and a frigate were burned by their respective captains. 

But Great Britain was not equally fortunate in other quarters ; an 
armament sent against the Belgic coast signally failed, and the island 
of St. Domingo was evacuated by the British troops. Ireland was dis- 
tracted by an insurrection, planned by some enthusiastic admirers of 
French principles, but put into execution by an ignorant peasantry, whose 
excesses their leaders were unable to control. Many acts of atrocity 
were committed by the insurgents, and the conduct of the royal army 
was frequently very disgraceful. The insurrection was finally quelled ; 
but scarcely was tranquillity restored, when a small party of French 
landed in Connaught, and through the cowardice of the troops first sent 
to oppose them, penetrated into the heart of the country. Lord Com- 
wallis, who had just been appointed lord lieutenant, soon overtook the 
French, and forced them to surrender. Judiciously tempering severity 
with clemency, he conciliated the discontented ; and Sir John Warren, 
by capturing the greater part of a French fleet, averted the dangers of a 
future invasion. 

The victory of Nelson at the Nile produced a powerful effect through- 
out Europe. The sultan made preparations for a vigorous defence of 
his dominions ; the Russians sent an armament into the Mediterranean, 
and captured the Ionian islands, which the French had wrested from 
the Venetians ; the king of Naples took arms to recover the Roman 
territories for the pope ; and the emperor of Austria yielded to the 
suggestions of Mr. Pitt, and commenced hostilities. 



603 MODERN HISTORY. 

The French were not daunted by this powerful coalition ; they easily 
repelled the Neapolitans, but ihey found a more formidable foe in the 
Russians, who entered Italy under the command of Suwaroff, and being 
there joined by the Austrians, gained several important advantages in 
spite of Marshals Moreau and Macdonald. But these successes were 
so dearly purchased, that the allies resolved to try a new plan of opera- 
tions. Suwaroff undertook to drive the French from Switzerland ; Kray 
and Melas were to direct the Piedmontese and Austrian troops in Italy ; 
while the archduke Charles protected Germany with all the forces of 
the empire. Victory in general favored the allied powers : the French, 
lost all their posts in Italy except Genoa, and that was closely besieged ; 
Suwaroff made rapid progress in Switzerland ; and in Germany the 
French arms suffered several but not very important reverses. In the 
meantime Napoleon invaded Syria ; but being foiled at Acre, chiefly 
through the heroic exertions of Sir Sydney Smith, he returned to Egypt, 
and having provided for the security of that country, secretly embarked 
for France. He escaped the vigilance of the English cruisers, and ar- 
rived at Paris just as the directory were indulging in extravagant joy 
for the defeat of the joint invasion of Holland by the English and Rus- 
sians. It had been confidently asserted that the Dutch were anxious to 
throw off the yoke of France, but these representations were proved to 
be fallacious ; and the duke of York, who commanded the English forces, 
was compelled to purchase a safe retreat by restoring eight thousand 
French prisoners without ransom or exchange. 

Bonaparte soon perceived that the French people had grown weary 
of the directory. Trusting to his popularity with the army, he drove 
the legislative council from their chamber at the point of the bayonet, 
and formed a new constitution, by which the executive power was in- 
trusted to three consuls, of whom "he was the chief. The first consul, 
in everything but name a monarch, attempted to commence negotiations ; 
the English ministers repulsed him rather harshly, and preparations 
were made for a decisive campaign. 

An important and necessary change was made in the constitution of 
the British empire (a. d. 1800). Some difficulties had arisen from the 
existence of independent legislatures in England and Ireland ; the two 
parliaments had already divided differently on the important question of 
the regency, and there was reason to fear that some future discrepancy 
might lead to the dismemberment of the empire. To prevent such an 
evil, it was resolved that the two legislatures should form one imperial 
parliament, and the terms of the union Avere warmly canvassed in both 
countries. The measure Avas very unpopular in Ireland, and when 
first proposed, was rejected by the parliament ; but, during the recess, 
the minister found means to increase the number of his supporters, and 
in the following session the Act of Union was passed by considerable 
majorities. 

It was expected that the first consul would attempt the invasion of 
England or Ireland ; but Napoleon was too well aware of his naval 
weakness to undertake such a hazardous enterprise. He formed a 
daring plan of a campaign in Italy, and led his army like Hannibal over 
the Alps. The Austrians could scarcely have been more surprised if 
an army had fallen from the clouds, than they were' by the appearance 




THE AGE OF REVOLUTIONS. 653 

of the French columns descending from Mount St. Bernard ; but, en- 
couraged by their recent acquisition of Genoa, they prepared to make a 
vigorous resistance. The battle of Montebello, in which the French 
had the advantage, was the prelude to the decisive battle of Marengo. 
The Austrians commenced the fight with unusual spirit ; both wings 
of their opponents were beaten, and the centre shaken ; but some fresh 
divisions arriving to the support of the French at the last moment of 
the crisis, Napoleon pierced the lines of the imperialists, which were 
too much extended, and Murat's furious charge completed the rout of 
the Austrians. So disheartened was the imperial general, Melas, that 
he purchased a truce by resigning Genoa, and the principal fortresses 
in Piedmont and the Milanese, to the conquerors. 

The influence of the British cabinet, and some slight successes in 
Germany, induced the emperor Francis to continue the war ; but his 
rising hopes were crushed by the battle of Hohenlinden, in which the 
French and Bavarians under Moreau completely defeated the imperial- 
ists, and opened a passage into Upper Austria. The emperor, alarmed 
for his hereditary dominions, consented to a truce, and this was soon 
followed by the treaty of Luneville, which annihilated for a season the 
Austrian influence in Italy. Scarcely had Great Britain lost one ally, 
when she was threatened with the active hostility of another. The 
Russian emperor, Paul, had been chosen patron of the order of St. John 
of Jerusalem ; and when the English, after having reduced Malta by 
blockade, refused to restore the island to the degenerate knights, the 
chivalrous potentate ordered the British ships in the Russian ports to 
be detained, and prevailed upon Sweden and Denmark to unite with 
him in an armed neutrality (a. d. 1801). In the meantime Mr. Pitt, 
who had so long presided over the councils of Great Britain, resigned 
his office as premier. When he was urging forward the great measure 
of the union with Ireland, he had endeavored to conciliate the catholics 
of that country by a promise of his aid in procuring a repeal of the laws 
which excluded them from parliament and office ; but the king's repug- 
nance to catholic emancipation was invincible, and Mr. Pitt retired from 
the cabinet. Mr. Addington, his successor, had scarcely been installed, 
when the gratifying intelligence was received of a great triumph ob- 
tained by the British navy in the Baltic. When Mr. Pitt received in- 
telligence of the armed neutrality, he sent a large fleet into the northern 
seas, under the command of Sir Hyde Parker and Lord Nelson. The 
latter, with twelve sail-of-the-line and some small vessels, attacked the 
Danish fleet, moored in a formidable position before their capital, and, 
after a desperate contest, took or destroyed every Danish ship that had 
a share in the engagement. The Danes were humbled by this loss, 
but they were still more disheartened by the death of the Russian em- 
peror, Paul, who was the founder and head of the northern confederacy. 
This potenate's incapacity provoked the indignation of the nobles and 
the people, and he was murdered by a party of conspirators, who placed 
his son Alexander upon the throne. The young prince concluded a 
treaty with the British on equitable terms, and the other northern pow- 
ers imitated his example. 

A British army, under Sir Ralph Abercrombie, had been sent to drive 
the French from Egypt, and it succeeded in this object, but with the 



*\ 



6S4 MODERN HISTORY. 

loss of its gallant commander. Some naval enterprises were less suc- 
cessful : and as there was now a stable government in France, the Eng- 
lish minister consented to commence negotiations for peace. The terms 
were soon arranged : France retained her acquisitions in Germany and 
the Netherlands, and her supremacy in Holland, Switzerland, and Italy. 
England consented to resign Malta to the knights, to make the Ionian 
islands an independent republic, and to restore all her colonial con- 
quests except Ceylon and Trinidad. The treaty was signed at Amiens, 
and for a short time Europe was deceived with a hope of continued 
tranquillity. 

During this war the maritime and commercial supremacy of England 
had been completely established, and her colonial empire in India ex- 
tended and secured. When the French invaded Egypt, Tippoo, the 
sultan of Mysore, inheriting his father's hostility to the English, medi- 
tated an attack on the company's territories, but he was anticipated by 
the vigor of the earl of Mornington, the governor-general, who, instead 
of waiting for an attack, invaded Mysore. Seringapatam, Tippoo's cap- 
ital, was taken by storm, and that unfortunate prince fell in the assault. 
This conquest made the British power supreme in southern India, and 
led to the establishment of the company's paramount authority over the 
whole peninsula of Hindustan. 

France had gained a vast accession of territory, but the freedom 
which the French had taken arms to defend was no more. The revo- 
lution, whose progress had been so strangely marked by savage crime 
and cruel suffering, was now fast finding its consummation in a military 
despotism, more arbitrary and crushing than the iron rule even oi' the 
feudal monarchs ; but the French, weary of the many vicissitudes that 
their government had- undergone, submitted to a change that promised 
future stability, and consoled themselves with dreams of glory for the 
loss of freedom. 



THE FRENCH EMPIRE. 655 



CHA.PTER X. 
THE FRENCH EMPIRE. 

Section I. — Renewal of the War between England and France. 

When peace was restored, Napoleon directed all his energies to con- 
solidate the power he had acquired. Permission was granted to those 
whom the violence of the revolution had driven from their country, to 
return, on certain conditions. Christianity, abolished in the madness of 
the preceding convulsions, was restoiifti, and arrangements were made 
with the pope for the future government of the Galilean church ; and 
finally, the consular power was conferred upon Napoleon for life, while 
a representative constitution preserved for the nation a mere shadow of 
freedom. His interference in foreign states was less honorable : he 
moulded the Italian and Ligurian republics at his pleasure ; but the 
Swiss proving more refractory, Marshal Ney entered their territory 
..with a large army, to enforce submission to the imperious dictates of 
the first consul. The British ministers remonstrated against this inter- 
ference, but they could not prevent the French from extending their in- 
fluence in Germany and Italy, as well as the Swiss cantons. Napoleon 
was less successful in his efforts to recover the island of Hispaniola or 
St. Domingo. A large French army was sent to the island, and the 
proceedings of its commanders were marked by gross cruelty and treach- 
ery ; but these abominable means failed to crush the spirit of the insur- 
gent negroes, and the unfortunate colony was exposed to all the horrors 
of a servile war. Great Britain did not interfere in this contest ; the 
example of a successful revolt of slaves was deemed of dangerous con- 
sequence to our West Indian islands, and the reduction of St. Domingo 
was desired rather than deprecated. 

But the encroachments of France on the independence of the neigh- 
boring states, and the determination of England to retain the island of 
Malta, gave rise to angry discussions, which, it was soon obvious, would 
only terminate in a renewal of hostilities (a. d. 1803). 

The English commenced the war by issuing letters of marque, author- 
izing the seizure of French vessels ; Napoleon retaliated, by seizing the 
persons of all the British whom pleasure or business had induced to 
visit France during the brief interval of peace. The threats of invasion 
were renewed, but the English people evinced a spirit of loyalty which 
quelled all fear of danger. In Ireland an unmeaning insurrection was 
raised by two enthusiasts, Russell and Emmett, but it was suppressed 
almost the instant it exploded, and a few of the leaders were capitally 



MODERN HISTORY. 

punished. Hanover, however, was occupied by a French army, and the 
Dutch repubhc joined in the war against Britain. On the other hand, 
the English conquered the French islands of St. Lucie and Tobago, and 
the Dutch settlements of Demerara and Essequebo. In Asia, the Eng- 
lish broke the dangerous power of the Mahrattas, who were supposed, 
at the instigation of the French, to have formed plans for the subversion 
of the company's power. The earl of Mornihgton, who had recently 
been created marquis of Wellesley, disconcerted their schemes by his 
vigor and promptitude ; and the formidable Scindiah was forced to pur- 
chase peace by the cession of a large portion of his dominions. The 
king of Kandi, who had assailed the British power in Ceylon, was also 
subdued, and the English colonial empire in Asia was at once enlarged 
and secured. The French colonial power was at the same time nearly 
annihilated : the island of St. Domingo was wrested from them hy the 
insurgent blacks, and erected into an independent state, under its an- 
cient Indian name of Hayti. These results might have been reasonably 
anticipated, for without a navy it was impossible for France to retain its 
colonies. 

Mr. Pitt had retired from office just before the conclusion of the 
peace, his friends became anxi^s that he should return to the admin- 
istration on the renewal of war, and Mr. Addington was forced to yield 
to their superior influence (a. d. 1804). The premier encountered 
many diiilculties in constructing a cabinet, and had to resist a more 
formidable opposition in parliament than he had been accustomed to 
meet. While Mr. Pitt was laboring to strengthen his ministry. Napo- 
leon was more successfully engaged in securing the supreme power in 
France. He accused his rivals, Moreau and Pichegru, of having plot- 
ted his destruction, in conjunction with Georges, a royalist leader, and 
charged the English ministers Avith having hired assassins to destroy 
him. A more atrocious crime was the murder of the most amiable of 
the Bourbon princes. The young duke D'Enghien was unjustifiably 
seized in the neutral territory of Baden, hurried to the castle of Vin- 
cennes, and shot by the sentence of a court-martial, contrary to all 
forms of law, as well as principles of justice. Immediately after the 
perpetration of this ruthless deed. Napoleon obtained the title of em- 
peror from his servile senate ; the dignity was declared hereditary in 
his family, and the principal powers of Europe, with the exception of 
Great Britain, recognised the new sovereign. 

The emperor of Russia was anxious to avenge the fate of the duke 
D'Enghien, his remonstrances against the usurpations of Napoleon were 
very warm, but none of the other continental sovereigns seconded his 
zeal, and the storm, which threatened to burst forth, soon subsided. 
Having no ally on the continent, England had no means of employing 
her military strength, and the operations of the war were confined to a 
few naval enterprises. Napoleon offered terms of peace ; but the 
British minister, relying on the probable co-operation of Russia, refused 
to negotiate (a. d. 1805). At the same time war was commenced 
against Spain, by sending out a squadron to intercept the Plate fleet, 
laden with the treasures of Spanish America. This attempt was made 
before hostilities were formally declared ; but the British minister jus- 
tified it by referring to the intimate connexion that had been formed be- 



THE FRENCH EMPIRE. 6"57 

tween the courts of Paris and Madrid. Mr. Pitt's conduct was ap- 
proved by large parliamentary majorities ; but he received a harsh 
proof of the decline of his influence, in the impeachment of his friend 
Lord Melville, for official delinquency. When the charge was made 
in the house of commons, Mr. Pitt vindicated the conduct of Lord 
Melville ; but, notwithstanding the minister's exertions, the impeach- 
ment was carried by the casting vote of the speaker. The premier 
was more successful in his foreign policy ; the emperor of Russia con- 
cluded a treaty with England for restraining the ambition of France, 
and Napoleon's encroachments in Italy induced Austria to accede to 
the league. 

Napoleon, at the request of the constituted authorities of the Italian 
republic, assumed the title of king of Italy ; and in the cathedral of 
Milan placed upon his head the ancient iron crown of the Lombard 
monarchs, and with less ceremony, annexed the territories of the Ligu- 
rian republic to the French empire. The Austrian emperor vainly re- 
monstrated ; and at length, relying on the aid of the Russians, publish- 
ed a declaration of war. Unfortunately, Francis commenced hostilities 
by an action as unjustifiable as any of which he accused Napoleon. 
The elector of Bavaria, whose son was in the French capital, declared 
himself neutral, upon wJiich the Austrian troops entered his dominions, 
treated them as a conquered country, and compelled him to seek refuge 
in Franconia. Napoleon eagerly seized the opportunity of branding 
his enemies as the aggressors in the contest, and declaring himself the 
protector of the liberties of Europe. 

The naval war was maintained by Great Britain with equal vigor 
and success. The French and Spanish fleets having formed a junction, 
sailed for the West Indies, but they were soon pursued by Lord Nel- 
son, the terror of whose name induced them to return to Europe. Off 
Ferrol they encountered an inferior squadron, under Sir Robert Calder, 
and lost two of their ships, but the rest reached the bay of Cadiz, where 
they were strongly reinforced. Lord Nelson, with twenty-seven sail- 
of-the-line, appeared off" the coast, and the French admiral Villeneuve, 
relying on his vast superiority of force, resolved to hazard an engage- 
ment. The allied fleets of France and Spain, amounting to thirty-three 
ships-of-the-line, besides frigates and corvettes, appeared near Cape 
Trafalgar, ranged in order of battle ; Nelson gave immediate orders for 
an attack, and the English fleet, advancing in two divisions, soon broke 
through the adverse line. In the heat of the engagement, the heroic 
British commander fell mortally wounded ; but he lived to know that 
his plans had been crowned with success, twelve of the enemies' ships 
having struck before he expired. A dreadful storm, which arose just 
after the battle closed, prevented the English from retaining all the 
fruits of their victory ; but four prizes reached Gibraltar, fifteen French 
and Spanish vessels were destroyed or sunk ; out of the fourteen which 
fled, six were wrecked, and four taken at a later period by Sir Robert 
Strachan. The joy which so brilliant a victory diff'used throughout 
England was chastened by grief for the loss of the gallant Nelson ; he 
was honorably interred at the public expense, and monuments were 
erected to his memory by a grateful nation. 

Napoleon consoled himself for his losses at sea by the prospect of 

42 



638 MODERN HISTORY. 

gaining some- decisive advantage over the Austrians before they could 
be joined by their Russian auxiliaries. He treated with contempt the ' 
threats of Gustavus, king of Sweden ; and it must be confessed that the 
pompous boasts of that eccentric monarch, combined with his vacilla- 
ting conduct, did not entitle him to much respect. The French army 
crossed the Rhine, and disregarding the neutrality of the king of Prus- 
sia, passed through the Franconian territories of that monarch, and 
having passed the Danube, began to menace the rear of the Austrians. 
In spite of the remonstrances of the archduke Charles, the cabinet of 
Vienna had intrusted the chief command of their armies to General 
Mack, Avhose talents and fidelity were both suspicious. Mack in a 
short time permitted himself to be surrounded by the French at Ulm ; 
he had ample means for a protracted defence, having twenty thousand 
men under his command, but through cowardice or incapacity, he con- 
sented to a capitulation, by which he and his soldiers became prisoners- 
of-war. Intelligence of the battle of Trafalgar came to abate Napoleon's 
triumph, while the courage of Francis was revived by the arrival of the 
Russian auxiliaries. The French, pushing forward, made themselves 
masters of Vienna ; but the Russians, encouraged by the presence of 
their emperor, though they had been severely harassed in Moravia, 
showed so much spirit, that the allies resolved to hazard an engage- 
ment. In the beginning of December, the hostile armies met near the 
village of Austerlitz ; Kutuzoff, who directed the movements of the 
allies, injudiciously extended his lines, with the intention of outflanking 
the French ; Napoleon at once saw and took advantage of the error, he 
separated the enemies' central divisions from those of both wings, and 
pouring his columns through the gaps, overwhelmed his foes in detail. 
After a desperate resistance, the Russians were forced to retreat ; a 
large body attempted to escape over a frozen lake, but the French artil- 
lery poured a storm of shot from a neighboring eminence, which broke 
the ice around the fugitives, and the greater part of them perished in 
the waters. This severe defeat humbled the emperor Francis ; he ac- 
cepted peace on the terms dictated by the conqueror, but the emperor 
Alexander refused to be a party to the treaty, and returned to his own 
country. 

During these transactions, the selfish conduct of the king of Prussia 
was as injurious to the allies as it was ultimately ruinous to himself. 
On the violation of his Franconian territories, he had taken arms, and 
entered into treaties Avith Great Britain and Russia ; but Napoleon, 
aware that the prompt movement of a third power might disconcert all 
his plans, contrived to keep awake the ancient jealousy between the 
sovereigns of Austria and Prussia, and he finally won the tacit appro- 
bation of the latter power by offering Hanover as a bribe. Thus the 
Prussian sovereign was induced to favor the alarming extension of 
French power by a share of the plunder of his own allies. 

The battle of Austerlitz was a fatal blow to Mr. Pitt ; he had been 
the chief agent in forming the coalition — he had loudly and boldly 
prognosticated its success, and had despised the warnings of his politi- 
cal adversaries ; the failure of all his hopes proved too much for his 
shattered constitution, and he died at the commencement of the parlia- 
mentary session (a. d. 1806). His parliamentary friends procured him 



THE FRENCH EMPIRE. 659 

a splendid funeral, and the payment of his debts at the national cost, 
and a monument was erected to his memory in Westminster Abbey. 

Section II. — Progress of Napoleon'' s Power, 

While Napoleon was establishing his supremacy over the continent 
of Europe, the marquis of Wellesley was further extending and securing 
the British empire in India, by humbling the Mahratta powers. Jess- 
wunt Holkar, a formidable chief, made a vigorous resistance, but he 
soon found that his soldiers could not cope with the disciplined troops 
of the company, and was forced to beg a peace. He obtained better 
terms than he could have expected, from the marquis Cornwallis, who 
succeeded the marquis of Wellesley, for the court of directors had 
found that conquests were very expensive, and that every new ac- 
quisition of territory became an additional source of expense. At this 
time the English nation generally took little interest in the affairs of 
India ; men's minds were more occupied by the change of ministry 
consequent on the death of Mr. Pitt. It was generally desired that as 
large a share of the talent of the country as possible, without reference 
to party, should be included in the new administration ; and Lord 
Grenville, to whom the arrangements were confided, overcame the 
king's reluctance to Mr. Fox, and made that gentleman one of the sec- 
retaries of state. The first measures of the ministers won them a con- 
siderable share of public favor ; Lord Henry Petty introduced order 
into the financial accounts, which were in such a state of confusion as 
to afford protection to fraud and peculation ; Mr. Fox proposed and 
carried the abolition of the infamous slave-trade, which had been so 
long a disgrace to England and to Christianity. The acquittal of Lord 
Melville by the house of peers was received with some surprise ; but 
the ministers appear to have acted impartially in avoiding any inter- 
ference that might influence the result of an oflicial investigation. 

The war was still prosecuted with great vigor ; the Dutch colony of 
the Cape was subdued, and a small force under Sir Home Popham and 
General Beresford, captured the important city of Buenos Ayres in 
South America. The provincials, however, disappointed in the hope 
of obtaining freedom and independence by British aid, took up arms, 
and the conquerors of Buenos Ayres were forced to capitulate, while a 
British armament was on its way to maintain the supposed conquest. 

Hastening lo secure the reward of his perfidy, the king of Prussia 
occupied Hanover, ceding to the French the dutchy of Cleves, and 
some other districts, as a reward for yielding him the electorate. Gus- 
tavus of Sweden joined the British court in remonstrating against this 
proceeding ; but as that monarch's actions were not very consistent 
with his menaces, the Prussians treated him with contempt. An ally 
of Britain was about the same time driven from his dominions. During 
the Austrian war, the king of Naples, encouraged by the withdrawal 
of the French troops from his territories, and instigated by his queen, 
an Austrian princess, received an army of Russians and English into 
his capital. Napoleon, provoked by this unexpected war, declared that 
the Bourbon dynasty had ceased to reign in Naples, and assembled an 
army to execute his threats just as the Russian and English forces 



660 MODERN HISTORY. 

were withdrawn. The invaders scarcely encountered any resistance, 
except in Calabria, where the peasants made a brief stand. The king 
of Naples fled to Sicily, and Napoleon conferred the vacant throne on 
his brother, Joseph Bonaparte. The peasants in Calabria and the 
Abruzzi, harassed the French by desultory attacks, and they were 
supported by Sir Sydney Smith, who commanded the Briiish naval 
force on the Sicilian station. The queen of Naples and Sir Sydney 
Smith prevailed on Sir John Stuart, the commander of the British force 
in Sicily, to transport his troops into Calabria ; the natives did not join 
the invaders in such force as had been expected, and they would have 
immediately returned, had not an opportunity offered of engaging the 
French general Regnier. The armies met at Maida, and the French, 
though greatly superior in number, were completely defeated. But the 
victory had no result except to raise the character of the British army, 
which had been for some time depressed. The French poured large 
bodies of soldiers into Calabria, and in a short time established their 
authority over the whole of the south of Italy. 

Having procured the throne of Naples for his brother Joseph, Napo- 
leon resolved to place his brother Louis on that of Holland. The 
Dutch submitted to the change without remonstrance, though their 
country thus became a mere province of France ; but they consoled 
themselves by reflecting on the mild character of their new sovereign, 
who was sincerely anxious to promote the prosperity of his subjects. 
His efforts, were, however, controlled by his imperial brother, who was 
anxious of becoming the arbiter of Europe, and rendering everything 
subservient to the military sway of France. Still Napoleon professed 
an anxious desire for peace, and made overtures to Mr. Fox, for whose 
character he professed and probably felt the highest veneration. The 
negotiations were broken off by the refusal of the French to admit the 
Russians to a share of the treaty, and by Napoleon's perseverance in 
retaining power inconsistent with the independence of the other Eu- 
ropean states. While the subject was under discussion, Mr. Fox died, 
and was succeeded in office by Mr. (afterward Earl) Grey : the con- 
ferences were continued, bvit M. Talleyrand, who was the representa- 
tive of France, insinuated that the change in the British cabinet blighted 
the hope of restoring tranquillity to Europe. 

The frustration of this negotiation led to a new war ; during the 
conferences, Napoleon's agents averred that the restoration of Hanover 
would not be refused ; the king of Prussia was indignant at the readi- 
ness with which this pretended friend sacrificed his interests ; Hanover 
had been the reward of subserviency, if not treachery, and he now 
found that he retained the bribe by a very insecure tenure. A more 
justifiable ground of indignation was the opposition which Napoleon 
gave to the efforts of the Prussians, in forming an association which 
might counterbalance the Confederation of the Rhine, an alliance that 
transferred to France the supremacy over Germany, that had formerly 
belonged to the house of Austria ; finally, it was more than suspected 
that Napoleon had offered to win the favor of the Russian emperor at 
the expense of his Prussian ally. Frederic William was further 
stimulated by his queen and his subjects ; the Germans generally were 
enraged by the military tyranny of the French, especially by the ju- 



THE FRENCH EMPIRE. 661 

dicial murder of two booksellers, who were shot pursuant to the sen- 
tence of a court-martial for circulating libels against Napoleon. 

Anger is an evil counsellor to nations as well as individuals ; yield- 
ing to the suggestions of indignation rather than prudence, the king of 
Prussia commenced hostilities before his own arrangements were com- 
plete, or liis allies ready to give him effective assistance ; and he in- 
trusted the command of his army to the duke of Brunswick, who pos- 
sessed the personal bravery of a soldier, but not the prudence and abil- 
ities requisite for a general. Louis, the king's cousin, impetuously 
advancing to seek the French, encountered a vastly superior force ; he 
was defeated and slain, a calamity that greatly dispirited the Prussian 
army. This was only the preliminary to the fatal battle of Jena ; the 
Prussians injudiciously posted, and badly commanded, were routed with 
great slaughter, and what was even worse than defeat, a dispute arose 
between them and their Saxon allies, which induced the latter to con- 
clude a separate peace with Napoleon. The success of the French 
was uninterrupted, Berlin opened its gates to the conquerors, and the 
division of the Prussian army, which had been long preserved unbroken 
by the heroic exertions of Marshal Blucher, was forced to capitulate. 
The fugitive king still preserved his courage, relying on the approach- 
ing aid of his Russian ally. Napoleon's forces advanced into Poland, 
where they were joined by many of the inhabitants, who were taught 
to hope that the French emperor would restore the independence of 
their native country ; but he was incapable of such generous policy, and 
in after-life, he lamented too late that he sacrificed the hopes of a brave 
and grateful people to the temporary gain of selfish ambition. The 
Russians successfully engaged the French at Pultusk, but they were 
unable to retain their advantages, and were forced gradually to retreat. 

Encouraged by his rapid success. Napoleon resolved to cnish, if 
possible, the commercial prosperity of Great Britain ; he issued a series 
of edicts from Berlin, declaring the British islands in a stale of block- 
ade, and excluding British maniifactures from all the continental ports. 
Every country that refused obedience to these decrees was threatened 
with immediate vengeance, and Portugal, so long the faithful ally of 
England, was marked out as the first victim (a. d. 1807). Great in- 
dignation was excited throughout Britain by the French emperor's 
adoption of this unparalleled system ; but it proved eventually more in- 
jurious to himself than to his enemies ; British manufactures and 
colonial produce were smuggled to the continent in various ways, and 
Napoleon was finally compelled to connive at the illicit traffic. But 
the menaces of the French had roused the spirit of the English people, 
and complaints were made of the want of vigor and success with which 
the war was supported. A second expedition against Buenos Ayres, 
under General Whitelock, disgracefully failed, though it must be con- 
fessed that the hatred of the Spanish provincials to the English, as 
strangers and heretics, would probably have prevented any permanent 
success in South America. An armament sent against Constantinople, 
to gratify our Russian ally by enforcing his demands on Turkey, was 
equally unsuccessful ; and an attempt to occupy Egypt, badly contrived, 
and worse executed, terminated in loss and disgrace. But the ministers 
might have overcome the unpopularity occasioned by these failures, had 



662 MODERN HISTORY. 

» 
they not displeased the king by introducijig a bill for opening the high- 
est dignities of the army and navy to Roman catholics. His majesty 
entertained religious objections to the measures ; he demanded that the 
cabinet should not only abandon it for the present, but give a promise 
that it should not be proposed at any future period. The ministers re- 
fused to give a pledge which they regarded as unconstitutional, and re- 
signed their offices. A new administration was formed under the 
auspices of the duke of Portland and Mr. Perceval ; an appeal was 
made to the country by a dissolution of parliament, and the tide of 
popular prejudice ran so strong against the preceding cabinet, that 
many, if not most of its supporters, were rejected by the electors. 

Russia vigorously maintained the war against Turkey, and gained 
some important advantages. The Turks, enraged by their losses, 
directed their vengeance against Sultan vSelim, whose attempts to in- 
troduce European reforms had offended their inveterate prejudices. 
The Janissaries deposed their unfortunate sovereign, and raised his 
cousin Mustapha to the throne ; but this revolution did not change the 
fortune of the war, for the Russians soon after gained a signal naval 
victory ofl' the island of Tenedos. 

But the Turkish war did not divert the attention of Alexander from 
the more important object of checking French ambition. Military 
operations were renewed during the winter, and a sanguinary battle at 
Eylau, in which each army lost more than twenty thousand men, led to 
no decisive result. In some minor engagements the allies had the 
advantage, but their gains were more than outbalanced by the loss of 
Dantzic, which, after an obstinate resistance, sun'endered to the French. 
Napoleon, on the fall of Dantzic, hastened to terminate the war by the 
decisive battle of Fiiedland ; the Russians fought with great bravery, 
but their generals were inferior in ability and experience to those of 
the enemy, and they were completely defeated. Koningsberg was 
surrendered immediately after this battle, and the existence of the 
Prussian monarchy now depended on the discretion or moderation of 
the conquerors. An armistice having been concluded, Napoleon sought 
a personal interview with the Russian emperor, and arrangements were 
sooa made for a conference of the two potentates on a raft in the river 
Niemen. In this and some subsequent interviews, Bonaparte won 
over the emperor Alexander to his interests, by stimulating that mon- 
arch's ambition for eastern conquest, and promises of support. Peace 
was restored by the treaty of Tilsit, all sacrifices M^ere made at the 
expense of the Prussian monarch, by whose distress even his Russian 
ally did not refuse to profit ; and when Frederic ventured to remonstrate, 
he was contemptuously informed that he owed the preservation of the 
miserable remnant of his kingdom to Napoleon's personal friendship for 
Alexander. 

The eccentric king of Sweden refused to be included in this pacifica- 
tion, but he was unable to prevent the French from occupying Stral- 
sund and the island of Rugen. Terms were arranged for a peace be- 
tween Russia and Turkey, but so many points remained open for dis- 
pute, that it was manifest war would be renewed at no distant period. 
The king of Prussia was forced, not only to accede to the Berlin de- 
crees, and exclude British manufactures and colonial produce from his 



THE FRENCH EMPIRE. 663 

dominions, but had also to receive French garrisons into his principal 
fortresses, and these troops treated the unfortunate Germans with such 
arrogance and cruelty, that they were almost reduced to despair. Na- 
poleon's power had now nearly touched the summit of its greatness, 
and had he been contented with what he had already acquired, it might 
have been permanent ; but his restless ambition hurried him soon into 
an unprincipled contest, which terminated in his overthrow. 

Section III. — The French Invasion of Spain. 

After the treaty of Tilsit, it was generally believed that Napoleon 
would endeavor to enforce the Berlin decrees by excluding the British 
from the navigation of the Sound, and that he would probably avail him- 
self of the Danish navy to execute his old project of an invasion. To 
prevent such an enterprise, a powerful armament was sent against Den- 
mark, which had hitherto remained neutral in the contest. An imperi- 
ous demand for the instant surrender of the Danish fleet and naval stores, 
to be retained as a deposite by the English until the conclusion of the 
war, being peremptorily rejected, the Danes were briskly attacked by 
land and sea. After Copenhagen had been furiously bombarded for 
four days, the Danish court was constrained to submit to the demands 
of the British, and the fleet was ' removed, while the indignant people 
could scarcely be prevented from avenging the national insult even by 
the presence of a superior force. 

The attack on Denmark furnished the Russian emperor with a pre- 
text for fulfilling the promises he made to Napoleon at Tilsit, and break- 
ing off his connexion with Great Britain. He complained in strong 
language of the disregard which England had ever shown for the rights 
of neutral powers, and the unscrupulous use that had been made of her 
naval supremacy, and many of the maritime states seconded his remon- 
strances. A second fleet was saved from the grasp of the French by a 
less unjustifiable proceeding than the attack on Denmark. Napoleon 
issued one of his imperious edicts, that " the house of Braganza had 
ceased to reign," and to enforce it, sent an army to occupy Portugal. 
The prince-regent of that country, at the instigation of the British, sailed 
with the Portuguese fleet for Rio Janeiro, where he resolved to hold 
his court until peace was restored. Asa retaliation for the Berlin de- 
crees, the British government issued orders in council, restraining the 
trade of neutrals with France, and all coimtries subservient to its power. 
Against these regulations the government of the United States of Amer- 
ica protested loudly, and their remonstrances assumed a very angry 
character, which threatened speedy hostilities. An attack made on an 
American frigate, whose captain refused to submit to having his ship 
searched by an English vessel of inferior force, was resented as a na- 
tional insult ; a proclamation was issued, excluding all armed British 
ships from the harbors and waters of the United States ; and an embargo 
was laid on British commerce. 

While the policy of the orders in council, and the proffered mediation 
of Austria to effect the restoration of tranquillity, were warmly discussed 
in the British parliament, events were occurring in Spain which gave 
the war an entirely new character and direction. 



6^ 



MODERN HISTORY. 



The annals of the world coxild scarcely supply a parallel to the pic- 
ture of degradation which the Spanish court presented at this period. 
Charles, the imbecile king, was the dupe of a faithless wife and an un- 
principled minister ; this unworthy favorite had been raised, by the 
queen's partiality, from an humble station to the highest rank ; Godoy, 
Prince of the Peace, as he was called, had neither abilities for the high 
office with which he was invested, nor strength of mind to support his 
elevation ; he excluded Ferdinand, the heir apparent, from all share in 
the government, and thus provoked the resentment of a prince who was 
as ambitious of power as he was unfit to possess it. But Ferdinand's 
evil dispositions were as yet unknown to the Spaniards, and when Go- 
doy attempted to ruin him by an accusation of treason, the people showed 
such discontent that Charles was forced to consent to his son's libera- 
tion. Napoleon won Godoy's support by proposing a partition of the 
peninsula, part of which should be assigned to the royal minion, as an 
independent sovereignty, and he thus obtained the means of pouring a 
large body of troops into Spain, and occupying the principal fortresses. 
Charles, intimidated by these proceedings, meditated flight to Spanish 
America, but finally resolved to resign his crown to Ferdinand (a. d. 
1808). By the intrigues of the French, Charles was induced to disa- 
vow his abdication, while Ferdinand was led to expect a recognition of 
his royal title from the emperor Napoleon. Deluded by such represen- 
tations, he proceeded to Bayonne, where he was contemptuously in- 
formed that " the Bourbons had ceased to reign ;" and on his refusal to 
resign his claims for the petty kingdom of Etruria, he was guarded as a 
prisoner. A fierce riot in Madrid, occasioned by preparations for the 
removal of the Spanish princes to France, was cruelly punished by 
Murat, who massacred multitudes of the unarmed populace. Soon after, 
Charles, accompanied by his queen, proceeded to Bayonne, and formally 
abdicated his crown in favor of Napoleon. Ferdinand, daunted by in- 
telligence of the massacre at Madrid, pursued the same course ; and the 
French emperor summoned his brother Joseph from the throne of Na- 
ples, to occupy that of Spain. The Neapolitan kingdom was given to 
Murat, whose eminent services to the French emperor were not over- 
paid, even by the splendid donation of a crown. Many of the Spanish 
nobles tamely acquiesced in this arrangement, but the great bulk of the 
nation rejected the intruding sovereign, and preparations to maintain 
Spanish independence were made in the principal provinces. Andalusia 
took the lead : Ferdinand VII. was proclaimed in Seville, war declared 
against Napoleon, and a junta, or council, chosen to direct the affairs 
of the government. A French squadron, which had been stationed in 
the bay of Cadiz, was forced to surrender to a Spanish flotilla ; but this 
would not have happened if the port had not been at the same time 
blockaded by the British fleet. 

In every province not occupied by French troops, the adult popula- 
tion offered military service to the different juntas ; the English sent 
large supplies of arms and ammunition, and released all their Spanish 
prisoners-of-war, a seasonable reinforcement to the patriotic armies. In 
their first contests with the invaders, the Spaniards obtained considera- 
ble success ; Marshal Moncey was repulsed from Valencia with great 
loss, and Marshal Dupont, with eight thousand men, was forced to sur- 



THE" FE-ENCH EMPmB. 6f5 

render to the patriot general, Castanos (July 20). On the very day 
that this unfavorable event occurred, the intrusive monarch made his 
triumphal entry into Madrid. Joseph Bonaparte, however, had neither 
the firmness nor courage of his brother Napoleon ; the moment he heard 
of Dupont's surrender, he plundered the treasury and royal palaces of 
their most valuable contents, and fled to Burgos. 

A bold example of Spanish heroism directed the attention of all Eu- 
rope to the struggle in the peninsula. The citizens of Saragossa, dis- 
trusting the fidelity of the captain-general of Aragon, deposed him, and 
chose for their leader Don Joseph Palafox, a nobleman of dauntless 
courage, though destitute of military experience. Their city was al- 
most destitute of defences, they had only a mere handful of regular sol- 
diers in the garrison, and they had a very limited supply of arms and 
ammunition. Notwithstanding these disadvantages, they sternly refused 
to admit the French, and prepared for a desperate resistance. All classes 
were animated with the same spirit ; the monks manufactured gunpow- 
der and prepared cartridges, the women shared the toil of raising forti- 
fications — even the children lent their feeble aid in such labor as was 
not beyond their strength. It is not wonderful that the French soldiers 
were daunted by such an heroic population. After a long and sangui- 
nary contest they abandoned the siege, leaving Saragossa in ruins, but 
immortalized by the patriotic courage that had enabled its undisciplined 
citizens to triumph over a regular army. 

The spirit of resistance soon extended to Portugal : the people of 
Oporto rose in a body, seized and imprisoned all the French they could 
find, and formed a junta under the superintendence of the bishop. A 
British force commanded by Sir Arthur Wellesley, stimulated and pro- 
tected these patriotic exertions. A French division, posted at Roleia 
to terrify the insurgents, was driven from its position by the allied forces, 
and the north of Portugal delivered from the invaders. Marshal Junot 
collected all the forces at his disposal to drive back the English ; he 
found Sir Arthur Wellesley at Vimiera, and immediately attacked his 
lines (August 21). After a brief but vigorous struggle, the French 
were defeated and driven in confusion toward Lisbon. Scarcely had 
the victory been won, when Sir Arthur Wellesley was superseded by 
Sir Hugh Dalrymple, who concluded a convention with Junot for the 
evacuation of Portugal, on terms that were generally regarded as too 
favorable to the French after their recent defeat. 

While Napoleon was pursuing his ambitious designs against Spain, 
Alexander of Russia was engaged in a war with Sweden, undertaken in 
an equally unjust and aggressive spirit. The English sent an army un- 
der Sir John Moore to assist their ally, but that general refusing to 
submit to the dictates of the eccentric, or perhaps the insane Gustavus, 
soon returned home. Though the Swedes fought with great courage, 
they were unable to resist the overwhelming force of the Russians, es- 
pecially as the limited resources of Sweden were wasted by Gustavus 
in senseless and impracticable enterprises. At length the Swedes grew 
weary of a sovereign whose conduct threatened the ruin of their country. 
He was arrested by some of his ofllicers, deposed, and the crown trans- 
ferred to the duke of Sudermania, who took the title of Charles XHI. 
(a. d, 1809). The new monarch was forced to purchase peace from 



666 MODERN HISTORY, 

Russia by the cession of Finland, and the exclusion of British vessels 
from the ports of Sweden. 

The Spaniards soon found that a central government was necessary 
to the success of their operations ; the different juntas, therefore, chose 
deputies who formed a supreme junta for the general conduct of the war. 
The marquis de la Romana, who had commanded a large body of Span- 
iards employed by the French in Holstein, was enabled to return home 
with his troops, by British aid, and take a share in the defence of his 
country. But the want of concert among the Spanish leaders, and of 
discipline among the soldiers, rendered them unable to cope with the 
French ; they were severely defeated at Durango, Reynosa, and Tude- 
la, and Napoleon soon appeared in Spain at the head of one hundred 
and fifty thousand men (a. d. 1808). 

A very exaggerated notion of the capabilities of the Spaniards appears 
to have been formed by the English ministers. They ordered Sir John 
Moore to advance with the British forces in Portugal to the aid of the 
patriot armies, but do not seem to have sufficiently investigated the ob- 
stacles by which his march was impeded. When Sir John Moore en- 
tered Spain, he found that the French were everywhere victorious, and 
that it was hopeless to expect such active co-operation from the Span- 
iards as would enable him to turn the scale. After some hesitation, 
finding himself in danger of being surraunded, he retired rather precipi- 
tately into Gallicia. The English soldiers, in their retreat, displayed 
great courage whenever they were attacked by the French ; but in other 
respects, their conduct was so disorderly that it was stigmatized by the 
general himself as disgraceful. At length a halt was made at Corunna, 
where the troops remained until the transports prepared for their em- 
barkation could arrive from Vigo. In this position they were attacked 
by the French ; but the English soldiers, though dispirited by their late 
retreat, and worn down by fatigue, compelled the enemy to retire. Sir 
John Moore was mortally wounded in this battle, and was buried on the 
field. The embarkation of the army was very feebly resisted, and 
though the British gained no honor by the campaign, its conclusion im- 
pressed the enemy with greater respect for English patience and valor 
than they had previously been accustomed to entertain. 

At the beginning of the year 1809, the possession of Spain seemed 
assured to Napoleon, but neither the Spaniards nor the British despaired 
of final success. The English parliament readily voted the necessary 
supplies for the defence of Spain and Portugal, and reinforcements were 
sent to the peninsula. About the same time, his royal highness the 
duke of York was accused of having connived at some abuses in the 
command of the army ; he was acquitted by a great majority of the 
house of commons, but he deemed it prudent to resign his situation, and 
Sir David Dundas was appointed commander-in-chief. 

Austria once more resolved to try the hazards of war. The emperor 
Francis was induced to take this precipitate step by the harsh remon- 
strances and menaces of Napoleon. Taking advantage of the absence 
of the large body of French troops employed in Spain, the archduke 
Charles entered Bavaria and took possession of Munich. But the rapid 
measures of Bonaparte baffled the Austrian calculations ; he speedily 
collected a large army and defeated the archduke at Eckmuhl, so se- 



THE FRENCH EMPIRE. 667 

verely, that he was compelled to cross the Danube. Vienna was thus 
opened to the conqueror, and Napoleon took possession of that capital. 
The archduke was still undismayed ; he attacked the French in their 
positions at Asperne and Essling. The battle was very sanguinary and 
obstinate ; it terminated to the advantage of the Austrians, but they had 
suffered such severe loss that they were unable to profit by their victory. 
The failure of the archduke John, in Italy, more than counterbalanced 
the success of the Austrians at Asperne, and was the chief cause of 
their final overthrow at Wagram (July 5). It would be impossible to 
describe within reasonable limits the various conflicts that terminated 
in this result ; suffice it to say, that the Austrians were driven from all 
their positions, forced to retreat in confusion, and only saved from total 
ruin by an armistice. 

The Tyrolese and Voralbergers had been transferred to the king of 
Bavaria by the treaty of Presburg, but their national privileges and im- 
munities had been guarantied by the articles of pacification. But Maxi- 
milian Joseph was as regardless of a compact as his master Napoleon ; 
he violated the Tyrolese constitution without scruple, crushed the peas- 
ants with severe taxes, and punished remonstrances as seditious. The 
Tyrolese seized the opportunity of the Austrian war to raise the standard 
of revolt ; success attended their early operations, and the Bavarians 
were expelled from the principal towns. A French army entered the 
country and laid it waste with fire and sword ; but the Tyrolese, ani- 
mated by an heroic peasant named Hoffer, expelled the invaders once 
more, and secured a brief interval of tranquillity. When the total de- 
feat of the Austrians at Wagram compelled the emperor Francis to ac- 
cept peace on any terms, the Tyrolese were assailed by overwhelming 
forces ; they made a desperate resistance, but the French and Bavarian 
columns penetrated their fastnesses, desolated the land with fire and 
sword, and punished the leading patriots as rebels. Hoffer was taken 
prisoner and put to death by tiie sentence of a court-martial ; Mayer, 
another gallant chieftain, shared the same fate, and the green hills of 
Tyrol were again subjected to Bavarian tyranny. 

Several efforts were made in Germany to shake off the French yoke. 
Schill, who commanded a regiment in the Prussian service, collected a 
considerable force and harassed the French detachments in Saxony and 
Westphalia, but he was defeated and slain by some Dutch and Danish 
troops, near Stralsund. The duke of Brunswick made a bold effort to 
recover his hereditary dominions, but after the overthrow of the Aus- 
trians he despaired of success, and sought refuge in England. The 
archduke Ferdinand invaded Saxony, while Napoleon's brother Jerome 
trembled for the security of his Westphalian throne, in consequence of 
the progress of General Kienmayer. But the success of Napoleon in 
Austria frustrated the exertions of the patriots in the north of Germany, 
especially as no effort was made to send them support from England. 

The attention of the British ministry was occupied by an expedition 
of a very different nature, for which the most ample preparations were 
made. A fleet of thirty-seven sail-of-the-line, twenty-nine ships of 
inferior rate, besides small craft, and an army of forty thousand men, 
were sent to the island of Welcheren, on the coast of Holland. After 
many delays, the fort of Flushing was besieged and taken ; but Antwerp, 



668 MODERN HISTORY. • 

which was the great object of attack, had, in the meantime, been se- 
cured, and tlie commanders despaired of success. Soon afterward the 
pestilential climate of Walcheren spread disease through the British 
army and navy ; the greater part of the forces returned to England ; the 
progress of the disease soon rendered the removal of the remainder ne- 
cessary, and the only result of this costly armament was the destruction 
of the fortificationo of Flushing. Their naval successes in some de- 
gree consoled the English for this disappointment. Lord Cochrane de- 
stroyed four vessels, forming part of a French squadron, in Basque- 
roads, and irreparably injured several others ; Lord CoUingwood was 
similarly successful in the Mediterranean, and the French were deprived 
of their remaining colonies in the West Indies. 

Some European islands, especially those called the Ionian, were 
added to the British dominions, a proceeding which gave some offence 
to the new sultan of Turkey, Mahmoud II., who had been elevated to 
the throne on the deposition of his cousin Selim and his half-brother 
Mustapha. But the progress of the Russian arms induced Mahmoud 
to court an alliance with Great Britain, and jealousy of the same power 
inclined the Persian shah to renew his former friendly connexions with 
England. 

Though the Russian emperor did not join Napoleon in the war 
against Austria, he received a share of the provinces which Francis 
was forced to resign, in order to purchase peace. But though the Aus- 
trian emperor was compelled to make many great and painful sacrifices, 
he obtained more favorable conditions than had been anticipated ; and 
Napoleon received general praise for the moderation with which he 
used his victory. The secret cause of this affected generosity was 
subsequently revealed, and proved that it resulted from a plan for 
more effectually securing his despotism over Europe. 

After the retreat of the British from Corunna, the French seemed to 
have permanently secured possession of Spain. Though the marquis 
de la Romana and the duke del Infantado held out against the invaders, 
yet Saragossa was taken, in spite of the heroic resistance of its inhab- 
itants ; and Soult having invaded Portugal, made himself master of 
Oporto. Victor also advanced toward the same country, and, on his 
march, overthrew the Spanish army of Estremadura. But Oporto was 
soon recovered by a British force under Sir Arthur Wellesley, and the 
removal of a large body of the French to take part in the Austrian war 
revived the courage of the Spaniards. Sir Arthur Wellesley, believing 
it possible to strike an important blow before the French grand army 
could be reinforced, boldly, and perhaps rashly, advanced into Spain. 
He was attacked at Talavera (July 28), by the united forces of Jour- 
dan, Victor, and Sebastiani, who were rather the masters than the ser- 
vants of the nominal king, Joseph Bonaparte. British valor has rarely 
been more nobly displayed than in this engagement ; the French were 
beaten back at every point, and had the Spaniards displayed the same 
courage and zeal as their allies, the retreat might have been changed 
into a total rout. The misconduct of the Spaniards, indeed, deprived 
the English of the chief fruits of their victory ; they were soon com- 
pelled to act only on the defensive, and to retreat slowly toward the 
frontiers of Portugal. Nor were the patriots more successful in other 



• THE FEENCH EMPIEE. 669 

quarters ; they did not, however, despair, and the supreme junta pub- 
lished a spirited proclamation, animating the national courage, and con- 
voking an assembly of the cortes or estates of the realm, to form a 
fixed constitutional government. 

The celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the king's accession 
diff"ased joy through England. About the same time the death of the 
duke of Portland, and some dissensions in the cabinet, led to a partial 
change in the ministry. Mr. Perceval was appointed premier, and sev- 
eral angry debates ensued in both houses of parliament. The oppo- 
nents of the ministry failed in procuring a condemnation of the Wal- 
cheren expedition ; but, during the discussion, party* spirit raged with 
great violence, and Sir Francis Burdett, having assailed the privileges 
of the house of commons in very unmeasured terras, was ordered to be 
committed to the Tower. He declared his intention to resist the war- 
rant, but was arrested and committed to the Tower by a military force. 
The soldiers, on their return, were assaulted by the mob, and a riot 
ensued, in which several lives were lost. At the close of the session, 
the popular baronet was liberated, as a matter of course ; he brought 
actions for what he regarded as an illegal arrest, against the speaker 
and the serjeant-at-arms, but the court of King's Bench disallowed his 
claims, and supported the privileges of the house of commons. 

These ebullitions of party violence did not weaken the British cabi- 
net, though they induced the enemies of England to believe the coun- 
try on the verge of a convulsion. France was apparently tranquil, and 
Napoleon revealed the secret of his moderation at Vienna, by procuring 
a divorce from the emperess Josephine, the faithful companion of his 
fiarmer fortunes, and offering his hand to the archdutchess Maria Louisa, 
daughter of the emperor Francis (a. d. 1810). This marriage, which 
seemed permanently to establish Bonaparte's power, became eventually 
the principal cause of his ruin, for it alarmed all the northern powers, 
and especially the Russians, who justly feared that Napoleon, secured 
by the Austrian alliance, would strive to make himself absolute master 
of Europe. His arbitrary conduct to Holland justified these suspi- 
cions ; he removed his brother from the throne of that country, and an- 
nexed it as a province to France. 

The disputes respecting the trade of neutrals, between England and 
America, began to assume a very hostile aspect, and it was feared that 
war could not long be delayed. But public attention was diverted from 
this subject to the struggle in Portugal, where Sir Arthur Wellesley, 
who had recently been created Lord Wellington, nobly sustained the 
honor of the English arms. The French army, strongly reinforced, 
was placed under the command of Massena, prince of Essling ; the 
fortresses of Astorga, Ciudad Rodrigo, and Almeida, were captured ; 
Lord Wellington retired slowly before a superior force, and Massena 
flattered himself that he would soon obtain possession of Lisbon. His 
presumption was first checked at Busaco, where the British made a 
stand and inflicted a severe check on their assailants ; but the hopes 
of the French were completely destroyed when they saw Lord Wel- 
lington take up his position in the formidable lines of Torres Vedras. 
Not daring to advance, and ashamed to retreat, Massena remained for 
more than a month watching his cautious adversary, and losing thou- 



670 MODERN HISTOUY. • 

sands of liis men by disease or desertion. He at length retreated to 
Santarcrn, but though he received a large reinforcement, he did not 
venture to resume ofl'ensive operations. 

A desuUory war was maintained in Spain ; the patriot armies vi^ere 
usually defeated in regular engagements, but the invaders were severely 
harassed by the incessant attacks of the guerilla parties ; convoys were 
intercepted, stragglers cut off, and outposts exposed to constant danger. 
Cadiz, the residence of the supreme junta and the seat of government, 
was besieged, but the strength of its works and the ease with which 
relief was obtained by sea, prevented the French from making any 
progress in its reduction. The cortes assembled in this city and framed 
a form of constitutional government, which, however, had many violent 
opponents among the higher orders of the nobility and clergy. 

Most of the French and Dutch colonies in the Indian seas were 
subdued, under the direction of Lord Minto, the governer-general of 
India, a nobleman whose judicious administration of affairs in the east, 
not only extended the British dominions in the east, but suppressed a 
dangerous mutiny in the presidency of Madras, occasioned by the adop- 
tion of economical regulations, which curtailed the allowances made to 
officers in the company's service. 

In the north of Europe, little of moment, in war, occurred ; the 
Danes and Russians had some trivial naval engagements with English 
vessels ; but Sweden was the theatre of a most extraordinary revolu- 
tion, which, for a time, added her to the enemies of England. The 
crown prince died suddenly, not without some suspicion of poison, 
and the Swedish senate tendered the succession to Charles .Tohn Ber- 
nadotte, one of Napoleon's most celebrated marshals, who had won their 
favor by the leniency and prudence he displayed some years before in 
the north of Germany. Bernadotte accepted the offer, to the secret 
annoyance of Napoleon, who had long been jealous of his military fame 
and independent spirit. 

Civilized Europe might now be said to be arrayed against Great 
Britain, but the spirit of its inhabitants did not sink. Its sovereign, 
afflicted by grief for the loss of his favorite daughter, was seized by the 
disease ,under which he had formerly suffered, and fell into a state of 
mental derangement, from which he never afterward recovered (a. d. 
1811). The prince of Wales was appointed regent, under restrictions 
similar to those proposed by Mr. Pitt in 1789, but these were subse- 
quently removed when it was found that he intended steadily to pursue 
his father's system of policy. 

It was not long before Lord Wellington reaped the fruits of his 
prudent arrangements for the defence of Portugal. Massena was 
forced to retreat from Santarem, but before he evacuated the country, 
he ravaged it in the most frightful manner, destroying many noble 
monuments of architecture in mere wantonness. The British parlia- 
ment voted the sum of one hundred thousand pounds for the rehef of 
the Portuguese, and a liberal subscription for the same purpose was 
formed by private liberality. Almeida was the only town in Portugal 
retained by the French ; it was blockaded by the allies, and Massena's 
efforts to relieve it led to the battle of Fuentes d'Onor. The engage- 
ment was severe, but British valor triumphed ; the garrison of Almeida, 



THE FRENCH EMPIRE. 671 

(lisheartened by the defeat of their countrymen, evacuated the place, and 
Portugal was delivered from the presence of an enemy. 

The liberation of Spain was a more difficult task, and it was ren- 
dered still more so by the surrender of Badajoz to Marshal Soult, after 
a very brief and ineffective defence. Lord Wellington sent Sir William 
Beresford to recover this important place, but the advance of the French 
from Seville, compelled that general to raise the siege. The united 
forces of the British and Spanish encountered the French at Albuera, 
and gained an important victory ; Badajoz was once more invested, but 
the approach of Soult on one side and Marmont on the other, induced 
Lord Wellington to retire beyond the Tagus. But in his anxiety to 
save Badajoz, Soult had so much weakened the force whiah blockaded 
Cadiz, that the Spaniards resolved to hazard an expedition against the 
invading armies in Andalusia. General La Pena, aided by the British 
lieutenant-general, Graham, undertook to direct these operations, and 
great hopes were entertained of success. But though Graham obtained 
a brilliant victory at Barossa, over Marshal Victor, no efforts were made 
to follow up his success. In the other Spanish provinces, the patriotic 
armies were still more unfortunate ; Mina, indeed, from his mountains, 
threatened and harassed the invaders, but the other Spanish leaders 
showed themselves equally deficient in courage and conduct. Neither 
did all the expected advantages result from the assembling of the cortes ; 
they prepared, indeed, a constitutional code, which, however, was 
scarcely suited to the Spanish people ; but they maintained the onerous 
restrictions on the colonial trade, and thus gave deep offence to the 
South American provinces, and drove them to organize plans for self- 
government. 

In other quarters the war was more favorable to British interests ; 
the island of Java was wrested from the Dutch ; several flotillas were 
destroyed by English frigates in the Italian seas, and an attempt made 
by the Danes to recover the island of Anholt, in the Baltic, was 
defeated by the gallant garrison. Sweden could scarcely be said to 
be at war with Great Britain; Bernadotte soon discovered that sub- 
serviency to France was inconsistent with the interests of his adopted 
country, and he secretly entered into negotiations with the Russian 
emperor for restoring their mutual independence. But Alexander was 
still too deeply engaged in pursuing the favorite policy of the czars, and 
establishing the supremacy of Russia on both sides of the Black sea, 
at the expense of Turkey and Persia. His success was far from an- 
swering his expectations ; the wild tribes of the Caucacus severely 
harassed the invaders of Asiatic Turkey ; and though Kutusoff was 
more successful on the European side, his acquisitions were obtained 
by a very disproportionate expenditure of blood and treasure. The dis- 
organized state of the Turkish provinces prevented the sultan from effec- 
tively defending his dominions ; in most of them a military aristocracy 
had usurped the chief power of the state, and in Egypt especially, the 
Mameluke beys acted as independent princes. Mohammed Ali, pacha 
of Egypt, finding that the beys would not submit to his power, and fear- 
ing the hazards of civil war, invited them to a banquet, where they 
were all ruthlessly massacred. The sultan applauded this perfidy, but 



673 MODERN HISTORY. 

ere long he found Mohammed Ali a more dangerous subject than the 
turbulent lords whom he had removed. 

The mental disease of George III. showed no symptoms of improve- 
ment, and as the time approached when the restrictions imposed on the 
authority of the prince regent would expire, some anxiety was felt about 
the probable fate of the ministry. But the prince regent had become 
reconciled to the cabinet, and after a faint effort to gain the support of 
Lords Grey and Grenville, it was resolved that no change should be 
made in the government (a. d. 1812). At a later period in the year, 
negotiations were resumed, in consequence of the murder of Mr. 
Perceval ; the premier was shot in the lobby of the house of commons, 
by Bellingh^m, a merchant, who believed that the ministers had shown 
indifference to his fancied claims on the Russian government. After 
some delay, the old cabinet was reconstructed, under the auspices of 
the earl of Liverpool, and the plans for forming a united administration 
were abandoned. 

Lord William Bentinck, the British minister in Sicily, strenuously 
exerted himself to remedy the evils which the imbecility of the king 
and the tyranny of the queen had introduced into the government of 
that island. He succeeded in procuring the establishment of a consti- 
tution similar to that of Britain ; and the island began to enjoy peace 
and prosperity in a greater degree than had been experienced for several 
centuries. 

A change in the Spanish constitution revived the courage of the 
nation ; a new regency, the promulgation of the constitutional code, 
and various reforms in the different branches of the administration, 
gave fresh spirit to the Spaniards, and inspired hopes of final success. 
Lord Wellington opened the campaign with the siege of Ciudad 
Rodrigo ; the, capture of this important fortress was followed by that 
of Badajoz, but the victors suffered severe loss of both places. Wel- 
lington, who had been created an earl for these exploits, next marched 
against Marmont, and took the important city of Salamanca. Mar- 
mont, strengthened by large reinforcements, hoped not only to defeat 
the British, but to intercept their retreat. As he extended his lines 
for this purpose, Wellington seized the favorable opportunity, and, 
pouring his whole force on the weakened divisions, gained the most 
complete victory that the allies had yet won in the peninsula. Indeed 
if the Spaniards had displayed the same energy as the British and the 
Portuguese, Marmont's entire army would have been ruined. Still the 
immediate results of the battle of Salamanca were very great ; Madrid 
was evacuated by the intrusive king Joseph ; the blockade of Cadiz was 
raised ; and the city of Seville was taken by Colonel Skerret and the 
Spanish general La Cruz. 

The failure of the British at the siege of Burgos, the want of con- 
cert in the Spanish councils, and the great reinforcements received by 
the French, compelled Wellington to resign the fruits of his victory ; he 
retired leisurely to the frontiers of Portugal, and firmly waited an oppor- 
tunity for renewing his efforts. But events in other parts of the globe 
were producing the most important results in favor of Spanish independ- 
ence ; the South American colonies, alarmed by an earthquake which 
was superstitiously believed to be a visitation of Providence, returned to 



THE FRENCH EMPIRE. 673 

their allegiance, and the Russian emperor prepared to measure his 
strength with the colossal power of Napoleon. 

Section IV. — The Russian War. 

No long time after the conclusion of the peace of Tilsit, Alexander 
began to doubt the prudence of the compact he had made with the 
•Prench emperor, and the subsequent marriage of Napoleon to aa 
Austrian princess gave him fresh grounds of alarm. The Austrian 
.emperor, however, was not very sincerely attached to his son-in-law ; 
Napoleon had given his infant son the title of king of Rome, a very 
..plain intimation of his design to retain his hold on Italy. The interests 
of his subjects, many of whom were almost ruined by the suspension 
of the trade with Great Britain, compelled Alexander to seek for some 
jelaxation of the restrictive system established by the Berlin decrees ; 
■but Napoleon would not abandon his favorite policy, and the discus- 
sions between the courts of St. Peterburgh and Paris began to assume 
an angry and even hostile tone. Both parties, however, professed an 
anxious desire for peace, and Napoleon even made overtures to the 
British government, but as he refused to restore Spain to its legitimate 
sovereign, or to withdraw his troops from Prussia, negotiations were 
fruitless, and both sides prepared for war. 

Alexander entered into alliance with Sweden and England : Napo- 
leon arrayed under his banners the military strength of western and 
southern Europe. But the selfishness of the French emperor in the 
very outset deprived him of the best security for success ; to secure the 
aid of Austria, he refused to restore the independence of Poland, and 
thus lost the hearts of a brave and enthusiastic race of warriors, who 
would have powerfully aided his advance, or effectually covered his 
retreat. Trusting to the vast number of his victorious legions. Napoleon 
crossed the Niemen, routed a division of Cossacks at Kowno, and 
directed his march to the capital of Lithuania. The Russians retired 
before the French deliberately, wasting the country as they retreated. 
Several sharp battles were fought without any important result ; but 
the hopes of the Russians were raised by the conclusion of a treaty 
with the Turks, which enabled them to direct all their energies to repel 
the invaders. Napoleon with his main body directed his march toward 
Moscow, while a large division of his forces menaced the road to St. 
Petersburgh. The Russians repelled the latter, but the main force of 
the invaders advanced to Smolensko, which was justly regarded as the 
bulwark of Moscow. A dreadful battle was fought under the walls of 
Smolensko ; it terminated in favor of the French, but they purchased 
-their victory very dearly, and the Russians made an orderly retreat. 

Kutusoff" now assumed the command of the Russians, and resolved to 
hazard another battle for the protection of Moscow ; he fixed upon 
3. position near the village of Borodino, and there firmly awaited the 
.enemy. The battle was furious and sanguinary, nearly seventy thou- 
sand of the combatants fell without giving to either side a decisive 
victory. The Russians indeed maintained their ground ; but the French 
having been joined by new reinforcements, Kutusoff" was forced to re- 
treat and abandon Moscow to its fate. This ancient capital of the 
.czars is revered by the Russians, as Jerusalem was by the Jews ; they 

43 



0M MODERN HISTORY. 

give it the fond name of Mother Moscow, and regard it as the sanctuary 
of their nation. But when the invaders approached, the citizens re- 
solved not only to abandon their beloved metropolis, but to consign it to 
the flames. Napoleon entered Moscow, and took up his residence in 
the Kremlin, the ancient palace of the czars ; but while he was holding 
a council, fires broke out in various parts of the city, and though many 
of the incendiaries were shot, it was found impossible to check the 
conflagration. 

When the greater part of the city was destroyed, its stores con- 
sumed, and all supplies cut ofl^. Napoleon found himself in a very 
embarrassing position. With great reluctance he gave orders for a 
retreat, and the French obeyed with so much precipitation, that they 
were unable to complete the demolition of Moscow. Before the fugi- 
tives had proceeded far on their route, they began to experience the 
horrors of a Russian winter ; thousands became the victims of cold and 
hunger, while their pursuers, taking courage from their calamities, 
harassed them severely at every step. It had been Napoleon's inten- 
tion to make a stand at Smolensko, but the magnitude of his losses, 
the disorganized state of his army, and the increasing want of provisions, 
rendered such a course impossible. Once more the French had to 
undertake a perilous march, amid the rigors of the severest winter ever 
known, pursued by enraged enemies, deprived of food, of clothing, and 
of shelter. Language fails to describe the horrors of such a retreat ; 
every hour added to the miseries of the sufferers ; they lost the disci- 
pline of soldiers, and almost the semblance of men. The passage of 
the Borodino was one of the most terrific scenes recorded in history ; 
in their eagerness to place the river between themselves and their pur- 
suers, the French rushed in a disorderly crowd over the bridges, under 
a heavy fire of artillery from the heights behind them. Eight thousand 
■were killed or drowned in this calamitous passage, and long before all 
had crossed over, Napoleon ordered the bridges to be set on fire, aban- 
doning twelve thousand of his followers to the mercy of the irritated 
Russians. Napoleon at length resolved to provide for his personal 
security, and fled to Paris, where indeed some revolutionary attempts 
rendered his presence necessary ; the miserable remnant of his once 
mighty host found a precarious shelter in Poland. 

In the meantime Great Britain was engaged in active hostilities with 
the United States. The Americans twice invaded Canada, but were 
defeated ; they were more successful at sea, where the superiority of 
their frigates in size and weight of metal to the British vessels of the 
same denomination, secured their victory in some engagements between 
single ships. But this war attracted comparatively but little attention ; 
every mind was too deeply occupied with the great struggle on the 
continent of Europe. 

The domestic affairs of England, though of importance, did not di- 
vert attention from the contest with Napoleon. An unfortunate pub- 
licity was given to the discords between the prince regent and his con- 
sort ; a bill for emancipating the catholics was rejected, after having 
passed several stages, in the house of commons, and the charter of the 
East India company was renewed for twenty years. Notwithstanding- 
his recent reverses, Napoleon found that he still possessed the confi- 



THE FRENCH EMPIRE. ^^^ 

dence of the French nation, a large conscription was ordered to supply 
the losses of the late campaign ; and the emperor having provided for 
the internal security of his dominions, hasted to the north of Europe, 
where he had to encounter the hostility of a new enemy. 

It was with great reluctance that the king of Prussia sent an army 
to serve under Napoleon, and the officers and soldiers of the contingent 
were far from being anxious for the success of the cause in which they 
were engaged. During the retreat, one Prussian corps separated itself 
from the division to which it was attached, and concluded a convention 
of neutrality ; as the Russians advanced, the Prussian monarch took 
courage to assert his independence, and he entered into alliance with 
Alexander. But notwithstanding his recent losses, Napoleon had as- 
sembled an army numerically superior to those of his adversaries ; in 
three sanguinary battles the French gained the advantage, but they 
were unable to obtain a decided victory ; and Napoleon, alarmed by 
the magnitude of his losses, and the obstinacy of his enemies, consent- 
ed to an armistice. During the truce the British government encour- 
aged the allies by large subsidies, and the aid of Sweden was pur- 
chased not only by money, but by a promise to aid that power in the 
acquisition of Norway. But what was of far greater importance, the 
emperor of Austria was induced to abandon the cause of his son-in-law, 
and take an active part in the confederation for restraining the power 
of France. 

Napoleon, establishing his headquarters at Dresden, commenced a 
series of vigorous operations against his several foes. They were at 
first successful ; but the tide of fortune turned ; several of his divisions 
were defeated, the Bavarians joined the allies, and at length the baffled 
emperor retired to Leipsic. Under the walls of this ancient city the 
battle was fought which decided the fate of Europe (Oct. 18). While 
the result of the engagement was yet undecided, the Saxon troops in. 
the French service deserted in a body to the allies, and the position 
thus abandoned was immediately occupied by the Swedish forces. 
Napoleon's soldiers, driven from their lines in every direction, were 
compelled to seek shelter in Leipsic, but, as the city was incapable of 
defence, a further retreat became necessary. The French emperor 
gave the requisite orders, but did not wait to see them executed ; the 
evacuation of the city was not completed when the allies forced an en- 
trance ; the French, entangled in the streets, suffered very severely, 
and many were drowned as they crowded over the narrow bridge, 
which was their only path of safety. The bridge was blown up before 
the whole of the fugitives could pass, and this obstruction of the retreat 
swelled the number of the slain and the captives. 

The battle of Leipsic liberated Germany ; Napoleon fled to France, 
his followers were severely harassed in their retreat, especially as the 
Bavarians made a vigorous effort to intercept them at Hanau ; their 
sufferings were very great, and multitudes were made prisoners by the 
allied armies, as they advanced to the Rhine. Bernadotte was natu- 
rally reluctant to join in the meditated invasion of France, but he under- 
took the task of expelling the enemy from the circle of Lower Saxony. 
At his approach, the Hanoverians eagerly seized the opportunity of de- 
livering themselves from a foreign yoke, and returning once more under 



676 MODEEN HISTORY. 

the paternal government of the Guelphs. The flame of independence 
spread to Holland, and kindled even the cold bosoms of the Dutch, 
Insurrections broke out in the principal towns, the hereditary claims of 
the house of Orange were rapturously acknowledged, and when the 
stadtholder arrived from England, he found the Hollanders eager, not 
only to acknowledge his former power, but to extend it by conferring 
on him the title of royalty. 

While the allies were thus triumphant in Germany, Wellington was 
now gloriously occupied in the liberation of Spain. Early in the 
spring, he concentrated his forces near Ciudad Rodrigo, and by a series 
of able movements, compelled the French not only to abandon their 
positions on the Douro, but to retire beyond the Ebro. Marshal Jour- 
dan, who exercised the real authority, for Joseph was king only in 
name, resolved to make one vigorous effort for the maintenance of the 
French power, and chose a strong position near Vittoria, as the theatre 
of a decisive engagement. The allied army advanced with an eager- 
ness that insured success ; the heights that protected the hostile lines 
were successively stormed, and at length the French were forced to 
retreat in such disorder, that they abandoned their artillery, baggage, 
and military chest. In the east of Spain the allies were less success- 
ful ; Sir John Murray, on the approach of Marshal Suchet, abandoned 
the siege of Tarragona with unnecessary precipitation ; but the arrival 
of Lord William Bentinck prevented the enemy from profiting by this 
partial success. 

When the news of the battle of Vittoria reached Napoleon, he sent 
Marshal Soult from Germany to take the command of the army in 
Spain, where Pampeluna and St. Sebastian had been invested by 
Wellington, now raised to the dignity of marquis. Soult's operations 
were vigorous, but unsuccessful ; his forces were unable to make any 
impression on the British lines, and so severe was their repulse, that 
they fled to their own frontiers. St. Sebastian was soon after taken by 
storm, but not without a very severe loss to the conquerors, and the 
British now prepared to invade France. 

The allies crossed the Bidassoa, and advanced slowly but steadily 
toward Bayonne : Soult showed great courage and talent in his arrange- 
ments, but his efforts were foiled by the superior valor of the British 
soldiers, and two regiments of Dutch and Germans quitting his lines, 
went over to the camp of his allies. Spain was now free, but the efforts 
of the enlightened portion of the cortes to secure its future happiness, 
by the establishment of a constitutional government, were frustrated by 
the interested opposition of the clergy, and the ignorant bigotry of the 
people. 

■ The war between Great Britain and the United States continued to 
be maintained with the obstinacy that characterizes the quarrels be- 
tween " foes who once were friends ;" but it was not productive of any 
important event. The Americans were unsuccessful in their repeated 
invasions of Canada, but they established their naval superiority on the 
lakes, while the honor of the British ffag was nobly maintained in the 
engagement between the frigates Chesapeake and Shannon. 

The memorable year 1814 opened with the invasion of France ; the 
Russian, Prussian, and Austrian armies forced an entrance through the 



THE FRENCH EMPIRE. 677 

eastern frontiers, while Wellington was making an alarming progress 
on the western side. Never, in the hours of his greatest success, did 
Napoleon display more promptitude and ability ; but he had beaten his 
enemies into the art of conquering, and even partial success was inju- 
rious, because it inspired hopes which prevented him from embracing 
the proffered opportunities of negotiation. Several furious but indeci- 
sive battles were fought ; the allied armies had moved at too great a 
distance from each other, and it was not until they had suffered severely 
for their error, that they learned the necessity of a combined plan of 
operations. But in other quarters the success of the allies was more 
decided ; Bernadotte completed the liberation of the north of Germany, 
and not only intimidated the Danish court into an abandonment of the 
French alliance, but enforced its consent to the transfer of Norway ; 
thence he marched to the Netherlands, where the allies had made con- 
siderable progress, though General Graham had been baffled, with 
much loss, in an attempt to surprise Bergen-op-Zoom. 

But Napoleon was much more alarmed by the progress of Welling- 
ton in the southwest of France. The English general having driven 
the French from their posts, crossed the Adour, and invested the cita- 
del of Bayonne. As he advanced, the old partisans of the Bourbons 
began to revive, the exiled family was proclaimed, and the white flag 
hoisted at Bordeaux. More mortifying was the defection of Murat ; 
eager to secure his crown, the king of Naples entered into a secret 
treaty with Austria, and lent his aid in the expulsion of the French 
from Italy. 

• But in the meantime the fate of France was decided ; Napoleon 
moved his main army eastward, hoping to intimidate the allies into a 
retreat, by threatening their communications. Blucher and Prince 
Schwartzenberg immediately decided on marching to Paris, and having 
defeated the forces of Marmont and Mortier, who guarded the road, 
soon came in sight of that metropolis. The outworks that defended 
Paris Avere stormed, and the intimidated citizens hastened to secure 
their persons and property by a capitulation. The allied sovereigns, 
Frederic and Alexander, made a triumphant entry into the city (March 
3]), and were hailed as liberators by the fickle populace. 

When Napoleon heard that the Austrians had effected a junction 
with the Prussians, he hasted back to defend his capital, but before he 
reached Fontainebleau the capitulation had been signed, and a pro- 
visional government installed, without any regard to his authority. On 
the 2d of April he was formally deposed ; and on the 6th of the same 
month, Louis XVIII. was invited to ascend the throne of his ancestors. 
A constitutional charter was framed for the protection of the French 
people, and Napoleon was promised the sovereignty of the island of 
Elba, and a pension. Before intelligence of these events was received 
in the south, a sanguinary battle had been fought between the armies 
of Soult and Wellington at Toulouse, which ended in the complete dis- 
comfiture of the former ; but the British general sincerely lamented a 
triumph which had been purchased by a useless expenditure of human 
life. 

On the 3d of May, Louis XVIII. returned from his tedious exile, 
and landed at Calais. The preliminaries of a general peace were sign- 



678 MODERN HISTORY. 

ed at Paris ; and it was arranged that the details and the adjustment of 
the claims of the different European princes should be referred to a 
future convocation at Vienna. 

Section V. — History of Europe from the dethronement of Napoleon to the 
Conclusion of the Treaty of Vienna. 

Before his final overthrow, Napoleon liberated the captive Ferdi- 
nand, well aware that Spain would have little reason to rejoice in the 
restoration of such a sovereign. No sooner had he obtained his free- 
dom than he annulled all the proceedings of the cortes, re-established 
the old despotism with all its abuses, and even revived the horrors of 
the inquisition. Several of those who had most strenuously resisted 
the French invasion Avere punished by imprisonment or exile, their 
attachment to constitutional freedom being deemed to outweigh their 
former services. The allies could not be blamed for the perfidy and 
tyranny of Ferdinand, but they incurred just censure by aiding in the 
forcible annexation of Norway to Sweden, against the earnest remon- 
strances of the inhabitants, and they displayed little policy in uniting 
Belgium to Holland, for the countries were opposed to each other in 
their religious creeds and commercial interests. 

The American war was protracted more in a spirit of revenge than 
sound policy ; a sanguinary but indecisive struggle took place in Cana- 
da ; an English armament captured Washington, the capital of the 
United States, and destroyed the public buildings ; but similar attacks 
on Baltimore and New Orleans were repulsed with great loss. Peace 
was at length concluded at Ghent, and we may confidently hope that 
hostilities will never again be renewed between two nations so closely 
united by the ties of language, religion, and blood. Before this war 
was terminated, the emperor Alexander, and Frederic, king of Prussia, 
accompanied by their most distinguished marshals and statesmen, per- 
sonally visited England, and were received with great enthusiasm. 
But the convulsion produced in the commercial world by the sudden 
transition from war to peace, was necessarily followed by numerous 
bankruptcies and great distress, which threw a shade of gloom over the 
general joy. 

The conduct of Louis XVIII. immediately after his accession to the 
throne, was calculated to win popularity ; but the establishment of a 
censorship over the press, his anxiety to restore the power and influence 
of the clergy, and to remunerate the loyal emigrants who had shared 
the calamities of his exile, gave general offence, and revived the courage 
of the friends of Napoleon. A secret conspiracy was formed for re- 
storing the emperor, and he, dreading that the allied powers, whose 
plenipotentiaries were assembled at Vienna, would remove him from 
Elba to a place of greater security, resolved to make a bold efibrt for 
the recovery of his throne. Accompanied only by eleven hundred men, 
he landed at Frejus (March 1, 1815), and advanced into the interior of 
the country. At first he received little encouragement ; but being 
joined by the garrison of Grenoble, and supported by secret promises 
of aid from other divisions of the army, he proceeded to Lyons, where 
he held his court. Louis made a spirited appeal to the loyalty of the 



THE FRENCH EMPIRE. 679> 

French nation ; but Marshal Ney having set the example of defection, 
all the soldiery declared in favor of the emperor ; and Louis, compelled 
to abandon his kingdom, sought safety in Ghent. 

Though the allied powers had shown a great want of vigilance and 
caution in not preventing, as they easily might have done, the escape 
of Napoleon, they were not for a moment undetermined in resolving on 
the course of action rendered necessary by that event. A proclamation 
was issued by the congress of Vienna, denouncing him as the common 
enemy of Europe, and excluding him from the pale of civil and social 
relations. A treaty was concluded, by which each of the four powers, 
Russia, Prussia, Austria, and England, engaged to maintain an army 
of 1 50,000 men until they had rendered Napoleon incapable of disturb- 
ing the tranquillity of Europe ; and the Prussians and the English at 
once began to assemble their forces on the northern frontiers of France. 

Napoleon, disappointed in his hope of procuring the acquiescence of 
the allied powers in his usurpation, prepared boldly to meet the danger 
by which he was menaced. He gratified the vanity of the Parisians 
by the splendid ceremonial of proclaiming a new constitution in the 
Champ de Mars, and at the same time he made the most vigorous ex- 
ertions to recruit his armies and supply his military stores. In a short 
time, far shorter than had been anticipated, his troops were ready for 
action, and instead of waiting for the attack of his enemies, he resolved 
to become the aggressor. The first brunt of the war fell on the Prus- 
sians, who vi^ere driven from their advanced posts. Blucher immediately 
concentrated his forces at Ligny ; while the duke of Wellington, with 
the British and subsidiary troops, occupied a parallel position at Quatre 
Bras. The main body of the French attacked the Prussian lines, and, 
after a sanguinary battle, compelled Blucher to abandon Ligny (June 
16) ; but his retreat was effected in good order, and in a very few 
hours his troops were ready to renew the fight. In the meantime the 
British had defeated the enemy at Quatre Bras, but the retreat of the 
Prussians rendered a corresponding movement necessary on their part ; 
and Wellington led his army to the memorable position of Waterloo. 

Flushed by his recent victory over the Prussians, Napoleon, on the 
morning of the 18th of June, appeared in front of the English position, 
and commenced an attack, in full assurance of success. His first eflfort 
was directed against Hougoumont, a post which protected the English 
right ; but after a murderous conflict, the French were baffled, and the 
place maintained. The emperor's next effort was to turn the left wing 
so as to intercept the communication with the Prussians, but this still 
more signally failed ; Sir Thomas Picton's division, though with the 
loss of their Ijrave commander, repulsed the French infantry, while the 
Scotch Greys, aided by a corps of dragoons, routed the French cavalry, 
particularly the cuirassiers, who fondly deemed themselves invincible. 

A third great effort was made against the centre, and at first some 
advantages were gained. The French seized the farm of La Haye 
Sainte, which covered the position, and poured masses of cavalry and 
infantry on the British lines. But Wellington, forming his troops in 
hollow squares, maintained a steady resistance, and the efforts of the 
baffled assailants gradually relaxed. At this moment the Prussian 
troops began to appear on the right flank of the French, and to take a 



680 MODERN HISTORY. 

share in the engagement. Napoleon now mustered his guard for one 
decisive engagement, but did not, as was expected, place himself at 
their head. The imperial guard advanced under a perfect storm of ar- 
tillery and musketry from the British lines, which had been gradually 
advanced after the defeat of the former attacks. They attempted ta 
deploy, under this formidable fire, but their lines were shaken, and they 
began to fall into confusion. Wellington seized the decisive moment 
to charge ; the effect was instantaneous, not a single French soldier 
remained to cross a bayonet ; and as the British pressed forward, the 
retreat was soon a perfect rout. As the English were too much fa- 
tigued to pursue the fugitives, that duty devolved upon the Prussians, 
and they executed it with the vigor of men who felt that they had the 
wrongs of their country to avenge. Out of the entire French army not 
more than forty thousand men could again be imbodied. 

Napoleon continued his melancholy flight to Paris, where he soon 
found that his reign was at an end. He abdicated the crown in favor 
of his son, but while his resignation was received, the acknowledgment 
of Napoleon II. was evaded. He lingered so long in the hope of some 
favorable change, that his opportunities of escape were cut off, and he 
was forced to seek refuge on board a British man-of-war. After some 
discussion respecting his destination, it was resolved that he should be 
imprisoned for life, in the island of St. Helena ; and to this rock, in the 
Atlantic ocean, he was sent, with a small train of attendants. 

Murat's fate was still more calamitous ; no sooner had he heard of 
Napoleon's landing in France, than he renounced his alliance with 
Austria, and endeavored to unite all the Italians in a league against' 
that power. His efforts completely failed ; his forces were routed at 
Ferrara, the cowardly Neapolitans could not be induced to make any 
effective resistance, and finally he fled disguised from his kingdom. 
His restless ambition induced him, with only thirty followers, to make 
an effort to recover his dominions ; he landed on the Calabrian coast, 
but he was made a prisoner, and shot by sentence of a court-martial. 

After the victory at Waterloo, the Prussians and the British advanced 
toward. Paris, without encountering any serious opposition. The two 
legislative chambers were reluctant to restore the king, at least un- 
conditionally, but their appeal to the nation was disregarded, and on. 
the nearer approach of the allies, a convention was concluded by which: 
Louis was restored. A few of Napoleon's most strenuous supporters 
were excluded from the act of amnesty ; Ney and Labedoyere were 
shot, but Lavalette escaped by the aid of his wife and some British, 
ofiicers. 

The future peace of Europe now depended on the congress of Vienna, 
but the decrees of this body were guided more by the convenience of 
sovereigns, than the wishes of nations. The ancient republics of 
Venice and Genoa were abolished ; the territories of the former were 
given to Austria, while the latter were assigned to the king of Sardinia ; 
Poland was annexed to the territories of Russia, and the Prussian do- 
minions enlarged at the expense of Saxony. W^hen these arrange- 
ments were completed, the sovereigns of Austria, Russia, and Prussia, 
entered into a solemn compact called the Holy Alliance ; the professed 
object of the treaty was to preserve the peace of Europe, on the prin- 



THE FRENCH EMPIRE. 681 

ciples which God, in his revelation, has pointed out as the source of 
tranquillity and prosperity. But the contracting parties understood by 
these principles the maintenance of despotic power, and made their en- 
gagement a pretext for resisting the efforts made subsequently, by 
several nations, to establish constitutional freedom. 



683 MODERN HISTORY. 



CHAPTER XT. 
HISTORY OF THE PEACE. 

Section I. — State of Europe at the Close of the War. 

When the sanguinary and expensive wars arising out of the French 
revolution terminated, the different nations of Europe that shared in the 
contest were so enfeebled and harassed, that they sank at once into 
inactive repose. But the transition from war to peace made such a 
complete change in all commercial transactions, that credit was shaken, 
trade injured, manufactures checked, and thousands suddenly deprived 
of employment. These evils were more sensibly felt in England than 
in any other country ; for while the tide of war swept over every 
other European state, England, protected by her insular situation, en- 
joyed internal tranquillity, and was enabled to sell with profit, not only 
her manufactures, but her agricultural produce to less favored countries. 
Peace permitted the people of the continent to supply themselves with 
many of the articles which they had previously been forced to import ; 
and the jealousy with which the continental sovereigns began to regard 
the commercial prosperity of England, induced them to encourage na- 
tive manufactures ; hence the demand for British goods and produce 
suddenly slackened, and distress was felt by every portion of the com- 
munity. Several serious riots occurred in the agricultural distress ; 
but still more alarming symptoms of dissatisfaction were displayed in 
the metropolis, where meetings were held under pretence of procuring 
a reform in the constitution, but which threatened to end in revolution. 
Several strong restrictive statutes were passed by parliament, and 
energetic, if not severe measures adopted by the government ; it was 
not, however, until the commercial crisis had passed over, and the 
embarrassments of transition disappeared that the public tranquillity 
was restored. 

There were not, however, wanting more cheering occurrences which 
relieved the gloom ; the piratical states of Algiers were humbled ; Lord 
Exmouth, with a united squadron of English and Dutch, attacked the 
city of Algiers, destroyed its fortifications, and compelled the dey to 
abolish Christian slavery (a. d. 1816). Great joy was also diffused by 
the marriage of the princess Charlotte, the pride and the hope of Eng- 
land, to Prince Leopold of Saxe Coburg. But the expectations of the 
nation were fatally disappointed ; the princess died on the 6th of 
November, 1817, after having been delivered of a dead child. The 
national sorrow was general and profound, and there never was an 
occasion in wliich the British nation showed greater regret for the loss 
of an individual. But this was only the beginning of a series of deaths 



HISTORY OF THE PEACE. "583 

in the royal family ; Queen Charlotte died during the ensuing year, she 
was soon followed to the grave by the duke of Kent, and finally, the 
aged monarch George III., without having enjoyed one lucid interval 
■during his long illness, sank quietly into the tomb. 

France, much to the surprise of the neighboring states, enjoyed the 
blessings of tranquillity under the mild and conciliatory government of 
Louis XVIII. The revolution, a^id its consequent wars, had given the 
chief property of the country, and consequently the elements of politi- 
cal power, to the middle classes of society ; their interests could only 
be secured by the preservation of peace, and they became zealous roy- 
alists, because they regarded the monarchy as the surest pledge for the 
maintenance of public order. Some of them carried their zeal to such 
extravagant lengths that they provoked resistance, and the king was 
forced to interfere, to prevent the ill consequences that were likely to 
aresult from the indiscretion of those who claimed to be his best friends. 

The united kingdom of the Netherlands, though apparently tranquil, 
was secretly shaken by the national antipathy between the Belgians and 
the Dutch. Gratitude induced the sovereign to accede to the holy alli- 
ance, a circumstance which gave great offence to many of his subjects, 
especially in Flanders, where a republican spirit, fostered by municipal 
institutions, had prevailed from the time of the Middle Ages. 

Great disappointment was felt in Germany, by the delay or refusal 
of the constitutions, which the several states had been taught to expect 
during the war of independence. But the principal sovereigns, es- 
pecially the emperor of Austria and the king of Prussia, alarmed by the 
remembrance of the calamities that political innovations had produced 
in France, steadily opposed every change in the forms of government, 
but, at the same time, zealously labored to secure to their subjects the 
benefit of a just and enlightened administration. 

Spain was far more unfortunate ; the imbecile Ferdinand was the 
tool of the courtiers and the priests ; at their instigation he revived the 
ancient principles of despotism and bigotry, punishing with remorseless 
severity every expression of liberal sentiments in politics or religion. 
The arbitrary conduct of the court was not the only cause of the mis- 
ery that prevailed in the Peninsula ; the South American colonies, 
which had long been regarded as the chief and almost the only source 
of the small share of commercial prosperity which the Spaniards re- 
tained, openly revolted, and raised the standard of independence. Fer- 
dinand made some faint efforts to subdue the insurgents, but he was 
badly supported by his subjects, and the troops he had assembled refu- 
sed to embark. Finally, the liberals having gained over a great portion 
of the army, compelled the king to establish a democratic constitution, 
.by which the royal power was almost annihilated (a. d. 1820). Simi- 
lar revolutions took place in Portugal, Naples, and Piedmont ; alarm 
seized the minds of the European sovereigns, and they secretly com- 
bined to check popular movements. But experience soon proved that 
those who had framed the Spanish constitution were ignorant of the 
wants and wishes of the Spanish people. Louis XVIII. alarmed for 
the safety of France by the revolutionary movements in Spain, sent an 
army, under the command of the duke of Angouleme, to restore the 
royal authority ; the invaders encountered no effective opposition ; the 



684 



MODERN HISTORY. 



cortes fled before them to Cadiz, and when the French approached that 
city, they permitted the king to resume his former despotic authority 
(a. d. 1823). The revohitions of Naples and Piedmont ended similarly ; 
the liberals laid down their arms on the approach of the Austrian ar- 
mies, and the new constitutions were abolished. 

The accession of Charles John Bernadotte, to the crown of Sweden, 
made no change in the politics of the^ northern nations ; his right of in- 
heritance had been solemnly recognised by the allied sovereigns, at the 
congress of Vienna, and his conduct as a crown-prince had taught the 
Swedes to respect and love the monarch they had chosen. Even the 
Norwegians became reconciled to their fate, and learned to console 
themselves for the loss of national independence by the blessings that 
result from paternal government. 

No sooner was peace restored between Great Britain and the United 
States than the old feelings of friendship and kindred revived between 
the two countries, and the leading statesmen, in both, showed an earn- 
est desire to have former animosities buried in oblivion. But far dif- 
ferent were the feelings between Spain and her revolted colonies ; the 
South American states vigorously maintained their struggle for inde- 
pendence, and finally succeeded. The English government delayed 
acknowledging these republics until the duke of Angouleme had crossed 
the Pyrenees, when consuls were sent out to the chief states, and com- 
mercial treaties formed with their governments. 

From this rapid sketch, it will be seen that throughout the greater 
part of the civilized world there was a struggle between the principles 
of monarchy and democracy, and that even England, though it had long 
enjoyed the blessings of a free constitution, was not wholly exempt 
from the agitation. 

Section II. — History of Europe during the reign of George IV. 

George IV. had so long wielded the supreme executive power in 
England, under the title of regent, that no political change was made 
or expected when he assumed the royal dignity. A month had not 
elapsed after his accession, when a plot was discovered for the murder 
of air his majesty's ministers, and thus facilitating a revolution, which 
Jiad been planned by a few obscure enthusiasts. The conspirators used 
to assemble in Cato street, an obscure place near the Edgeware road ; 
they were arrested in their rendezvous, just as they were preparing to 
execute their project, all their plans having been betrayed to govern- 
ment by a spy who had pretended to join in the conspiracy. Such 
were the insanity and misery of these wretched men, who proposed to 
subvert a powerful government, that when they were searched, not even 
a shilling was found among the whole party. The government pitying 
their delusion, punished only the ringleaders, and this clemency had a 
beneficial effect in calming political agitation. 

Preparations were now made for the king's coronation, when they 
were suspended by an event which excited more public interest, and 
stimulated more angry passions than any other which had occurred for 
several years. This was the return of Queen Caroline to England, and 
her subsequent trial before the house of lords. Her marriage had beea 



HISTORY OF THE PEACE. 685 

unfortunate almost from the commencement ; she was early separated 
from her husband ; after the lapse of some years, her conduct was 
made the subject of official inquiry ; at the commencement of the re- 
gency she was excluded from court, and these indignities induced her 
to quit England. She visited the most celebrated spots along the coast 
of the Mediterranean, and then selected a permanent residence in that 
part of Italy subject to the Austrian government. Reports injurious to 
her character were circulated ; commissioners were sent to Milan to 
investigate them, and the ministers, in consequence of the evidence 
thus collected, excluded her name from the liturgy, on the king's acces- 
sion. Irritated at such an insult, she resolved to return to England, 
though a pension of fifty thousand pounds annually was offered to pur- 
chase her submission, and though she was informed that her landing 
would be the signal for the commencement of a prosecution. 

No sooner had the queen landed, than messages were sent to both 
houses of parliament, recommending that her conduct should be inves- 
tigated. " A Bill of Pains and Penalties" was introduced, to deprive 
her of royal rights and dignities, and a trial commenced which lasted 
forty-five days, when the bill was read a second time by a majority of 
forty -five. On the third reading, however, the ministers could only 
command a majority of nine, and the bill was abandoned. During these 
proceedings, the agitation of the public mind knew no bounds ; ad- 
dresses to the queen poured in from all sides, and when the bill was 
abandoned, her friends celebrated her escape as an acquittal. The re- 
mainder of her melancholy history may be briefly told : her popularity 
sank as rapidly as it had risen ; she was refused a share in the ceremo- 
nial of the coronation ; her appeals to the nation were disregarded ; 
and the sense of disappointment and degradation produced a mortal dis- 
ease which terminated her unhappy life. Her funeral was marked by 
a disgraceful riot : the mob determined that her remains should pass 
through the city of London, and triumphed over the troops that tried to 
carry the hearse by a different route. 

Soon after his coronation the king visited Ireland, Scotland, and 
Hanover ; he was everywhere received with the greatest enthusiasm, 
but the permanent results expected from these visits were not realized. 
In Ireland, party spirit blazed more furiously than ever, and the depre- 
ciation of agricultural produce rendering it difficult for tenants to pay 
their rents, led to a series of agrarian outrages which could only be 
checked by severe coercive laws. The distress of the lower classes, 
which indeed almost exceeded credibility, was relieved by a general 
and generous subscription in England, which arrested the progress of 
a pestilential disease, produced by famine and distress. 

England suffered severely from the financial difficulties produced by 
the immense expenditure of the late war. While statesmen were en- 
gaged in devising means to alleviate the pressure of taxation. Napoleon 
Bonaparte, the cause of so many calamities, died almost unnoticed in 
his place of exile at St. Helena. During the king's visit to Scotland, 
Lord Londonderry, who had so long directed the foreign affairs of Eng- 
land, committed suicide ; his place was supplied by Mr. Canning, who 
was supposed to be favorable to what was called a more liberal line of 
policy than that of his predecessor. 



QM MODERN HISTORY. 

The distracted condition of Spain at this period engaged the atten- 
tion of Europe. Ferdinand had been compelled to grant his subjects 
a free and almost a republican constitution, but the ministers forced 
upon him by the cortes, showed little wisdom or moderation, and the 
proceedings of the cortes themselves were unworthy the dignity of a 
deliberative assembly. In consequence of these errors, a large party 
was formed in the Peninsula to restore absolute monarchy ; several 
bodies of insurgents were raised by the monks and friars, who feared that 
the estates of the monasteries and the church would be confiscated ; 
they called themselves the " Army of the Faith," and were zealously 
supported by the lower ranks of the populace. Under these circum- 
stances, a congress of the European powers was held at Verona, and a 
resolution was adopted for subverting the Spanish constitution, and re- 
storing the absolute power of the king. The duke of Wellington, on 
the part of England, refused to sanction this design, and the execution 
of it was intrusted to the king of France, who was naturally anxious 
to check the progress of revolutionary principles, before his own throne 
was endangered by the contagion. 

Early in the year 1823, the due d'Angouleme entered Spain at the 
head of a powerful army ; the constitutionalists made but a feeble re- 
sistance, and the king was restored to absolute authority with little 
trouble. Ferdinand made a bad use of his power ; he persecuted all 
whom he suspected of liberal principles with the utmost severity, and 
revived all the ancient abuses which had so long disgraced the govern- 
ment of Spain. Though the English ministers maintained a strict 
neutrality during this contest, they severely censured the conduct of 
the French government, and as a counterpoise, they recognised the in- 
dependence of the South American republics, which had withdrawn 
themselves from their allegiance to Spain. 

During the Spanish war, which excited little interest, the sympathies 
of civilized Europe were engaged in the Greek revolution, which, how- 
ever, was a barbarous and sanguinary struggle, that for many years 
seemed to promise no decisive result. The principal members .of the 
Holy Alliance viewed the Greek insurrection with secret dislike, for 
they regarded it as a rebellion against legitimate authority ; but the young 
and enthusiastic spirits throughout Europe viewed it as a just revolt 
against Turkish tyranny, and hoped that its success would restore the 
classical ages of Greece. Among the many volunteers who went to aid 
the insurgents was the celebrated poet, Lord Byron ; before, however, 
they could profit by his services, he was attacked by fever, and died 
prematurely at Missolonghi. 

Commercial embarrassments and political disputes diverted the atten- 
tion of England from foreign afTairs ; a sudden rage for speculation 
seized the people ; projects and joint-stock companies were multiplied 
without number, but suddenly the bubbles burst, and a terrible reaction 
ensued. The panic in the money-market was equal to the overween- 
ing confidence which had led to these extravagant speculations. But 
the evil was transitory, and it had perhaps some beneficial influence in 
limiting attention to those branches of trade best suited to the condition 
of the country. Political agitation was not so easily cured ; the lead- 
ers of the Irish catholics formed an association to procure the repeal of 



HISTORY OF THE PEACE3. 687 

the restrictive laws by which members of their church were excluded 
from parliament and offices of state. This body assumed all the forms 
and some of the functions of a legislative assembly, and though an act 
of parliament was passed for its suppression, the statute was eluded by 
the legal skill of the popular leaders in the association. 

Soon after Mr. Canning's accession to power, the attention of all 
Europe was excited by an event which seemed to prove that England 
had not only deserted the principles of the Holy Alliance, but was about 
to take her position at the head of a more liberal political system. On 
the death of John VI., king of Portugal (March 10, 1826), the crown 
devolved to his eldest son, Don Pedro, who reigned, with the title of 
emperor, over the old Portuguese colonies in Brazil. Compelled to 
choose between his empire and his kingdom, Pedro selected the former ; 
but he sent to Portugal a constitutional charter, and a formal resignation 
of the crown in favor of his daughter Donna Maria. Pedro's brother, 
Don Miguel, the queen dowager, and the most bigoted portion of the 
clergy, labored hard to frustrate this arrangement, and their machinations 
were encouraged by the French and Spanish cabinets. Several Portu- 
guese regiments were induced to desert across the frontier and proclaim 
Don Miguel absolute king. As the Spanish government notoriously 
supplied the rebels with military stores and arms, the Portuguese min- 
ister applied to the British government for aid, and a message was sent 
to both houses of parliament, calling on them to aid in maintaining the 
independence of Portugal. Mr. Canning introduced the subject in the 
house of commons, describing the situation and policy of Great Britain, 
placed as a mediator between the conflicting opinions that convulsed 
Europe ; and such was the effect of his eloquence, that only four per- 
sons in a full house could be got to oppose the address. A British ar- 
mament was sent to the Tagus : its effect was instantaneous and deci- 
sive. The French diplomatic agent was recalled, the Spanish cabinet 
forced to desist from its intrigues, and Portugal restored to temporary 
tranquillity. 

Death and disease among the great and noble of the land produced 
some important changes in the councils of Great Britain. In the be- 
ginning of the year 1827, the duke of York, who had solemnly pledged 
himself to oppose the claims of the catholics to the utmost, sank under 
disease. He was sincerely lamented even by his political opponents ; 
for his conduct in the management of the army, ever since he had been 
restored to the office of commander-in-chief, had deservedly won for him 
the honorable appellation of " the soldier's friend." Soon afterward 
the earl of Liverpool, who by his conciliating conduct as premier, had 
held together the friends and the opponents of catholic emancipation in 
the cabinet, was seized with a fit of apoplexy, which terminated his po- 
litical existence, though his natural life was protracted for several 
months. Mr. Canning, who had long been a distinguished advocate of 
the catholic claims, was appointed his successor, upon which all the 
members of the cabinet, opposed to concession, resigned in a body. 
The fatigues and anxieties imposed upon him proved too much for the 
new premier : he sank under them, and was succeeded by Mr. F. Rob- 
inson, who was at the same time raised to the peerage, with the title 
of Lord Goderich. Before relating the overthrow of this feeble minis- 



688 MODERN HISTORY. 

try, we must turn our attention to the events in another part of the globe, 
which accelerated its downfall. 

Notwithstanding the horrid atrocities committed on both sides during 
the Greek war, the sympathies of Christendom in favor of the insurgents 
continually increased ; it was expected that Alexander, emperor of Rus- 
sia, would have taken some measures in their favor, but he died rather 
suddenly while engaged in a survey of his southern provinces. At this 
crisis, the sultan, unable to crush the revolt by his own strength, sought 
the aid of his powerful vassal, Mohammed Ali, the pacha of Egypt. 
This provincial governor, who had acted for some time more like an in- 
dependent monarch than a tributary, readily sent his adopted son, Ibra- 
him Pacha, with a powerful army, into the Morea. The excesses of 
the Turks and Egyptians were so shocking to humanity, that the Euro- 
pean powers felt bound to interfere, especially as the protracted contest 
was very pernicious to the commerce of the Levant. A treaty for the 
pacification of Greece was concluded in London between Russia, 
France, and England, by which it was stipulated that Greece should 
enjoy a qualified independence under the sovereignty of Turkey, and 
that measures should be taken to coerce the sultan if he refused his 
consent to these arrangements. 

The Austrian cabinet refused to share in this treaty. Dread of a 
similar insurrection in Italy, which was scarcely less oppressed, and 
which could equally appeal to classical sympathies and reminiscences, 
induced the court of Vienna to oppose anything that seemed like sanc- 
tioning a revolt. But not content with refusing to join the allies, the 
Austrians secretly urged the sultan to reject the proffered compromise, 
and the court of Constantinople, already bent on the extermination of 
the Greeks, made more vigorous exertions than ever. The fleets of 
England, Russia, and France, which had been sent to support the ne- 
gotiations, when it was known that the sultan's answer was unfavora- 
ble, blockaded the Turco-Egyptian fleet in the harbor of Navarino, and 
Sir Edward Codrington, who commanded the allied squadrons, con- 
cluded an armistice with Ibrahim Pacha, in order to alleviate the hor- 
rors of war. This armistice was flagrantly violated by the Turks and 
Egyptians in every particular, and the allied squadrons entered the 
harbor of Navarino, in order to enforce compliance with its stipulations. 
A shot fired from a Turkish ship at an English boat, was the signal or 
the pretext for a general engagement, which ended in the utter annihi- 
lation of the Turco-Egyptian armament. The independence of Greece 
was thus virtually secured, and its completion was secured soon after 
by the arrival of a small military force from France, which compelled 
the Turks to evacuate the Morea. 

In Russia and in France the victory of Navarino was regarded as a 
national triumph ; in England it only increased the embarrassments of 
Lord Goderich's distracted cabinet, the members of which were at va- 
riance on almost every point of policy, foreign and domestic. Finding 
themselves unable to determine in what manner the event should be no- 
ticed in the king's speech, the ministers resigned their situations before 
the meeting of parliament, and the task of forming anew administration 
was intrusted to the duke of Wellington. 

The sultan was not daunted by the intelligence of the destruction of 



HISTOaY OF THE PEACE. 08» 

his fleet ; it seemed, indeed, rather to confirm him in his obstinacy. 
After many ineffectual efforts to change his resolution, the ambassadors 
of France, England, and Russia, demanded their passports, and quitted 
Constantinople, a proceeding which was of course equivalent to a dec- 
laration of war. But the allies were no longer united in their policy: 
France and England were not unreasonably jealous of Russian ambition ; 
France limited her exertions to protecting the Morea, the new ministers 
of England declared the victory of Navarino " an untoward event" — a 
phrase which led to the belief that they were disposed to look favorably 
on the pretensions of Turkey. This error precipitated what all wished 
to avoid, a war between Russia and Turkey. Still more unfortunate, 
the events of the first European campaign led many European states- 
men to believe that Turkey could defend herself from her own re- 
sources ; though the Russians had taken Varna by the treachery of its 
governor, they were forced to raise the siege of Shumlah, and retire 
with some precipitation. It was unnoticed or forgotten that this failure 
was more than compensated by the decisive success of the Russians in 
the Asiatic provinces, where the real strength of the Turkish empire 
lies ; they conquered the greater part of ancient Armenia, occupied the 
fortresses which command the principal lines of march, and thus laid 
the foundation of decisive success in the next campaign. 

In consequence of the general misapprehension respecting the posi- 
tion and resources of the belligerant parties, Turkey narrowly escaped 
being blotted from the map of Europe. The Russians opened the cam- 
paign by surprising Sizopoli, and laying siege to Silistria. The grand 
vizier advanced to the relief of the fortress, but he was surprised on 
his march by Marshal Diebitsch, and defeated. In this battle the Turks 
behaved so courageously that the Russians almost despaired of success, 
and made an attempt to open negotiations. Their offers were rejected ; 
the vizier, trusting to his impregnable position at Shumlah, remained 
quietly in his intrenchments, while the Russians pressed forward the 
siege of Silistria. That city surrendered on the last day of June, but it 
was the middle of July before Diebitsch could concentrate his forces for 
the bold enterprise which decided the fortune of the war. Having 
masked Shumlah with one division of his forces, he forced a passage 
through the defiles of the Balkan, and took Aidos by storm. The viz- 
ier, alarmed by this unexpected movement, determined to remove his 
quarters to Salamno. He was encountered by Diebitsch on his march, 
and irretrievably defeated. The very soldiers who had so recently 
fought the Russians for seventeen hours, now scarcely withstood them 
for as many minutes ; they fled at the first onset, abandoning arms, am- 
munition, artillery, and baggage. Adrianople, the second city in the 
Turkish empire, was captured without firing a shot ; Stamboul itself 
must have fallen, had not the sultan consented to the terms of peace 
dictated by the conquerors. He signed a treaty on the 14th of Septem- 
ber, by which he recognised the independence of Greece, and granted 
to Russia very considerable advantages, and a guarantee for the pay- 
ment of the expenses of the war. Greece indeed was already virtually 
free ; the French expedition had recovered the fortresses of the Morea 
from the Turks and Egyptians, while the Greeks themselves had gained 
considerable advantages in the north. It was resolved that the final 

44 



990 MODERN HISTORY. 

destinies of the country should be arranged by a congress of the grea» 
powers in London. The crown of Greece was first offered to Prince 
Leopokl, the relict of the late princess Charlotte, but after a long nego- 
tiation he rejected it, and it was finally bestowed on Prince Otho, the 
son of the king of Bavaria. 

A revolution of a very different character took place in Portugal. 
When Don Pedro resigned the throne of that kingdom in favor of his 
daughter, Donna Maria de Gloria, he appointed his brother, Doa. 
Miguel regent, reasonably hoping that he might thus secure his daugh- 
ter's rights, and the constitutional privileges which he had given to the- 
Portuguese. Before quitting Vienna to assume the reins of power, 
Don Miguel took an oath of fidelity to the charter ; when he visited- 
England, on his way to Portugal, he repeated his protestations of at- 
tachment to the constitution and the rights of his niece so warmly, that 
the British statesmen, assured of his fidelity, consented to withdraw 
their troops from Lisbon. Unfortunately, after his return, he resigned 
himself to the guidance of the queen-mother, an unprincipled woman, 
•who seemed to think that a bigoted zeal for what she believed to be the- 
cause of religion would atone for every other crime. At her instigation,, 
he induced the fanatic rabble, by means of an artful priesthood, to pro- 
claim him absolute king, and to denounce the charter as inconsistent 
■with the purity of the Roman faith. The friends of the constitution or- 
ganized a resistance at Oporto and in the island of Madeira ; but their 
efforts were badly directed, and worse supported. They were finally 
defeated and driven into exile, while Don Miguel commenced a bitter 
persecution against all who had been conspicuous for their advocacy of 
liberal opinions. The principal powers of Europe manifested their de- 
testation of such treachery, by withdrawing tlieir ambassadors from the: 
court of Lisbon. 

France during this period was greatly agitated by political strife. 
Charies X. was more bitterly opposed to revolutionary principles thaa. 
his brother, and he yielded to the counsels of the bigoted priests, who- 
persuaded him that it was his duty to restore to the church all the power 
which it had possessed in the dark ages. On the other hand, the- 
French people became persuaded that a plot was formed to deprive them, 
of the constitutional privileges which they had gained after so long a- 
struggle ; thus the nation became gradually alienated from the court,., 
and the court from the nation ; while some turbulent spirits endeavored^ 
to aggravate this hostility, in the hope of profiting by a future convul- 
sion. A new ministry was forced upon the king by the popular party ; 
the members of it professed moderate principles, but they wanted the 
abilities and the infliience necessary for steering a safe course between 
the extremes of royal prerogative on one side, and popular encroach- 
ment on the other. They were driven, by the majority of the chambers,. 
to make larger concessions to the demands of the people than they had 
originally intended, and the reluctance with which they yielded, de- 
prived them of popular gratitude. Even their sending an armament to 
aid the Greeks in the Morea, their recalling the French army of occu- 
pation from Spain, and their acknowledging the independence of the- 
South American republics, failed to conciliate the support of the demo- 
cratic party, while these measures rendered them perfectly odious ta 



HISTORY OF THE PEACE. 6^ 

the royalists. They were suddenly dismissed, and the formation of a 
cabinet was intrusted to Prince Polignac, whose appointment was 
studiously represented as a declaration of war by Charles X. against his 
subjects. 

Interesting as these events were, they excited little attention in Eng- 
land, where the public mind was intently fixed on the struggle in par- 
liament, between those who sought to effect important constitutional 
changes, and those who were resolved to resist all innovation. The 
duke of Wellington's cabinet had been placed in office mainly by the 
influence of that portion of the aristocracy which was anxious to check 
the progress of change, and resist certain proposed measures, which they 
deemed inconsistent with the supremacy, if not the safety, of the estab- 
lished church. One of these measures was the repeal of the Test and 
Corporation acts, by which dissenters were excluded from office ; it was 
proposed in the house of commons, and on a division the ministers were 
left in such a minority, that they not only withdrew further opposition, 
but adopted the measure as their own, and carried it successfully through 
both houses of parliament. 

This event gave fresh vigor to the effiarts made by the Irish catholics 
to procure the concessions which they usually called emancipation. 
The rejection of a bill for the purpose by the house of lords in 1828, 
only roused them to greater exertion ; and on the other hand, the par- 
tisans of protestant ascendency in Ireland began to form clubs for the 
protection of their peculiar privileges. An unexpected event exaspera-- 
ted the strife of parties, and threatened to bring matters to a dangerous' 
crisis. Mr. Vesey Fitzgerald, having accepted office under the duke 
of Wellington, vacated his seat for the county of Clare, reasonably ex- 
pecting that there would be no obstacle to his re-election. Mr. O'Con- 
nell, an Irish catholic, who had been long recognised as the popular 
leader, offered himself as a candidate for the vacant seat, and in spite 
of the disqualifying laws, was elected by an overwhelming majority. 
It was considered disputable whether he might not take his seat, but 
on all hands it was allowed that he was the legal representative of the 
county. 

This was a state of things which could not with safety be permitted 
to continue ; the ministers felt that they should either increase the se- 
verity of the exclusive laws, which the temper of the times would 
hardly have permitted, or that they should remove the few restrictions- 
which prevented catholics from enjoying the full benefits of the consti- 
tution. They chose the latter alternative, and after some difficulty in 
overcoming the king's reluctance, they had the concession of the 
catholic claims recommended in the royal speech, at the opening of the 
session of parliament. The bill for giving effect to this recommenda- 
tion was strenuously opposed in both houses, but as it was supported 
by the united strength of the ministers and the party by which they 
were most commonly resisted, it passed steadily through both houses, 
and received the royal assent on the 13th of April, 1829. 

From the time that this important measure was carried, the domestic 
condition of England presented an aspect of more tranquillity than had 
been witnessed for many years. Party strife seemed hushed withia 
and without the walls of parliament, as if both parties had been wearied 



MODERN HISTORY. 

out by the protracted discussion of the question they had just settled. 
This cahn was increased by the gloom which the illness of the king 
diffused over the nation. Early in 1830 the symptoms of the disease 
became alarming, and for many weeks before its termination, all hopes 
of a favorable result were abandoned. On the 26th of June, George 
IV. died at Windsor castle, after having borne the agonies of protracted 
:sickness with great firmness, patience, and resignation. 

Section III. — History of Europe during the Reign of William IV. 

Few monarchs ever obtained such immediate popularity on their ac- 
cession as William IV. He had been educated in the navy, always a 
favorite branch of service with the British people ; he was eminent for 
the domestic virtues, which are the more readily comprehended by a 
nation, as their value is felt in every walk of life ; his habits were 
economical, and his manners familiar ; he exhibited himself to his 
people, conversed with them, and shared in their tastes and amuse- 
ments. As he had been intimately connected with some of the leading 
whigs before his accession to the throne, it was generally believed that 
the policy by Avhich that party had been jealously excluded from power 
during the two preceding reigns would be abandoned, and it was hoped 
that a new cabinet would be formed by the coalition of ministers with 
their opponents. The parliamentary debates soon put an end to these 
expectations ; the opposition to the ministry, which had been almost 
nominal since the settlement of the catholic question, was more than 
usually violent in the debate on the address ; the formal business of 
the house was indeed despatched with all possible expedition, prepar- 
atory to a new election ; but before parliament could be prorogued, 
the whigs were virtually pledged to irreconcilable war with the ad- 
ministration. 

It is now time to turn to the affairs of France, which had for two 
years been fast hastening to a crisis. Never had a ministry in any 
country to encounter such a storm of virulence and invective, as that 
which assailed the cabinet of Prince Polignac ; though he was per- 
haps justly suspected of arbitrary designs, yet his first measures were 
dignified and moderate ; some of them even seem to have been framed 
in a spirit of conciliation. But nothing could purchase the forbearance 
of his opponents ; they scrupled not to have recourse to downright 
falsehood, and in some cases accused him of designs so exquisitely ab- 
surd, that they appeared to have been invented for the express purpose 
of measuring the extent of popular credulity. Charles X. more than 
shared the odium thrown on his obnoxious favorite ; his patronage of 
the Jesuits and monastic orders, his revival of austere and rigid etiquette 
in his court, and his marked dislike of those who had acquired eminence 
in the revolution, or under Napoleon, were circumstances which ren- 
dered him unpopular with the great bulk of the nation so long estranged 
from the Bourbons and their policy. 

Polignac defied the storm ; but unfortunately, as the contest con- 
tinued, he departed from the course of caution and prudence, probably 
because injustice had driven him into anger, and he soon furnished his 
adversaries with just grounds for continued hostility. When the cham- 



HISTORY OF THE PEACE. 693 

bers assembled, the royal speech was a direct attack on the first prin- 
ciples of the constitution, concluding with a threat of resuming the con- 
cessions made by the charter, which was notoriously impotent, and 
therefore supremely ridiculous. A very uncourtly reply was voted by 
the chamber of deputies, after a very animated debate, by a majority of 
forty. The only alternative now left was a dissolution of the chambers, 
or a change of the ministry ; Charles X. chose the former, trusting that 
events might turn the popular current, and give him a more manageable 
chamber at a new election. 

Charles and his ministers appear to have hoped that their unpopu- 
larity would be overcome, and their future projects facilitated, by grat- 
ifying the taste of the French people for military glory. An armament 
was therefore prepared with extraordinary care, and sent against Al- 
giers, under the pretext that the dey had insulted the honor of France. 
The success of the expedition corresponded with the exertions made to 
ensure it ; the city of Algiers was taken after a very slight resistance, 
the dey was sent prisoner to Italy, and his vast treasures remained at 
the disposal of the conquerors. It was reasonable that the maritime 
powers should feel jealous at the establishment of French garrisons 
and colonies in northern Africa ; to allay their suspicions, a promise 
was made that the occupation of Algiers should be merely temporary ; 
but the French nation formed such an infatuated attachment to their 
conquest, that they have kept it ever since, though it causes an annual 
waste of life and treasure, without conferring any appreciable advan- 
tage either on Africa or on France. 

Polignac, relying on the moral effect which the conquest of Algiers 
would produce, dissolved the chambers, but, with the same infatuation 
which seems to have directed all his movements, he at the same time 
dismissed the only two moderate members of his cabinet, and supplied 
their places by the most unpopular men in France. Such a course, as 
ought to have been foreseen, more than counterbalanced any benefit 
which the ministers might have gained from the conquest of Algiers ; 
the elections left them in a miserable minority, and matters were 
consequently brought to a crisis. 

The majority of the commercial classes and landed proprietors 
in France dreaded the renewal of civil commotions ; they knew that 
there was an active republican party in the country, which though not 
very numerous, was very unscrupulous and energetic ; they feared, 
and not without reason, that the triumph of this party, which was no 
unlikely termination of a revolutionary struggle, would lead to the 
renewal of the horrors perpetrated during the reign of terror, when 
the Jacobins were in power. But at the same time, these classes were 
equally hostile to the restoration of the ancient despotism, which they 
believed to be the object of the king and his ministers. Had Charles X. 
declared that he would be contented with the prerogatives of a consti- 
tutional monarch, dismissed his obnoxious ministers, and formed a 
cabinet of moderate men, the crisis would have passed over without 
danger ; unfortunately, more arbitrary counsels prevailed ; Polignac and 
his colleagues resolved to terminate the struggle by subverting the 
constitution. 

On the morning of the 26th of July, three ordinances were pub- 



694 MODERN HISTORY. 

lished, which virtually subverted the constitutional privileges granted 
by the cliarter. The first dissolved the newly elected chamber of 
deputies before it assembled : the second changed the law of elections, 
and disfranchised the great body of electors ; and the third subjected 
the press to new and severe restrictions which would completely have 
annihilated its liberties. 

It was late in the day before intelligence of these events was gene- 
rally circulated through Paris, and the news, at first, seemed to excite 
astonishment rather than indignation ; the ministers passed the day in 
quiet at their hotels, receiving the visits of their friends and congratu- 
lating themselves upon the delusive tranquillity. But their opponents 
were not inactive ; expresses were sent to summon all the deputies of 
their party within reach, and those who had already arrived in Paris 
held a private meeting to concert measures of resistance. The prin- 
cipal journalists acted with still greater promptitude ; they prepared 
and published a protest against the restrictions on the press, whose 
daring language would probably have exposed them to the penalties of 
treason had the contest terminated differently. 

On the morning of the 27th, few of the journals appeared, for the 
publication of those which were not sanctioned by the minister of the 
interior was prohibited by the police. The printers, thus suddenly 
deprived of employment, formed a body of vindictive rioters, and their 
numbers were increased by the closing of several large factories in the 
suburbs of Paris. The proprietors of two journals printed their 
papers in defiance of the ordinance, and the first disturbance was 
occasioned by the police forcing an entrance into their establishments, 
breaking the presses, scattering the types, and rendering the machinery 
unserviceable. So little was an insurrection anticipated, that Charles, 
accompanied by the dauphin, went on a hunting match to Rambouillet ; 
and his ministers neglected the ordinary precaution of strengthening 
the garrison of the capital. It was only on the morning of the 27th 
that Marmont received his appointment as military governor of Paris, 
and it was not till after four in the afternoon that orders were given to 
put the troops under arms. 

Between six and seven o'clock in the evening some detachments of 
-troops were sent to the aid of the police ; this was the signal for com- 
mencing the contest ; several smart skirmishes took place between the 
citizens and the soldiers, in which the latter were generally successful, 
-SO that Marmont wrote a letter to the king, congratulating him on the 
suppression of the riot, while the ministers issued their last ordinance, 
declaring Paris in a state of siege. When night closed in, the citizens 
destroyed every lamp in the city, thus securing the protection of 
darkness for their preparations to renew the struggle. 

On the morning of the 28th. Marmont was astonished to find that 
the riots which he had deemed suppressed, had assumed the formidable 
aspect of a revolution. The citizens were ready and organized for a 
decisive contest ; they were in possession of the arsenal and the powder 
magazine ; they had procured arms from the shops of the gunsmiths 
and the police stations ; they had erected barricades across the principal 
streets, and had selected leaders competent to direct their exertions. 
Under these circumstances, the marshal hesitated before taking any 



HISTORY OF THE PEACE. 695 

-decisive step ; it was noon before he had resolved how^ to act, and he 
ihen determined to clear the streets by military force. He divided 
•his troops into four columns, which he directed to move in different 
directions, thus unwisely separating his forces, so that they could not 
-act in concert. Every step taken by the columns was marked by a 
-series of murderous conflicts ; they were assailed with musketry from 
4:he barricades, from the windows and tops of houses, from the corners 
of streets, and from the narrow alleys and passages which abound in 
Paris. When the cavalry attempted to charge, they were overwhelmed 
.with stones and articles of furniture flung from the houses ; their 
horses stumbled in the unpaved streets, or were checked by the bar- 
jicades, while the citizens, protected by their dwellings, kept up a 
Jieavy fire, which the disheartened horsemen were unable to return. 
Though the royal guards performed their duty, the troops of the line 
=«howed great reluctance to fire on the citizens, and hence the insur- 
.gents were enabled to seize many important posts with little or no 
.opposition. When evening closed the troops had been defeated in 
every direction ; they returned to their barracks, weary, hungry, and 
.dispirited ; by some inexplicable blunder, no provision was made for 
their refreshment, while every family in Paris vied in supplying the 
insurgents with everything they wanted. 

Marmont was now fully sensible of the perils of his situation ; he 
Tvrote to the infatuated king, representing the dangerous condition of 
Paris, and soliciting fresh instructions ; the orders he received in reply, 
.urged him to persevere, and indirectly censured his former conduct, by 
directing him " to act with masses." 

The contest was renewed .on the morning of the third day, the 
soldiers evincing great feebleness, while the populace seemed animated 
by a certainty of success. While the issue was yet doubtful, two 
regiments of the line went over to the insurgents in a body ; the citizens 
■'thus strengthened, rushed through the gap which this defection left in 
'the royal line, took the Louvre by assault, and soon compelled the 
troops that remained faithful to the royal cause, either to lay down 
•their arms or evacuate Paris. The revolution was speedily completed 
by the installation of a provisional government ; measures were adopted 
'for the speedy convocation of the chambers, and in a few hours the 
capital had nearly assumed its ordinary aspect of tranquillity. 

Charles and his ministers appear to have believed that the country 
would not follow the example of Paris. They were speedily convinced 
of their error ; the king was abandoned, not only by his courtiers, but 
even by his household servants ; he was forced to wait helplessly in 
his country-seat, until he was dismissed to contemptuous exile by the 
national commissioners. His ministers attempted to escape in disguise, 
but were most of them arrested, a circumstance which occasioned 
great perplexity to the new government. In the meantime, the duke 
of Orleans, far the most popular of the royal family, was chosen lieu- 
tenant-general of the kingdom, and when the chambers met, he was 
elected to the throne, with the title of Louis Philippe L, king of 
the French. 

This revolution produced an extraordinary degree of political 
excitement throughout Europe ; even in England the rick-burnings 



696 MODERN HISTORY. 

and other incendiary acts gave formidable signs of popular discontent ; 
but the personal attachment of the nation to the sovereign, and the 
prudent measures of the government, prevented any attempt at revo- 
lution. When parliament assembled, the duke of Wellington took an 
early opportunity of declaring that he would resist any attempt to make 
a change in the representative system of the country, and this declar- 
ation, which was wholly unexpected, or rather, which was contrary to 
very general expectations, at once deprived the ministers of the popu- 
larity they had hitherto enjoyed. An event of tridiag importance in 
itself, but very grave in its consequences, proved still more injurious 
to the Wellina'ton administration. The king had been invited to dine 
with the lord-mayor of London on the 9lh of November, and his 
ministers were of course expected to accompany him. All the prepar- 
ations were complete, when a city magistrate, having heard that some 
persons intended to insult the duke of W^ellington, in consequence of 
his late unpopular speech, wrote to his grace, recommending him not 
to come without a military escort. The riots in Paris and Brussels, 
which had commenced with trifling disturbances, and ended in revo- 
lutions, were too recent not to alarm the ministers ; they resolved that 
the king's visit to the city should be postponed to some more favorable 
conjuncture. 

This announcement produced a general panic ; business was sus- 
pended ; the funds fell four per cent, in a few hours : the city of 
London continued in the greatest anxiety and alarm, for every one 
believed that some dreadful conspiracy was discovered at the moment 
it was about to explode. A day sufficed to show that no substantial 
grounds for apprehension existed, and people excused their vain terrors 
by throwing all the blame upon the government. The ministers were 
overwhelmed v/ith a storm of indignant ridicule, which was scarcely 
merited, for they could not have anticipated such an extensive and 
groundless panic, and there could be little doubt of the propriety of 
removing any pretext for a tumultuous assembly in the long nights of 
November. 

This strange occurrence proved fatal to the ministry, which indeed 
had previously been tottering. On a question of confidence, the 
ministers were defeated by a majority of twenty-nine in the house of 
commons, upon which the duke of Wellington and his colleagues 
immediately resigned their offices. A new ministry was formed under 
the auspices of Earl Grey, composed of the old whig opposition, and 
the party commonly called Mr. Canning's friends ; it was recommended 
to the nation by the premier's early declaration, that the principles of 
his cabinet should be reform, retrenchment, and peace. 

But to preserve the peace of Europe was now a task of no ordinary 
difficulty. The excitement produced by the late French revolution had 
aroused an insurrectionary spirit in every country where the people had 
to complain of real or fancied wrongs ; and the continental sovereigns, 
alarmed for their power, looked with jealousy on every movement that 
seemed likely to lead to a popular triumph. The emperor of Russia 
■went so far, as to hesitate about acknowledging the title of Louis 
Philippe to the throne of France, and when he at length yielded to the 
example and influence of the other European states, his recognition of 



HISTORY OP THE PEACE. 697 

a king elected by the people was so reluctant and ungracious, as to be 
deemed an insult by the French nation. 

Nowhere did the insurrectionary spirit thus excited produce more 
decisive effects than in Belgium, whose compulsory union with Holland 
was one of the most imwise arrangements of the congress of Vienna. 
The Dutch and Flemings differed in language, in habits, and in reli- 
gion ; their commercial interests were opposed, their national antipa- 
thies wei'e ancient and inveterate. In the midst of these anxieties 
produced by the events in Paris, the Dutch ministers continued to goad 
the Belgians by restrictive laws, and at length drove them into open re- 
volt. On the night of the 25th of August, a formidable riot began in 
Brussels ; the Dutch authorities and garrison, after having exhibited 
the most flagrant proofs of incapacity and cowardice, were driven out, 
and a provisional government installed in the city. The king of Hol- 
land hesitated between concession and the employment of force ; he 
adopted a middle course of policy, and sent his sons to redress griev- 
ances, and an army to enforce the ro}^al authority ; at the same time he 
convoked the states-general. The Dutch princes were received with 
such coolness at Brussels, that they returned to the array ; soon after, 
Prince Frederick, having learned that the patriots were divided among 
themselves, led the royal troops to Brussels, and at the same time pub- 
lished an amnesty, but unfortunately, with such sweeping exceptions,, 
that it should rather be called an edict of proscription. For four days 
the Dutch and Belgians contested the possession of the city with equal 
want of skill and courage, but with somewhat more of energy on the 
part of the insurgents. Finally, the Dutch were driven out, and a pro- 
visional government established. Proposals of mediation were made 
by the prince of Orange, which were disavowed by his father, the king 
of Holland, and equally rejected by the Flemings ; thus refused by 
both parties, he allowed matters to take their course, and Belgium be- 
came an independent state. Many tedious negotiations and discussions 
were necessary before this disarrangement of the European powers^ 
could be adjusted so as to avert the danger of a general war. At length 
Leopold, prince of Saxe Coburg, nearly connected with the royal 
family of England, was elected sovereign of the new kingdom, and ta 
conciliate his subjects and strengthen his throne, he formed a matrimo- 
nial alliance with the daughter of the king of the French. 

Germany was not exempt from the perils of popular commotion. In 
the year 1813, the sovereigns of the principal German states had prom- 
ised popular constitutions to their subjects, as a reward for their exer- 
tions in delivering the continent from the tyranny of Napoleon. These 
promises had not been fulfilled ; there were many discontented persons 
anxious to profit by the example of France and Belgium, but fortunately, 
in the principal states, the personal character of the sovereigns had so 
endeared them to the people, that no insurrection was attempted. In 
some of the minor states there were slight revolutions ; the duke of 
Brunswick was deposed by his subjects, and the throne transferred ta 
his brother ; the king of Saxony was forced to resign in favor of his 
nephew ; and the elector of Hesse was compelled to grant a constitu- 
tional charter. 

Spain continued to languish under the iron sway of Ferdinand VII. j 



658 MODERN HISTORY. 

the people generally seemed to have no wish for liberty, and the abor- 
tive efTorts to establish the constitution again were easily quelled, and 
cruelly punished. The condition of Portugal appeared to be similar ; 
Don Miguel, who had usurped the throne, was so strenuously supported 
by the priests and monks, that every attempt to efl'ect a change seemed 
hopeless. Italy shared in the excitement of the time, but the jealous 
watchfulness of Austria, and the formidable garrisons which that power 
had established in northern Italy, effectually prevented any outbreak. 
Insurrectionary movements took place in several of the Swiss cantons, 
but the disputes were arranged with promptness and equity, so speed- 
ily as to avert the horrors of civil war. 

Poland was one of the last countries to catch the flame of insurrec- 
tion, but there it raged most furiously. Provoked by the cruelties of 
the archduke Constantine, who governed the country for his brother, 
the emperor of Russia, the Poles took up arms, at a time when all the 
statesmen of Europe were intent on maintaining peace, and were there- 
fore compelled to withhold their sympathies from the gallant struggle. 
Unaided and unsupported, the Poles for nearly two years maintained an. 
unequal struggle against the gigantic power of Russia ; they were 
finally crushed, and have ever since been subjected to the yoke of the 
most cruel despotism. 

France, which had scattered these elements of discord, was far from 
enjoying tranquillity itself. The republican party deemed itself be- 
trayed by the election of a king, and several who had consented to that 
arrangement were dissatisfied with the limited extension of popular 
privileges gained by the revolution. A great number of idle and dis- 
contented young men were anxious to involve Europe in a war of opin- 
ion, and they denounced the king as a traitor to the principles which 
had placed him on the throne, because he refused to gratify their insane 
wishes. The total separation of the church from the state alienated 
the French clergy ; while the royalists recovered from their first terror, 
began to entertain hopes of a restoration. Thus surrounded by diflS- 
culties and dangers, Louis Philippe was far from finding his throne a 
bed of roses ; but he evinced firmness and talent adequate to the occa- 
sion, ^nd he was zealously supported by the middle classes, who looked 
upon him as their guarantee for constitutional freedom and assured tran- 
quillity. 

His success, however, would have been doubtful but for the efiicient 
support he received from the national guard, whose organization was 
rapidly completed in Paris and the provinces. This civic body re- 
pressed the riots of the workmen and artisans, broke up the meetings 
of revolutionary clubs, and frustrated the attempts of republican fanatics, 
without incurring the odium which would have been attached to the ex- 
ertions of the police and military. The severest test to which the 
stability of the new government in Paris was exposed, arose from the 
trials of the ministers who had signed the fatal ordinances. Louis 
Philippe made no effort to seize these delinquents, and would probably 
have been rejoiced at their escape ; four of them were, as we have 
said, arrested by some zealous patriots, at a distance from Paris, as 
they were endeavoring to escape under the protection of false pass- 
ports ; the government had no option, but was forced to send them fo^ 



HISTORY OF THE PEACE. 699 

trial before the chamber of peers. The partisans of anarchy took ad- 
vantage of the popular excitement to raise formidable riots, which might 
have terminated in a new and sanguinary revolution, but for the ?eal 
and firmness of the national guard. After an impartial trial, Polignac 
and his companions were condemned to perpetual imprisonment and 
civil death, and were quickly removed from the capital to a distant pris- 
on. Tranquillity was re-established on the morning of the third day 
after the trial, and the citizens of Paris demonstrated the extent of their 
late alarms by the brilliant illuminations with which they celebrated the 
restoration of order. 

England was deeply engaged in an attempt to remodel her constitu- 
tion. Early in 1831, the new premier declared that "ministers had 
succeeded in framing a measure of reform, which they were persuaded 
would prove efficient without exceeding the bounds of that wise moder- 
ation with which such a measure should be accompanied." On the 1st 
of March the measure was introduced to the house of commons by 
Lord .lohn Russell, andfrom that moment to its final success it almost 
wholly engrossed the attention of the country. The debate on the first 
reading of the bill lasted the unprecedented number of seven nights ; 
the discussion on the second reading was shorter, but more animated ; 
it was carried only by a majority of one. Ministers were subsequently 
defeated on two divisions, and at their instigation the king hastily dis- 
solved the parliament. The elections took place amid such popular ex- 
citement, that ardent supporters of the ministerial measure were re- 
turned by nearly all the large constituencies, and the success of the 
reform bill, at least so far as the house of commons was concerned, 
was secured. 

The reform bill passed slowly but securely through the house of 
commons, it was then sent up to the lords, and after a debate of five 
nights, rejected by a majority of 41. Great was the popular disappoint- 
ment, but the promptitude with which the house of commons, on the 
motion of Lord Ebrington, passed a vote of confidence in ministers, 
and pledged itself to persevere with the measure of reform, calmed the 
agitation in the metropolis and the greater part of the country. Some 
serious riots, however, occurred at Derby and Nottingham, which 
were not suppressed until considerable mischief was done ; Bristol suf- 
fered still more severely from the excesses of a licentious mob, whose 
fury was not checked until many lives w«re lost, and a great amount of 
valuable property wantonly destroyed. 

While the excitement respecting the reform bill was at the highest, 
a new pestilential disease was imported into the country. It was called 
the Asiatic cholera, because it first appeared in India, whence it grad- 
ually extended in a northwestern direction to Europe. Its ravages in 
Great Britain were not, by any means, so great as they had been in 
some parts of the continent, yet they were very destructive ; they were 
met by a bold and generous offer of service from the physicians 
throughout the empire, and their conduct, while the pestilence pre- 
vailed, reflected the highest honor on the character of the medical pro- 
fession in Great Britain. 

A new reform bill was introduced into the house of commons im- 
mediately after the assembling of parliament ; it passed there with lit- 



700 MODERN HISTOEY. 

tie opposition, and was sent up to the house of lords. As no cliang© 
had been made in the constitution of that body, great anxiety was felt 
respecting the fate of the measure ; but some peers, who had formerly 
opposed it, became anxious for a compromise, and the second reading 
was carried by a majority of nine. But these new allies of the minis- 
try were resolved to make important alterations in the character of the 
measure, and when the bill went into committee the ministers found 
themselves in a minority. Earl Grey proposed to the king the creation 
of a sufficient nmnber of peers to turn the scale, but his majesty refused 
to proceed to such extremities, and all the members of the cabinet re- 
signed. The duke of Wellington received, through Lord Lyndhurst, 
his majesty's commands to form a new administration, and he under- 
took the task in the face of the greatest difficulties that it had ever 
been the fate of a British statesman to encounter. The nation was 
plunged into an extraordinary and dangerous state of excitement ; the 
house of commons by a majority of eighty, virtually pledged itself to 
the support of the late ministry ; addresses to the crown were sent 
from various popular bodies, which were by no means distinguished by 
moderation of tone or language ; associations were formed to secure 
the success of the reform measure, and the country seemed brought ta 
the verge of a revolution. Under such circumstances, the duke of 
Wellington saw that success was hopeless, he resigned the commission 
with which he had been intrusted, and advised his majesty to renew his 
communications with his former advisers. Earl Grey returned to office ; 
a secret compact was made that no new peers should be created if the 
reform bill were suffered to pass ; and the measure having been rap- 
idly hurried through the remaining stages, received the royal assent on 
the 7th of June. The Irish and Scotch reform bills attracted com- 
paratively but little notice ; a law for enforcing the collection of tithes 
in Ireland was more vigorously opposed, and the ignorant peasants of 
Ireland were encouraged by their advocates to resist the payment of 
the impost. 

While England was engrossed by the discussions on the reform bill, 
the new monarchy established in France was exposed to the most im- 
minent dangers from the republicans on the one hand, and the partisans 
of the exiled family on the other. The republican party was the more 
violent and infinitely the more dangerous, because, in the capital at 
least, there was a much greater mass, to Avhom its opinions and incen- 
tives were likely to be agreeable. There was also a spirit of fanaticism 
in its members, which almost amounted to insanity ; several attempts 
were made to assassinate the king, and his frequent escapes may be 
justly regarded as providential. When any of the apostles of sedition 
were brought to trial, they openly maintained their revolutionary doc- 
trines ; treated the king with scorn and derision ; inveighed against the 
existing institutions of the country ; entered into brutal and violent al- 
tercations with the public prosecutor ; menaced the juries and insulted 
the judges. The very extravagance of this evil at length worked out a 
remedy : the bombast of the republicans was carried to such an excess 
of absurdity, that it became ridiculous : the republicans were disarmed 
when they found that the nonsense of their inflated speeches produced 
not intimidation, but shouts of laughter. Moderate men took courage ; 



HISTORY OF THE PEACE. 701 

the middle classes, to whose prosperity, peace abroad and tranquillity 
at home were essentially necessary, rallied romid the monarchy, and the 
republicans were forced to remain silent, until some new excitement of 
the public mind would afford an opportunity for disseminating mischiev- 
ous falsehoods. 

An insurrection of the Carlists, as the partisans of the exiled family 
were called, in the south of France, injured the cause it was designed 
to serve. It was easily suppressed, but the government learned that 
the dutchess de Berri, whose son, the duke of Bourdeaux, was the legit- 
imate heir to the crown, had made arrangements for landing in La 
Yendee, and heading the royalists in the province. Such preparations 
"were made, that when the dutchess landed, she found her partisans dis- 
heartened, and their movements so closely watched, that it was scarce- 
ly possible for them to assemble in any force. Still she resolved to 
persevere, but the enterprise degenerated into a series of isolated and 
insignificant attacks, made by small bodies in a strong country, and the 
proceedings of the royalists, consequently, resembled those of brigands. 
The dutchess continued five months in the country, though actively pur- 
sued by the military and police ; she was at length betrayed by one of 
her associates, and made prisoner. The government of Louis Philippe 
treated the royal captive with great clemency ; she had not been long in 
prison when it was discovered that she was pregnant, having been 
privately married some time before her arrest. This unfortunate cir- 
cumstance threw such an air of ridicule over the entire enterprise, that 
the royalists abandoned all further efforts against the government. 

While the south of France was thus agitated by the royalists, Paris 
narrowly escaped the perils of a republican revolution. The funeral of 
General Lamarque afforded the opportunity for this outbreak, which 
lasted about five hours, and was attended with great loss of life. The 
entire body of the military and all the respectable citizens supported 
the cause of monarchy and good order, or else the consequence would 
have been a new revolution. The revolt had the effect of strengthening 
the ministerial influence in the chambers ; when they met, the opposi- 
tion could not muster more than half the number of votes that supported 
the cabinet. 

A treaty had been concluded by the representative of the five great 
powers, Austria, Russia, Prussia, and England, arranging the conditions 
on which Belgium should be separated from Holland ; to these terms 
the Belgians had acceded, but they were declined by the Dutch, who 
still retained the citadel of Antwerp. A French army entered Belgium, 
and proceeded to besiege this fortress ; it was taken after a sharp siege, 
and was immediately given up to a Belgian garrison, the French re- 
tiring within their own frontiers in order to avert the jealousies and 
suspicions of the European powers. 

Turkey was exposed to the greatest danger, by the rebellion of its 
powerful vassal, the pacha of Egypt. Mohammed Ali was anxious to 
annex Syria to his territories, a dispute with the governor of Acre 
furnished him a pretext for invading the country ; the sultan command- 
ed him to desist, and on his refusal treated him as a rebel ; Mohammed 
Ali was so indignant, that he extended his designs to the whole empire ; 
his forces routed the Turkish armies in every battle ; Syria and a great 



.702 MODERN HISTORY. 

part of Asia Minor were subdued with little difficulty, and Constantino>- 
ple itself would have fallen but for the prompt interference of Russia. 
The sultan was thus saved from his rebellious vassal, but the independ- 
ence of his empire was fearfully compromised. 

The declining health in King Ferdinand directed attention to the 
law of succession in Spain : his oidy child was an infant daughter, and 
the Salic law, introduced by the Bourbon dynasty, excluded females 
from the throne. Ferdinand had repealed this law, but when he was 
supposed to be in his mortal agonies, the partisans of his brother, Don 
Carlos, who was looked upon as the surest support of the priesthood 
and of arbitrary power, induced him to disinherit his daughter, and 
recognise Don Carlos as heir to the crown. The very next day Ferdi- 
nand was restored to consciousness and understanding ; the queen in- 
stantly' brought before him the injustice he had been induced to com- 
mit, and the king was so indignant that he not only dismissed his min- 
isters but threw himself into the arms of the liberal party. A general 
amnesty was published ; those Avho had been exiled for supporting the 
constitution were invited home, and the Carlist party was so discouraged 
that it sank without resistance. Don Carlos himself, his wife, and his 
wife's sister, the princess of Beira, were compelled to quit Madrid ; 
they sought and found shelter with Don Miguel, the usurper of Portugal. 

On the 20th of September, 1833, Ferdinand died: his daughter was 
proclaimed at Madrid, but Carlist insurrections broke out in several 
parts of Spain, and have continued, with little interruption, almost 
ever since. 

The excitement produced by the French revolution extended beyond 
the Atlantic. Don Pedro, emperor of Brazil, was compelled by his 
subjects to abdicate the throne in favor of his infant son ; an event the 
more singular, as he had some time before resigned the crown of Por- 
tugal in favor of his daughter. Donna Maria de Gloria. When Pedro 
returned to Europe, he resolved to assert his daughter's rights, which 
had been usurped by Don Miguel ; soldiers were secretly enlisted in 
France and England, the refugees from Portugal and Brazil were form- 
ed into regiments, and, after some delay, a respectable armament was 
collected in the Azores, which had remained faithful to Donna Maria. 
Pedro resolved to invade the north of Portugal ; he landed near Oporto, 
and made himself master of that city; but his further operations were 
cramped by the want of money, and of the munitions of war ; Oporto 
was invested by Don Miguel, and for several months the contest between 
the two brothers was confined to the desultory operations of a siege. 
At length, in the summer of 1833, Don Pedro intrusted the command 
of his naval force to Admiral Napier ; this gallant officer, after having 
landed a division of the army in the province, sought Don Miguel's 
fleet ; though superior in number of ships, men, and weight of metal, he 
attacked it with such energy, that in a short time all the large vessels be- 
longing to the usurper struck their colors. This brilliant success, fol- 
lowed by the capture of Lisbon, which yielded to Pedro's forces with little 
difficulty, and the recognition of the young queen by the principal 
powers of Europe, proved fatal to Miguel's cause. After some faint 
attempts at protracted resistance, he abandoned the struggle, and sought 
shelter in Italy. 



HISTORY OF THE PEACE. 703 

Don Pedro's death, which soon followed his triumph, did little injury 
to the constitutional cause. His daughter retains the crown ; she was 
married first to the prince at Leuchtenberg, who did not long survive 
his nuptials ; her second husband is Prince Ferdinand of Saxe Coburg, 
nearly allied to the queen of Great Britain. 

Several disturbances in the papal states gave the French a pretext 
for seizing the citadel of Ancona, which gave just grounds of offence to 
Austria. But neither party wished to hazard the perils of war. The 
pope excommunicated all the liberals in his dominions, but was mortified 
to find that ecclesiastical censures, once so formidable, were now ridic- 
ulous. When the French evacuated Ancona, he was obliged to hire 
a body of Swiss troops for his personal protection, and the pay of these 
mercenaries almost ruined his treasury. To such a low estate is the 
papal power now reduced, which was once supreme in Europe, and 
exercised unlimited sway over the consciences and conduct of potentates 
and nations. 

The attention of the first reformed parliament of Great Britain 
was chiefly engrossed by domestic affairs. In consequence of the con- 
tinued agrarian disturbances in Ireland, a coercive statute was passed, 
containing many severe enactments ; but at the same time, the Irish 
church was forced to make some sacrifices, a tax for ecclesiastical 
purposes was levied on its revenues, and the number of bishoprics was 
diminished. 

But measures of still greater importance soon occupied the attention 
of parliament ; the charter of the bank of England was renewed, 
on terms advantageous to the country ; the East India company was 
deprived of its exclusive commercial privileges, and the trade to Hin- 
dustan and China thrown open ; but the company was permitted to re- 
tain its territorial sovereignty. Finally, a plan was adopted for the 
abolition of West India slavery ; the service of the negro was changed 
into apprenticeship for a limited period, and a compensation of twenty 
millions was voted to the planters. There was a very active though 
not a very large section of the house of commons dissatisfied with the 
limited extent of change produced by the reform bill ; they demanded 
much greater innovations, and they succeeded in exciting feelings of dis- 
content in the lower classes of the community. Popular discontent 
was not confined to England, it was general throughout Europe, but 
fortunately no serious efforts were made to disturb the public tran- 
quillity. 

The second session of the reformed parliament was rendered memor- 
able by the passing of an act for altering the administration of the poor 
laws, which was very fiercely attacked outside the walls of parliament. 
It was, however, generally supported by the leading men of all parties ; 
though its enactment greatly weakened the popularity of the ministers. 
The cabinet was itself divided respecting the policy to be pursued 
toward Ireland, and the dissensions respecting the regulation of the 
church, and the renewal of the Coercion bill, in that country, arose to 
such a height, that several of the ministry resigned. Lord Melbourne 
succeeded Earl Grey as premier, but it was generally believed that the 
king was by no means pleased with the change ; and that on the Irish 
church question, he was far from being satisfied with the line of con- 



704 MODERN HISTORY. 

duct pursued by his ministers. In the month of November, the death 
of Earl Spencer removed Lord Althorp, the chancellor of the exchequer, 
to the house of lords, and rendered some new modifications necessary. 
The king took advantage of the opportunity to dismiss the ministers, 
an express was sent to summon Sir Robert Peel from the continent, to 
assume the office of premier ; and the duke of Wellington, who had 
administered the government in the interim, was appointed foreign 
secretary. Parliament was immediately dissolved, and the three king- 
doms were agitated by a violent explosion of party spirit. A tithe- 
affray in Ireland, which ended with the loss of life, supplied the oppo- 
nents of the ministry with a pretext for rousing the passions of the 
peasantry in that country, and of this they availed themselves so effec- 
tually, that the ministerial candidates were defeated in almost every 
election. 

While the country was anxiously waiting the result of the struggle 
between the rival political parties, both houses of parliament were 
burned to the ground. This event at first excited some alarm, but it 
was soon allayed, for the cause of the fire was clearly proved to be ac- 
cidental. When parliament met. Sir Robert Peel's cabinet was found 
to be in a minority in the house of commons. The premier, however, 
persevered in spite of hostile majorities, until he was defeated on the 
question of the Irish church, when he and his colleagues resigned. 
The Melbourne cabinet was restored, with the remarkable exception of 
Lord Brougham, whose place as chancellor was supplied by Lord Cot- 
tenham. 

On the death of his brother, Don Carlos, after a vain attempt to assert 
his claims, was driven from Spain into Portugal, and so closely pur- 
sued that he was forced to take refuge on board an English ship-of-war. 
He came to London, where several abortive efforts were made to in- 
duce him to abandon his pretensions. But in the meantime his parti- 
sans in the Biscayan provinces had organized a formidable revolt, under 
a brave leader, Zuraalacarregui, and a priest named Merino. Don 
Carlos secretly quitted London, passed through France in disguise, and 
appeared at the head of the insurgents. A quadrupartite treaty \vas 
concluded between Spain, Portugal, France, and England, for support- 
ing the rights of the infant queen. It was agreed that France should 
guard the frontiers, to prevent the Carlists from receiving any aid by 
land ; that England should watch the northern coasts ; and that Portu- 
gal should aid the queen of Spain with a body of auxiliary troops if 
necessary. 

Notwithstanding these arrangements, the Carlists were generally 
successful, and, at length, the court of Madrid applied to England for 
direct assistance. This was refused ; but permission was given to 
raise an auxiliary legion of ten thousand men in the United Kingdom, 
the command of which was intrusted to Colonel Evans. But the effect 
produced by this force was far inferior to what had been expected ; in 
the dilapidated state of the Spanish finances, it was found difficult to 
supply the legion with pay, provisions, and the munitions of war. A 
revolution at Madrid, which rendered the form of government very 
democratic, alienated the king of the French from the cause of the 
Spanish queen, and the war lingered, without any prospect of restored 



HISTORY OF THE PEACE. 705 

tranquillity. At the end of its second year of service, the British legion 
was disbanded, and the Spanish government and its auxiliary force 
parted with feelings of mutual dissatisfaction. 

After the departure of the legion, the Carlists, weary of the war, en- 
tered into negotiations with the queen regent, and returned to their alle- 
giance. Carlos was again compelled to become an exile ; but defeat 
could not break his spirit, and he continued to declare himself the right- 
ful heir to the Spanish crown, though rejected by the people, and dis- 
avowed by the other sovereigns of Europe. Spain, however, was too 
disorganized for tranquillity to be easily restored ; the queen regent en- 
deavored, with more good will than ability, to reconcile contending fac- 
tions ; but her efforts proved unavailing, and, wearied of her situation, 
she resigned the regency in the summer of 1840. 

The people of England generally felt little interest in the affairs of 
Spain ; public attention was principally directed to the state of Ireland 
and Canada. The great Irish questions discussed in parliament were, 
the reform of the corporations on the same plan that had been adopted 
in the reform of the English and Scotch corporations ; the regulation 
of tithes, and the establishment of a provision for the poor ; but the dif- 
ferent views taken by the majorities in the houses of commons and 
lords, prevented the conclusion of any final arrangements. In Canada, 
the descendants of the old French settlers, for the most part bigoted and 
ignorant, viewed with great dissatisfaction the superiority to which the 
English settlers had attained, in consequence of their knowledge, spirit, 
and enterprise ; they attributed this pre-eminence to the partiality of 
the government, and, instigated by designing demagogues, clamored for 
constitutional changes, little short of a recognition of their independence. 
Their demands were refused, and the deluded Canadians were persua- 
ded to hazard a revolt. After a brief struggle, the insurgents were re- 
duced, and since the termination of the revolt. Upper and Lower Cana- 
da have been united into one province by an act of the British legisla- 
ture. 

Great embarrassment was produced in the commercial world by the 
failure of the American banks, which rendered many leading merchants 
and traders unable to fulfil their engagements. The crisis was sensi- 
bly felt in England, where it greatly checked the speculations in rail- 
roads, which perhaps were beginning to be carried to a perilous ex- 
tent ; the manufacturing districts suffered most severely, but the pres- 
sure gradually abated, and trade began to flow in its accustomed chan- 
nels. Parties were so nicely balanced in the British parliament, that 
no measure of importance could be arranged ; a further gloom was 
thrown over the discussions by the increasing illness of the king, and 
the certainty that its termination must be fatal. William IV. died on 
the morning of the 20th of June, 1837, sincerely regretted by every 
class of his subjects. During the seven years that he swayed the 
sceptre, England enjoyed tranquillity both at home and abroad ; it was 
the only reign in British history in which there was no execution for 
high treason, and no foreign war. 

45 



700 MODERN HISTORY. 



CHAPTER Xir. 

HISTORY OF COLONIZATION. 

In order to avoid frequent interruptions in the course of the narrative, 
it has been deemed advisable to reserve the account of the principal 
European colonies for the close of the volume, and thus to bring before 
the reader one of the most remarkable features in modern history. The 
discovery of a new world gave an extraordinary impulse to emigration, 
and produced one of the most striking series of events in the annals of 
mankind. The subject naturally divides itself into two great parts — 
the European colonies in the western, and those in the eastern world ; 
and to the former we shall first direct our attention. 

Section I. — The Establishment of the Spaniards in Mexico. 

Immediately after the discovery of America, the first Spanish colo- 
ny was established in Hispaniola, better known by the more modem 
name of St. Domingo. The queen Isabella had given strict orders to 
protect the Indians, and had issued a proclamation prohibiting the 
Spaniards from compelling them to work. The natives, who consid- 
ered exemption from toil as supreme felicity, resisted every attempt to 
induce them to labor for hire, and so many Spaniards fell victims to 
the diseases peculiar to the climate, that hands were wanting to work 
the mines or till the soil. A system of compulsory labor was therefore 
adopted almost by necessity, and it was soon extended, until the Indians 
were, reduced to hopeless slavery. The mines of Hispaniola, when 
first discovered, were exceedingly productive, and the riches acquired 
by the early adventurers attracted fresh crowds of greedy but enterpri- 
sing settlers to its shores. The hardships to which the Indians were 
subjected, rapidly decreased their numbers, and in the same proportion 
diminished the profits of the adventurers. It was therefore resolved to 
seek new settlements ; the island of Puerto Rico was annexed to the 
Spanish dominions, and its unfortunate inhabitants were subjected to 
the same cruel tyranny as the natives of Hispaniola. The island of 
Cuba was next conquered ; though it is seven hundred miles in length, 
and was then densely populated, such was the unwarlike character of 
the inhabitants, that three hundred Spaniards were sufiicient for its total 
subjugation. 

More important conquests were opened by the intrepidity of Balboa, 
who had founded a small settlement on the isthmus of Darien. 

At length the Spaniards began to prepare an expedition for establish- 
ing their empire on the American continent. An armament was organ- 



HISTORY OF COLONIZATION. 707 

ized in Cuba, and the command intrusted to Fernando Cortez, a com- 
mander possessing great skill and bravery, but avaricious and cruel even 
beyond the general average of his countrymen at that period. On the 
2d of April, 1519, this bold adventurer entered the harbor of St. Juan 
de Uloa, on the coast of Yucatan. By means of a female captive, he 
was enabled to open communications with the natives ; and they, in- 
stead of opposing the entrance of these fatal guests into their country, 
assisted them in all their operations with an alacrity of which they too 
soon had reason to repent. The Mexicans had attained a pretty high 
degree of civilization ; they had a regular government, a system of law, 
and an established priesthood ; they recorded events by a species of 
picture-writing, not so perfect as the Egyptian system of hieroglyphics, 
but which, nevertheless, admitted more minuteness and particularity 
than is generally imagined ; their architectural structures were remark- 
able for their strength and beauty ; they had advanced so far in science 
as to construct a pretty accurate calendar ; and they possessed consid- 
erable skill, not only in the useful, but also in the ornamental arts of 
life. Cortez saw that such a nation must be treated differently from 
the rude savages in the islands ; he therefore concealed his real inten- 
tions, and merely demanded to be introduced to the sovereign of the 
country, the emperor Montezuma. 

The Indian caziques were unwilling to admit strangers possessed of 
such formidable weapons as muskets and artillery into the interior of their 
country ; and Montezuma, who was of a weak and cowardly disposition, 
was still more reluctant to receive a visit from strangers, of whose 
prowess he had received an exaggerated description. He therefore re- 
solved to temporize, and sent ambassadors to Cortez with rich presents, 
declining the proposed interview. But these magnificent gifts served 
only to increase the rapacity of the Spaniards. Cortez resolved to tem- 
porize ; he changed his camp into a permanent settlement, which sub- 
sequently grew into the city of Vera Cruz, and patiently watched from 
his intrenchments the course of events. He had not long continued in 
this position, when he received an embassy from the Zerapoallans, a 
tribe which had been long discontented with the government of Monte- 
zuma. He immediately entered into a close alliance with these disaf- 
fected subjects, and sent an embassy to Spain to procure a ratification 
of his powers, and set fire to his fleet, in order that his companions, de- 
prived of all hope of escape, should look for safety only in victory. Hav- 
ing completed his preparations, he marched through an unknown coun- 
try to subdue a mighty empire, with a force amounting to five hundred 
foot, fifteen horsemen, and six pieces of artillery. His first hostile en- 
counter was with the Tlascalans, the most warlike race in Mexico ; 
their country was a republic, under the protection of the empire, and 
they fought with the fury of men animated by a love of freedom. But 
nothing could resist the superiority which their firearms gave the 
Spaniards ; the Tlascalans, after several defeats, yielded themselves 
as vassals to the crown of Spain, and engaged to assist Cortez in all 
his future operations. Aided by six thousand of these new allies, he 
advanced to Cholula, a town of great importance, where, by Montezu- 
ma's order, he was received with open professions of friendship, while 
plans were secretly devised for his destruction. Cortez discovered the 



708 MODERN HISTORY. 

plot, and punished it by the massacre of six thousand of the citizens ; 
the rest were so terrified, that, at the command of the Spaniard, they 
returned to their usual occupations, and treated with the utmost respect 
the men whose hands were stained with the blood of their countrymen. 
As a picture of national prosperity long since extinct, we shall here 
insert the description given by Cortez in his despatches to the Spanish 
monarch of the ancient city of Tlascala, which still exists, though much 
decayed : " This city is so extensive, so well worthy of admiration, 
that although I omit much that I could say of it, I feel assured that the 
little I shall say will be scarcely credited, since it is larger than Gra- 
nada, and much stronger, and contains as many fine houses and a much 
larger population than that city did at the time of its capture ; and it is 
much better supplied with the products of the earth, such as com, and 
with fowls and game, fish from the rivers, various kinds of vegetables, 
and other excellent articles of food. There is in this city a market, in 
which every day thirty thousand people are engaged in buying and 
selling, besides many other merchants who are scattered about the city. 
The market contains a great variety of articles both of food and clothing, 
and all kinds of shoes for the feet ; jewels of gold and silver, and pre- 
cious stones, and ornaments of feathers, all as well arranged as they 
can possibly be found in any public squares or markets in the world. 
There is much earthenware of every style and a good quality, equal to 
the best of Spanish manufacture. Wood, coal, edible and medicinal 
plants, are sold in great quantities. There are houses where they wash 
and shave the heads as barbers, and also for baths. .Finally, there is 
foimd among them a well-regulated police ; the people are rational and 
well disposed, and altogether greatly superior to the most civilized Af- 
rican nation." 

From Cholula, Cortez advanced toward the city of Mexico, and had 
almost reached its gates before the feeble Montezuma had determined 
whether he should receive him as a friend or as an enemy. After some 
hesitation, Montezuma went forth to meet Cortez, with all the magnifi- 
cence of barbarous parade, and granted the Spaniards a lodging in the 
capital. 

But notwithstanding his apparent triumph, the situation of Cortez 
was one of extraordinary danger and perplexity. He was in a city sur- 
rounded by a lake, the bridges and causeways of which might easily be 
broken ; and his little band, thus cut oflf from all communication with its 
allies, must then have fallen victims to superior numbers. To avert 
this danger, he adopted the bold resolution of seizing Montezuma as a 
hostage for his safety, and he actually brought him a prisoner to the 
Spanish quarters. Under pretence of gratifying the monarch's curiosity 
to see the structure of European vessels, the Spaniards built two brig- 
antines, and launched them on the lake, thus securing to themselves the 
means of retreat in case of any reverse of fortune. 

The ostensible pretext for this act of violence was that a cazique, 
named Qualpopoca, had slain several Spaniards in the city of Nautecal 
or Almeira. The account which Cortez gives of the transaction is too 
singular to be omitted, especially as his despatches are utterly unknown 
in this country. It will be seen that he never gives Montezuma, or as 
he writes his name, Muteczuma the title of king or emperor, but speaks 



HISTORY OF COLONIZATION. 709 

of him as if his right to royalty had been sacrificed from the moment 
that the Spaniards had landed in his country. 

The offending cazique, Qualpopoca, was brought to the capital, as our 
readers are probably aware, and, with his followers, was burnt alive. 
Cortez tells this part of the story with much naivete : " So they were 
publicly burnt in a square of the city, without creating any disturbance ; 
and on the day of their execution, as they confessed that Muteczuma 
had directed them to kill the Spaniards, I caused him to be put in irons, 
which threw him into great consternation." All this was manifestly 
done merely from the motives above intimated, namely, " to subserve 
the interests of your majesty and our own security ;" yet Cortez had 
some apprehension lest he might offend royal sympathies, and so, in re- 
spect of his demeanor toward Montezuma, he writes to the emperor : — 

" Such was the kindness of my treatment toward him, and his own 
contentment with his situation, that when at different times I tempted 
him with the offer of his liberty, begging that he would return to his 
palace, he as often replied that he was well pleased with his present 
quarters, and did not wish to leave them, as he wanted nothing that he 
was accustomed to enjoy in his own palace ; and that in case he went 
away, there would be reason to fear the importunities of the local gov- 
ernors, his vassals, might lead him to act against his own wishes, and 
in opposition to your majesty, while he desired in every possible man- 
ner to promote your majesty's service ; that so far he had informed 
them what he desired to have done, and was well content to remain 
where he was ; and should they wish to suggest anything to him, he 
could answer that he was not at liberty, and thus excuse himself from 
attending to them." 

Cortez thus describes the original city of Mexico, which he soon af- 
terward totally destroyed : " This great city of Temixtitan [Mexico] is 
situated in this salt lake, and from the main land to the denser parts of 
it, by whichever route one chooses to enter, the distance is two leagues. 
There are four avenues or entrances to the city, all of which are formed 
by artificial causeways, two spears' length in width. The city is as 
large as Seville or Cordova ; its streets (I speak of the principal ones) 
are very wide and straight ; some of them, and all the inferior ones, are 
half land and half water, and are navigated by canoes. * * * This 
city has many public squares, in which are situated the markets and 
other places for buying and selling. There is one square twice as large 
as that of the city of Salamanca, surrounded by porticoes, where are 
daily assembled more than sixty thousand souls, engaged in buying and 
selling; and where are found all kinds of merchandise that the world 
affords, embracing the necessaries of life, as, for instance, articles of 
food, as well as jewels of gold and silver, lead, brass, copper, tin, pre- 
cious stones, bones, shells, snails, and feathers. There are also ex- 
posed for sale wrought and unwrought stone, bricks burnt and unbufnt, 
timber hewn and unhewn, of different sorts. * * * Every kind of 
merchandise is sold in a particular street or quarter assigned to it exclu- 
sively, and thus the best order is preserved. They sell everything by 
number or measure ; at least so far we have not observed them to sell 
anything by weight. There is a building in the great square that is 
used as an audience-house, where ten or twelve persons, who are ma- 



Sfl^ MODERN HISTORY. 

gistrates, sit and decide all controversies that arise in the market, and 
order delinquents to be punished. In the same square there are other 
persons* who go constantly about among the people, observing what is 
sold, and the measures used in selling ; and they have been seen to 
brcalc measures that were not true. This great city contains a large 
number of temples, or houses for their idols, very handsome edifices, 
which are situated in the different districts and the suburbs : in the prin- 
cipal ones religious persons of each particular sect are constantly resi- 
ding, for whose use beside the houses containing the idols there are 
other convenient habitations. All these persons dress in black, and 
never cut or comb their hair from the time they enter the priesthood 
until they leave it ; and all the sons of the principal inhabitants, both 
nobles and respectable citizens, are placed in the temples, and wear the 
same dress from the age of seven or eight years until they are taken out 
to be married ; which occurs more frequently with the first-born who 
inherit estates than with the others. The priests are debarred from fe- 
male society, nor is any woman permitted to enter the religious houses. 
They also abstain from eating certain kinds of food, inore at some sea- 
sons of the year than others. Among these temples there is one which 
far surpasses all the rest, whose grandeur of architectural details no 
human tongue is able to describe ; for within its precincts, surrounded 
by a lofty wall, there is room enough for a town of five hundred fami- 
lies. Around the interior of this enclosure there are handsome edifices, 
containing large halls and corridors, in which the religious persons at- 
tached to the temple reside. There are full forty towers, which are 
lofty and well built, the largest of which has fifty steps leading to its 
main body, and is higher than the tower of the principal church at 
Seville. The stone and wood of which they are constructed are so 
well wrought in every part, that nothing could be better done, for the 
interior of the chapels containing the idols consists of curious imagery, 
wrought in stone, with plaster ceilings, and woodwork carved in relief, 
and painted with figures of monsters and other objects. All these tow- 
ers are the burial-places of the nobles, and every chapel in them is 
dedicated to a particular idol, to which they pay their devotions." 

But danger impended over Cortez from an unexpected quarter. The 
governor of Cuba, anxious to share in the plunder of Mexico, of whose 
wealth, great as it really was, he had received very exaggerated state- 
ments, sent a new armament, under the command of Narvaez, to deprive 
the conqueror of the fruits of his victory. Cortez, leaving a small gar- 
rison in Mexico, marched against Narvaez, and by a series of prudent 
operations, not only overcame him, but induced his followers to enlist 
under his own banners. This reinforcement was particularly valuable 
at a time when the Mexicans, weary of Spanish cruelty and tyranny, 
had resolved to make the most desperate efforts for expelling the inva- 
ders. Scarcely had Cortez returned to Mexico, when his quarters were 
attacked with desperate fury ; and though thousands of the assailants 
were slain, fresh thousands eagerly hurried forward to take their place. 
At length Cortez brought out Montezuma in his royal robes on the ram- 
parts, trusting that his influence over his subjects would induce them to 
suspend hostilities. But the unfortunate emperor was mortally wounded 
by a missile flung by one of his own subjects ; and Cortez, having done 



HISTOUY OP COLONIZATION. 711 

everything which prudence and valor could dictate, w^as forced to aban- 
don the capital. The Spaniards suffered severely in this calamitous 
retreat ; they lost their artillery, ammunition, and baggage, together with 
the greater part of the treasure for which they had encountered so many 
perils. A splendid victory at Otumba, over the Mexicans, who attempt- 
ed to intercept them, restored the confidence of the Spaniards, and they 
reached the friendly territories of the Tlascalans in safety. Having col- 
lected some reinforcements, and by judicious arts revived the courage 
of his men, Cortez once more advanced toward Mexico, and, halting on 
the borders of the lake, he began to build some brigantines, in order to 
attack the city by water. While thus engaged, he succeeded in de- 
taching many of the neighboring cities from their allegiance to the new 
emperor, Guatimozin ; and having obtained some fresh troops from His- 
paniola, he prepared for a vigorous siege by launching his brigantines 
on the lake. Guatimozin made a gallant resistance, and repulsed the 
Spaniards in an attempt to take the city by storm ; but being unable to 
resist the slower operations of European tactics, he attempted to escape 
over the lake, when his canoe was intercepted by a brigantine, and the 
unfortunate emperor remained a prisoner. As soon as the fate of their 
sovereign was known, the resistance of the Mexicans ceased, and all 
the provinces of the empire imitated the example of the capital. Gua- 
timozin was cruelly tortured to extort a confession of concealed treas- 
ure, and his unfortunate subjects became the slaves of their rapacious 
conquerors. Cortez himself was treated with gross ingratitude by his 
sovereign, whose dominions he had enlarged by the conquest of an 
empire, and he died in comparative obscurity. 

The first thought of the conquerors was to propagate the Christian 
faith in their new dominions, not only from motives of bigotry, but in 
obedience to the soundest dictates of prudence. Missionaries were in- 
vited from Europe to aid in the great work of civilization ; between the 
years 1522 and 1345, numbers of monastics came from various parts of 
the world to aid in the conversion of Mexico. Many practices unknown 
to the Roman ritual were admitted and consecrated. 

It must not be omitted that the missionaries honorably exerted them- 
selves to protect the Mexicans from the sanguinary cruelty of the Span- 
iards ; Sahagun and Las Casas were particularly famous for their ex- 
ertions in behalf of the vanquished ; they obtained bulls from the pope, 
and edicts from the Spanish government, fully recognising the claims 
of the Indians to the rights of humanity, and though they failed to ob- 
tain a full measure of justice for the native Mexicans, they saved them 
from the wretched fate which swept away the native population in 
almost every other colony of Spain. In consequence of the protection 
thus accorded them, both by the secular and regular clergy, the attach- 
ment of the native Mexicans to the Romish religion became more 
ardent and passionate than that of the Spaniards themselves, and it 
still continues to be felt, though the country has been restored to in- 
dependence. 

The edicts of the Spanish monarchs in favor of the Indians were 
disregarded ; the population began to decrease rapidly, and a new sys- 
tem was adopted by which oppression was reduced to an organized 
form, and amelipjcated by being placed under the control of the govern- 



712 MODERN HISTORY. 

ment. It was determined that the native Americans should be regarded 
as serfs attached to the soil, and distributed into encomiendas, a kind 
of fiefs or estates established in favor of the Spanish settlers, who took 
the name of Conquistadores. Slavery, which had previously been ar- 
bitrary, was thus invested with legal forms ; the Indian tribes divided 
into sections, some of which contained more than a hundred families, 
were assigned either to the soldiers who had distinguished themselves 
in the war of invasion, or to the civilians sent from Madrid to adminis- 
ter the government of the provinces. It Avas fortunate for the Mexicans 
that their masters did not erect fortified castles, like the feudal barons 
of the middle ages ; instead of these they established haciendas, or 
large farms, which they had the wisdom to govern according to the old 
forms of the Mexican proprietary. There was no change or interrup- 
tion in the cultivation of plants indigenous to the soil ; the serf cultiva- 
ted the soil according to hereditary routine, and so identified himself 
with his master, that he frequently took his name. There are many 
Indian families of the present day bearing Spanish names, whose blood 
has never been mingled with that of Europeans. Another fortunate 
circumstance contributed to the preservation of the native Mexicans ; 
the Spanish settlers in that country did not enter into any of those 
mining speculations which led their brethren in Hispaniola and other 
islands of the Antilles to sacrifice the natives by myriads to their grasp- 
ing cupidity. The Conquistadores had neither the capital nor the in- 
telligence necessary for such enterprises ; they contented themselves, 
in imitation of the natives, with washing the earth, silt, and sands, 
brought down from the mountains by rivers and winter torrents, to ex- 
tract the grains of gold which they contained. The mines of Mexico, 
which have spread so much of the precious metals over the surface of 
the globe, were not discovered until after the conquest, and brought 
very trifling profits to those who first attempted their exploration. The 
loss of these speculators was a positive gain to humanity. 

Up to the eighteenth century the condition of the Mexican peasants 
was very little difierent from that of the serfs in Poland or Russia. 
About that period their condition began to be sensibly ameliorated. 
Many families of Conquistadores became extinct, and the encomiendas 
were not again distributed by the government. The viceroys and the 
provincial councils, called Audiencias, paid particular attention to the 
interests of those Indians who were liberated by the breaking up of the 
encomiendas ; they abolished every vestige of compulsory labor in the 
mines, requiring that this employment should be voluntary, and fairly 
remunerated. Several abuses, however, prevailed in the colonial ad- 
ministration, from the monopolies established by the agents of the Span- 
ish governments ; they conferred upon themselves the exclusive priv- 
ilege of selling those articles most likely to be used by an agricultural 
population, and fixed whatever price they pleased upon these commodi- 
ties. HaAang thus, by a system of force and fraud, got the Indians 
deeply into their debt, they established a law by which insolvent debt- 
ors became the absolute slaves of their creditors. Many edicts were 
issued to check these abuses, but they were not effectually remedied 
until after the revolution which gave independence to Mexico. 

We shall now briefly state the circumstances which led to the as- 



HISTORY OF COLONIZATION. 71 

sertion of Mexican independence. On the 8th of July, 1808, a corvette 
from Cadiz brought intelligence of the dethronement of the Spanish 
Bourbons, by Napoleon, and the transfer of the monarchy to Joseph 
Bonaparte. The viceroy at first published the news vs^ithout a word 
of comment, but soon recovering from his first surprise, he issued a 
proclamation declaring his intention to preserve his fidelity to King 
Ferdinand, and exhorting the Mexican people to maintain the rights of 
their legitimate sovereign. It was the first time that " the people" had 
been named in any act of state, emanating from the colonial govern- 
ment, and this was among the chief causes of the extraordinary enthu- 
siasm with which the viceroy's appeal was received. It was proposed 
to establish a provisional government on the model of the juntas, which 
had been formed by the patriots in Spain. This proposition, favorably 
received by the viceroy, was rejected by his council as inconsistent 
with the ascendency which had hitherto been enjoyed by all pure Span- 
iards ; three months were spent in controversy, until at length the 
council or audiencia took the bold measure of arresting the viceroy, 
and throwing him into the prisons of the inquisition on a charge of 
heresy. As, however, there was some danger that the populace might 
rise in his favor, the audiencia, having first invested itself with the 
functions of regency, sent the governor a prisoner to Cadiz, where he 
was long confined in a dungeon. 

The Creoles and Indians were indignant at this usurpation, and they 
were still more enraged by the undisguised contempt with which their 
claims were treated by the Spanish oligarchy. Dataller, one of the 
leading members of the council, was accustomed to say that " no na- 
tive American should participate in the government, so long as there 
was a mule-driver in La Mancha, or a cobbler in Castillo to represent 
Spanish ascendency." The juntas of Spain, though engaged in a des- 
perate struggle for their own freedom, were obstinate in their resolu- 
tion to keep the colonies in dependance, and they sent out Venegas as 
viceroy, with positive orders to maintain the ascendency of the Span- 
iards, and keep the Creoles and Indians in their own condition of 
degradation. 

A priest of Indian descent, Hidalgo, the curate of Dolores, raised 
the standard of revolt ; he declared to his congregation that the Eu- 
ropeans had formed a plot to deliver up the country to the French Ja- 
cobins ; he exhorted them to take up arms to defend their liberties and 
their religion, and to march boldly to battle in the name of King Fer- 
dinand and the blessed Virgin. On the 18th of September, 1810, he 
made himself master of San Felipe, and San Miguel el-Grande ; he 
confiscated the property of all the Europeans, declaring that the soil of 
Mexico belonged of right to the Mexicans themselves. Several other 
cities were conquered, and in all of them the Indians and Creoles sac- 
rificed every European without mercy, their commander seeming to 
wink at their excesses, which he trusted would prevent terms of peace 
from being offered or accepted. 

Venegas, the viceroy, made the most vigorous efforts to check the 
progress of this rebellion ; he conciliated the Creoles by investing one 
of their body with high military rank ; he caused Hidalgo to be excom- 
municated by the ecclesiastical authorities, and he paraded an image 



714 MODERN HISTORY. 

of the Virgin, to which superstition attached miraculous powers, through 
the streets of Mexico. This last expedient caused Hidalgo to stop 
short in the midst of his victorious career, and at a time when he was 
joined by several regiments of proA'incial militia, and by the curate 
Morelos, whose abilities were equivalent to a host. Hidalgo retired 
from before the walls of Mexico, which could not have resisted a vigor- 
ous assault. He was overtaken and defeated by an army of Spaniards 
and Creoles ; several of the towns which had submitted to him were 
recaptured, and the victors more than retaliated the sanguinary excesses 
of the insurgents. The royal army continued to pursue Hidalgo and 
his half-armed associates ; a second victory completed their ruin ; 
Hidalgo and two of his principal officers endeavoring to escape to the 
United States were betrayed to the Spaniards, March 21, 1811, and 
after a long confinemeYit, in which they were vainly tortured to obtain 
a confession of the extent of the conspiracy, they were publicly 
executed. 

The dispersed army of Hidalgo divided itself into separate bands, 
and maintained a ruinous guerilla warfare against their oppressors. 
Rayon and Morelos resolved to unite them once more in a grand 
scheme of patriotic warfare. Rayon caused a national junta to be es- 
tablished in the district where the Spaniards had least power ; and in 
its name an address was sent to the viceroy requiring him to convoke 
a national cortes, similar to that which had been assembled in Spain, 
and insisting on the equality of the American and the European Span- 
iards in all political rights. The tone of this manifesto was equally 
firm and respectful, but it gave such offence to the viceroy Venegas, 
that he ordered it to be burned by the common hangman in the market- 
place of Mexico. 

Morelos, who had succeeded to the influence of Hidalgo, prudently 
initiated his troops to habits of discipline in skirmishes and petty enter- 
prises before venturing on any decisive engagement with the regular 
armies of Spain. His defence of Cuantha, where he was besieged by 
the royalists for several weeks, gave lustre to his very defeat. Yield- 
ing to famine, he evacuated the town, and led his army to Izucar, with 
the loss of only seventeen men. The barbarous cruelties perpetrated 
by the Spanish General Calleja in the town after the garrison had with- 
drawn, rendered the royalist cause so odious, that many who had hith- 
erto supported the viceroy passed over to the ranks of the insurgents. 
It would be tedious to enumerate the battles, skirmishes, and sieges 
which filled the next two years ; we must limit ourselves to saying that 
Morelos was continuously successful until the close of the year 1813, 
when he was decisively defeated by Iturbide. Thenceforward his 
career was one continued series of misfortunes, until, on the 5th of 
November, 1815, he was surprised by an overwhelming force, and 
made prisoner after a desperate resistance. He was carried in chains 
to Mexico, degraded from his clerical rank, and executed. The Mexi- 
can junta, or congress, was soon after dissolved, and the revolt became 
once more a confused series of partial and desultory insurrections which 
the Spaniards hoped to quell in detail. In 1817 the younger Mina at- 
tempted to rekindle the flames of insurrection in Mexico ; but, as he 
refused to assert the absolute independence of the country, he did not 



HISTORY OF COLONIZATION. 715 

receive such enthusiastic support as Hidalgo or Morelos. After a bril- 
liant career, in which he displayed the most extraordinary bravery and 
resources of genius, he was overthrown, made prisoner, and shot as a 
traitor. 

The insurrection in Mexico was virtually at an end, when news ar- 
rived that the array which had been assembled in Spain to restore the 
absolute authority of the sovereign in America, had revolted at Cadiz, 
proclaimed the constitution, and demanded the convocation of the cortes. 
The viceroy, Apodaca, was a devoted partisan of absolute power ; he 
formed a plan for inviting Ferdinand to Mexico, and there restoring 
him to his despotic authority, and he employed as his chief agent Don 
Augustin Iturbide, who had shown himself a bitter enemy of Mexican 
liberty during the entire course of the preceding insurrection. Iturbide 
drew up a very different plan from that which Apodaca had contem- 
plated ; it asserted the civic equality of all the inhabitants of Mexico, 
established a constitution, proclaimed the country independent, invited 
Ferdinand to become its sovereign with the title of emperor, and in 
case of his refusal declared that the crown should be proffered to some 
other prince of the blood. The old Spaniards of Mexico, in a storm of 
mingled rage and fear, deposed Apodaca, and chose Francisco Novello 
viceroy in his place, This false step rendered Iturbide irresistible ; 
the Creoles and Indians flocked to his standard ; several Spanish offi- 
cers, disliking the new viceroy, joined him with their regiments ; and 
on the 27th of November, 1821, the royalist army surrendered the cap- 
ital, and consented to evacuate Mexico. The treaty which the viceroy 
had concluded with the insurgents was annulled by the cortes of Mad- 
rid, and the eff'ect of this imprudence was the utter ruin of the party 
which clung to the hope of seeing a Bourbon prince placed at the head 
of the new state. 

The congress which assembled in Mexico seemed disposed to form 
a federative republic; but the partisans of Iturbide suddenly proclaimed 
their favorite emperor, and the deputies were constrained to ratify their 
choice. He did not retain the sovereignty for an entire year ; he was 
dethroned, as he had been elevated, by the army ; the congress pro- 
nounced upon him sentence of perpetual exile, but with laudable gen- 
erosity granted a considerable pension for his support. Iturbide, after 
the lapse of rather more than a year, returned to Mexico, July 16th, 
1824, in the hopes of reviving his party. He fell into the hands of the 
republicans, and was immediately put to death. A republic was then 
established ; soon after the fortress of St. Juan d'UUoa, the last posses- 
sion of the government, was surrendered by capitulation, and the stand- 
ard of Castile, after an ascendency of more than three hundred years, 
disappeared for ever from the coasts of Mexico. 

The progress of the Mexican republic since the establishment of its 
independence has not been prosperous. Conspiracies, insurrections, 
and civil wars, have kept every part of the territory in misery and con- 
fusion. Texas, one of the richest provinces, has separated from the 
Mexican union, and established its independence. All European Span- 
iards have been compelled to quit the territories of the republic, which 
thus drove away some of the most wealthy, intelligent, and industrious 



716 MODERN HISTORY. 

of its citizens. The Mexican finances have fallen into confusion, and 
the army seems to be the sole ruling power in the state. 

Section II. — The Establishment of the Spaniards in Peru. 

The discovery of a passage round the South American continent 
into the Pacific ocean, by Magellan, and the establishment of a colony 
at Panama, soon after Balboa had ascertained the nature of the isthmus, 
incited the Spanish adventurers to undertake new conquests. Pizarro, 
one of the most enterprising men that ever visited the New World, 
having with great difficulty prepared a small armament, landed in Peru 
(a. d. 1531), and though at first disappointed by the barren appearance 
of the coast, he found so much treasure at Coague as to convince him 
that the accounts which Balboa had received of the riches of the coun- 
try were not exaggerated. When the Spaniards first appeared in Peru, 
the nation was divided by a civil war between the sons of the late 
inca, or sovereign; Huascar, the elder, was dethroned by his brother 
Atahualpa, and detained in captivity, while his partisans were secretly 
maturing plans for his restoration. Pizarro advanced into the country 
with the professed design of acting as mediator, but with the perfidious 
purpose of seizing Atahualpa, as Cortes had the unfortunate Montezu- 
ma. He prepared for the execution of his scheme with the same de- 
liberation, and with as little compunction, as if he had been engaged 
in the most honorable transaction. When the Spaniards approached 
the capital, the inca was easily persuaded to consent to an interview ; 
and he visited the invaders with a barbarous magnificence, and osten- 
tatious display of wealth, which inflamed the cupidity of the Spaniards, 
almost beyond the power of restraint. When Atahualpa reached the 
Spanish camp, he Avas addressed by Valverde, the chaplain to the ex- 
pedition, in a long, and what must to the inca have appeared an incom- 
prehensible discourse. The priest, after a brief notice of the mysteries 
of creation and redemption, proceeded to explain the doctrine of the 
pope's supremacy. He then dwelt upon the grant which Pope Alex- 
ander had made to the crown of Spain, and by virtue of it called upon. 
Atahualpa at once to embrace Christianity, and acknowledge himself a 
vassal of the Spanish monarch. The inca, completely puzzled, de- 
manded where Valverde had learned such wonderful things. " In this 
book," replied the priest, presenting the monarch with his breviary. The 
inca took the book, turned over the leaves, and then put it to his ear. 
" This tells me nothing !" he exclaimed, flinging the breviary on the 
ground. " Blasphemy ! blasphemy !" exclaimed Valverde ; " to arms, 
to arms, my Christian brethren ! avenge the profanation of God's word 
by the polluted hands of infidels." 

This solemn farce appears to have been preconcerted. Ere Val- 
verde had concluded, the trumpets sounded a charge ; a dreadful fire 
of artillery and musketry was opened on the defenceless Peruvians ; 
and, in the midst of their surprise and consternation, they were charged 
by the cavalry, whose appearance to men who had never before beheld 
a horse, seemed something supernatural. Atahualpa was taken pris- 
oner and conveyed to the Spanish camp, while the invaders satiated 
themselves with the rich spoils of the field. The unfortunate inca at- 



HISTORY OF COLONIZATION. 717 

,tempted to procure his liberation by the payment of an enormous ran- 
som, but Pizarro, after receiving the gold, resolved to deprive the credu- 
lous monarch of life. He was brought to trial under the most iniqui- 
tous pretences, and sentenced to be burned alive ; but on his consent- 
ing to receive baptism from Valverde, his sentence w^as so far mitigated 
that he was first strangled at the stake. The Spaniards quarrelled 
among themselves about the division of the spoils ; the Peruvians took 
advantage of their discord to raise formidable insurrections, and the 
new kingdom seemed likely to be lost almost as soon as it was gained. 
Pizarro himself was murdered by Almagro, the son of one of his old 
companions, whom he had put to death for treason, and but for the arri- 
val of Vara de Castro, who had been sent as governor from Spain, the 
confusion produced by this crime would probably have been without a 
remedy. De Castro conquered Almagro, and by his judicious meas- 
ures restored tranquillity to the distracted province. Fresh disturban- 
ces were excited by the ambition of Gonzalo Pizarro, and it was not 
until more than a quarter of a century after its conquest, that the royal 
authority was firmly established in Peru. 

The government established by the Spaniards in Peru was far more 
iniquitous and oppressive than that of Mexico, because the Peruvian 
mines were, from the first moment of the conquest, almost the only ob- 
jects which engaged the attention of the Spanish and the provincial 
governments. A horrible system of conscription was devised for work- 
ing these mines ; all the Indians between the ages of eighteen and 
fifty were enrolled in seven lists, the individuals on each list being 
obliged to work for six months in the mines, so that this forced labor 
came on the unfortunate Indians at intervals of three years and a half; 
four out of every five were supposed to perish annually in these deadly 
labors, and to add to the misery of the natives, they were not allowed 
to purchase the necessaries of life except from privileged dealers, who 
robbed them of their earnings without remorse or scruple. Toward 
the close of the last century two serious insurrections of the native 
Peruvians filled the Spaniards with terror ; they were not suppressed 
imtil the rebellion had taxed the resources and power of the provincial 
government to the utmost, and the sanguinary massacres of all who 
were suspected of having joined in the revolt, left the country in a state 
of helplessness and exhaustion from which it had not recovered at the 
commencement of the revolution. 

As it was impossible to gratify the rapacious cupidity of all the 
Spaniards who sought to share in the produce of the Peruvian mines, 
it became a principle of colonial policy to keep alive the spirit of ad- 
venture, by sending divisions to wrest new tracts of land from ihe na- 
tives, without organizing any new system of conquest. It was thus 
that Chili became finally annexed to the Spanish dominions ; but the 
efforts made for its conquest were desultory and separated by long 
intervals, so that over a great part of the country the sovereignty of 
Spain was merely nominal. The colonists and natives, however, seem 
never to have wished for independence, until the desire of nationality 
was pressed upon them by the irresistible force of circumstances, and 
in fact their first revolutionary movements were made in the name of 
loyalty and obedience. 



718 MODERN HISTORY. 

When Joseph Bonaparte was proclaimed king of Spain by Napoleon, 
all the Spanish colonies of South America resolved to remain faithful 
to the ancient dynasty. It was suspected that the European Spaniards 
were disposed to make terms with the French emperor, and therefore 
native juntas were elected to maintain the rights of Ferdinand. In 
September, 1810, the Chilians formed a junta in Santiago ; the Spanish 
general of the district attempted to disperse this body ; a smart skir- 
mish ensued, and the Chilians, having obtained the victory, became de- 
sirous to establish a perpetual system of self-government. The strug- 
gle for independence in Chili and Peru resembled the Mexican war in 
its general outlines : at first the patriots, after gaining advantages of 
which they did not know how to make use, were reduced to temporary 
submission. But the Spanish yoke, always heavy, proved intolerable 
to men who had obtained a brief experience of freedom ; new insurrec- 
tions were raised in every quarter, the superior discipline which had 
previously given victory to the royalists was acquired by the revolters ; 
several European officers joined them, the Spanish government feebly 
supported its defenders, and the viceroys showed themselves destitute 
of talent either as generals or statesmen. The independence of the 
Spanish colonies in South America was nearly completed in the year 
1823, but the last Spanish garrison was not surrendered imtil the 26th 
of February, 1826, when Rodil, the only royalist leader who had ex- 
hibited courage, fidelity, and talent, surrendered the citadel of Callao to 
the patriots. 

Before the revolution the provinces of upper Peru formed part of the 
viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres ; but as the manners, habits, and even the 
language of the Peruvians, differed materially from those of the people 
on the Rio de la Plata, the latter, after forming themselves into the 
Argentine republic, left their neighbors free to pursue any course they 
pleased. A general assembly of the Peruvian provinces solemnly pro- 
claimed that upper Peru should henceforth form an independent nation, 
that it should be named Bolivia in honor of Bolivar, the chief agent in 
its liberation, and that the rights of person and property should form the 
basis of its republican constitution. A million of dollars was voted to 
Bolivar as a tribute of national gratitude, but that chivalrous general 
refused to receive the money, and requested that it should be expended 
in purchasing the freedom of the few negroes who still remained slaves 
in Bolivia. 

In lower Peru the Bolivian constitution was far from being so popu- 
lar as it had been in the upper provinces. It Avas indeed at first ac- 
cepted, and Bolivar chosen president, but when he went to suppress 
an insurrection in Columbia, advantage was taken of his absence to set 
aside the system he had established. Since that period Columbia, 
Bolivia, and Peru, have suffered severely from intestine wars and civil 
commotions, which have greatly deteriorated the vast natural resources 
of these states. Bolivia has indeed regained tranquillity, and its rulers 
appear desirous to extend its commerce and encourage those branches 
of industry most likely to benefit the community. It is the only one 
of the new republics in which the finances are in a wholesome con- 
dition ; its revenues are not only sufficient for the necessary expenses 
of the state, but there is a considerable surplus, which is wisely ex- 



HISTORY OF COLONIZATION. 719 

pended on the maintenance and construction of roads, and on facilita- 
ting the means of communication internally among the inhabitants them- 
selves and externally with strangers. 

Previous to the expeditions of Cortez and Pizarro, Florida had been 
discovered by Juan Ponce de Leon. Its verdant forests and mag- 
nificent flovv^ering aloes seemed so inviting, that a colony was formed 
with little difficulty. But the Indians of Florida were the most warlike 
of the native races in America, and they severely harassed the settlers. 
Soto, a companion of Pizarro, led an expedition into the interior, where 
he discovered the Mississippi. He died on the banks of the river, 
and his followers, anxious to conceal his death from the Indians, sank 
his body in the stream. A plan was formed by the leaders of the 
French Huguenots for emigrating to Florida, and an exploring party 
was sent out, but the jealousy of Spain was roused ; the adventurers 
were closely pursued, made prisoners, and put to death. Florida re- 
mained subject to Spain until the year 1818, when, in consequence of 
the depredations of the Indians, which the governors pleaded their in- 
ability to restrain, the Americans, under General Jackson, entered the 
province and annexed it to the United States. The Spanish govern- 
ment remonstrated, but had not the means of obtaining redress ; and it 
finally acceded to the cession (a. d. 1821). 

Section III. — Portuguese Colonies in South America. 

Brazil was accidentally discovered by a Portuguese admiral bound 
to the East Indies, in the year 1501, but he did not ascertain whether 
it was an island or part of the continent, a subject which long remained 
a matter of doubt. No effort was made to colonize the country for 
nearly half a century ; this apparent neglect arose from the reluctance 
of the Portuguese to interfere with the pretensions of the court of Spain, 
for the papal grant of newly-discovered countries to the Spanish mon- 
arch was held by the court of Madrid to include the whole American 
continent. At length the king of Portugal, envious of the wealth 
acquired by the Spaniards, sent out a small body of colonists, who 
founded St. Salvador (a. d. 1549). These settlers reported that the 
native Brazilians were far lower in the scale of civilization than the 
Mexicans or Peruvians ; they were divided into a number of petty 
tribes or states, constantly at war with each other, and the invaders, 
though few in number, were easily able to subdue the Indian tribes in 
detail, by fomenting their animosities and cautiously holding the bal- 
ance between their contending interests. This course of policy was 
rendered necessary by the personal bravery of the native Brazilians ; 
though ignorant of discipline and unable to act in masses, they dis- 
played great individual courage in battle ; they were skilful in the use 
of bows, darts, wooden clubs, and shields, and frequently were victori- 
ous in petty skirmishes. But they were unable to resist European 
tactics and European policy, and hence they were finally reduced under 
the yoke, with which they soon appeared to be contented. The facility 
with which the Portuguese made themselves masters of this rich ter- 
ritory excited the cupidity of other powers, and they were successively 
attacked by the Spaniards, the French, and the Dutch. The latter 



720 MODERN HISTORY. 

were the most dangerous enemies, they had just effected their deliver- 
ance from the iron despotism of Spain, under which the Portuguese 
themselves groaned at the period, and hence they had such a party in 
the country that their conquest would have been certain had they not 
alienated their supporters by attempting to establish odious monopolies. 
From the time of the expulsion of the Dutch, the Portuguese made 
it their object to keep everything connected with Brazil a profound 
secret, and little was known of the country until it asserted its inde- 
pendence. 

For more than three centuries one of the most beautiful and fertile 
regions of the globe was thus, by the policy of Portugal, restricted 
from all intercourse and commerce with the other nations of Europe, 
and even the residence or admission of foreigners was equally pro- 
hibited. The vessels of the allies of the mother-country were occasion- 
ally permitted to anchor in its ports, but neither passengers nor crew 
were allowed to land excepting under the superintendence of a guard 
of soldiers. 

Previously to the year 1808, though the viceroy resident in Rio de 
Janeiro was nominally the highest functionary of the government, yet 
this personage was, in reality, invested with but little political power 
except in the province of Rio, where alone he acted as captain-general, 
the virtual administration of the colony being intrusted chiefly to similar 
officers, one of whom was appointed to each province. They were 
nominated for three years only, and received their instructions from the 
court of Lisbon, to which they were compelled to render an account of 
their proceedings. They were not only prohibited from marrying Avithin 
the sphere of their jurisdiction, but also from the transaction of any 
commercial pursuits, as well as from accepting any present or emolu- 
ment, in addition to the stipend allotted them by the government. For 
the management and application of the public finances bodies were ap- 
pointed denominated " Juntas de Fazenda," Juntas of Finance ; of 
which the captains-general of the respective provinces were the presi- 
dents. 

The highest functions of the judicial power were confided to a court 
of appeal composed of disembargadores, or chief judges, to whom suc- 
ceeded the onvidores, or itinerant judges, who were under the obliga- 
tion of making an annual circuit to the districts committed to their charge, 
for the purpose of passing judgment in criminal cases. For the adju- 
dication of certain cases, judges termed " Juizes de Fora," who were 
selected from among such as had taken their degree in Coimbra as 
bachelors of law, were appointed, who, as well as the officers of the 
higher tribunals, were all nominated by the court of Portugal. In the 
less populous and inferior districts, " Juizes ordinaries," with the same 
attributes as the " Juizes de fora," were also occasionally selected by 
the votes of individuals denominated " Bous de pivo," the qualification 
for Avhich title was to have held office in the municipalities. . From the 
sentence of these " Juizes" appeal could be made to the court of disem- 
bargadores in Rio, and from this again, ultimately, to the " Disembargo 
do Baco" in Lisbon. Unless, however, the appellant were possessed 
either of great interest at court, or, in default of it, could bribe higher 
than his antagonist, these final appeals were seldom of any real utility. 



HISTORY OF COLONIZATION. 721 

The statutes on which the decisions of the judicial power were found- 
ed, was the Portuguese code framed during the reigns of the two Philips, 
and entitled " Ordnacoens do Reino," to which were appended all the 
" Cartas de Lei" and decrees issued since the accession of the house 
of Braganza, forming altogether about nine volumes. 

Though in ordinary cases the decision of both civil and criminal 
causes was left exclusively to the judicial authorities, the mandate of 
the captains general was at any time sufficient either to suspend or set 
aside the ordinary operation of the law. 

The municipalities were close corporations, formed on the model of 
those of Portugal ; where those bodies had formerly been intrusted with 
the nomination of deputies to the supreme cortes : though this as well as 
many other important privileges, had latterly fallen into desuetude. 

On occasions of public ceremony the national banner was still car- 
ried in their processions, and they were still recognised, in appearance 
at least, as the representatives of the people. In Brazil also their power 
was once considerable, and instances have occurred of the deposition 
of the captains general by the municipalities, and of this exercise of 
authority having been sanctioned by the entire approbation of the 
government of Lisbon, though toward the end of the last century their 
powers had been restricted almost exclusively to the improvement of 
roads, the construction of bridges, the control of the markets, and other 
objects of minor importance. Their executive officers, who were en- 
titled " Juizes Almotaceis" were nominated by the municipalities them- 
selves every three months, and were charged with the power of exacting 
fines and enforcing imprisonment according to certain established 
regulations. 

The regular troops were recruited according to the direction, and 
placed entirely at the disposition of the captains-general, but the officers 
were nominated by the court of Lisbon. The militia, or troops of the 
second line, were enlisted by the officers of each respective corps, and 
the officers themselves were also appointed in Lisbon, at the proposition 
of the captains-general. Though serving gratuitously, this latter force 
was often employed in very laborious and odious services, and its mem- 
bers as well as the regular troops were amenable to martial law in all 
matters relative to their military duty. 

In addition to the preceding were the Ordenan§as, or troops of the 
third line, who by the regulations of their institution ought to have been 
composed exclusively of such individuals as were incapacitated by 
physical defects or otherwise from serving in the militia. Their duty 
was to defend the country in cases of emergency, but this service was 
merely nominal, and, by a perversion of the real objects of the institu- 
tion, it became customary for all possessed of sufficient patronage to 
obtain a post in the Ordenancas for the express object of avoiding enrol- 
ment in the militia. The fidalgos, or Portuguese noblemen of the first 
rank, were exempt from personal service altogether. 

The orders of knighthood were those of Santo lasfo, San Bento de 
Aviz, and the order of Christ, of all of which the sovereigns of Portugal 
were the grand masters and perpetual administrators. Among the 
privileges appertaining to the office of grand master of the order of 
Christ, a pontifical bull had conferred that of an entire ecclesiastical 

46 



722 MODERN HISTORY. 

jurisdiction over ultra-marine conquests, and by virtue of this title, the 
crown of Portugal shortly after the discovery of Brazil appropriated to 
its own use all the tithes levied in the country ; with however a proviso, 
binding the monarch to provide for the celebration of public worship, 
and to pay a stipulated sum for the adequate maintenance of the various 
clergy. By the same authority the presentation of ecclesiasiial bene- 
fices was also constituted one of the exclusive privileges of royalty, 
though, at the proposition of the bishops, with an injunction that the 
natives of the respective captaincies, and more especially the descend- 
ants of the ancient nobility who were among the first emigrants to Brazil, 
should on all occasions be preferred, the right of presentation still being 
restricted to the sovereign. 

The stipulations made for the maintenance of the established religion, 
and the due support of the clergy, were nevertheless but very imper- 
fectly complied with. 

Many priests came to be dependant on the mere fees of their office 
for subsistence, and the stipend paid to the highest dignitaries of the 
church was but trifling when compared with what would have accrued 
to them, had they been allowed to retain possession of their tithes. 
The revenue of the archbishop of Bahia, the head functionary of the 
Brazilian church, never amounted to more than ten contos of rees per 
annum, at par, 2,812/. 10.?. sterling; nor was the bishopric of Rio de 
Janeiro, embracing within its limits, the provinces of Rio Grande, 
Espirito Santo, and Santa Catherine, ever worth to its incumbent more 
than six contos of rees, or, 1,687/. lOs. per annum. These peculiarities 
in the condition of the clergy are perhaps worthy of more particular 
note than the circumstances of any other class, since they will be found 
to have exercised a most important influence during the period of the 
subsequent revolution. 

The jealousy of the Portuguese government constantly led them to 
dread the growth of every power or corporation which might hereafter 
militate against the exercise of its authority ; and on this account not 
only were the civil and ecclesiastical functionaries brought more imme- 
diately under control than in the mother-country, but even the increase- 
of capitalists and large proprietors was systematically prevented. The 
entailment of landed property could be effected only by virtue of an ex- 
press permission from the sovereign ; and all manufactures, excepting 
the preparation of sugar, were most rigidly prohibited. 

During the year 1769 a conspiracy was formed by a few influential 
individuals in Villa Rica, not so much, however, with the design of 
proclaiming an independent republic, as from a desire to ascertain what 
co-operation they were likely to meet with in case that step should 
subsequently be adopted. From a diminution in the product of the 
coal-mines in this district, several of the individuals working them were- 
in considerable arrear for taxes. These arrears the government in- 
Lisbon had ordered to be paid up, with but little regard to the practica- 
bility of the demand. Much irritation had in consequence been excited, 
and a military officer of the name of Joaquim Joze da Silva Xavier, 
commonly termed " Tiradentes," or the Tooth-drawer, was sent off for- 
the purpose of ascertaining the disposition of the inhabitants of Rio 
Janeiro. Here the imprudence of Tiradentes led to an immediate dis- 



HISTORY OF COLONIZATION. 723- 

covery of the association, tne members of which were forthwith arrested. 
Altogether, however, their numbers did not amount to forty, yet, though - 
little could be urged in evidence against them, they were all sentenced 
to death, banishment, or the galleys, according to the different degrees 
of their supposed guilt. 

These sentences were nevertheless mitigated in favor of all, except' 
the unfortunate Tiradentes, who, though but an instrument in the hands 
of others, w^as, after the lapse of two years, condemned to be hanged, 
decapitated, and quartered ; by the same sentence it was, among other' 
ignominious provisions, enacted that his head should be exposed in the' 
public square in Villa Rica, his house razed to the ground, and his 
children and grandchildren declared infamous. A conspiracy, origi- 
nating exclusively among the people of color, was also organized in 
Bahia during the year 1801, but like the former, it was discovered 
before any attempt had been made to put it into execution. The com- 
munication between the different provinces was neither sufficient to 
facilitate a general revolt, nor indeed were the free population disposed 
to it. Their condition, as contrasted with that which is the result of 
European civilization, was wretched ; yet the tyranny exercised over 
them was of a negative rather than of a positive character. Their 
wants were few, and from the almost total absence of nobility, large 
proprietors, or powerful ecclesiastical dignitaries, there was an equality 
throughout their entire association which prevented their being sensible- 
of any undue privations. Could they have been exempted from all ex- 
traneous impulse, ages might have rolled away, and Brazil have been 
known to Europe, only as the colossal, yet submissive, and unaspiring 
dependancy of Portugal. But events were occurring elsewhere, about 
the close of the eighteenth century, the effects of which were fated to- 
extend their influence to the very ends of the earth. The young re- 
public of France emerged from amid the storms of the revolution, and 
the crowned heads of all the surrounding states entered into one mighty 
coalition to crush the intruder. In this attempt their efforts were par- 
tially successful, yet their aggressive policy was, ere long, followed up 
by a fearful and overwhelming counteraction. They raised up a spirit 
which they afterward in vain attempted to exorcise. They called forth 
a conqueror who for a while scattered all their armaments before him, 
and who burst and riveted at will the manacles of many nations. The 
results of his victories were not bounded by the hemisphere wherein 
they were achieved. They gave birth to the immediate independence 
of all the Spanish colonies in South America, and by compelling the 
royal family of Portugal to seek refuge in Brazil, they created as it were 
a new era in her history. 

The royal family of Portugal sailed from Lisbon under the escort of 
a British squadron, and reached Rio Janeiro on the 7th of March, 
1808. As Portugal was occupied by a French army, it would have 
been absurd to maintain the ancient monopoly of trade, and the ports 
of Brazil were thrown open to foreigners of every nation by a royal 
decree. As the dowager-queen of Portugal was in a state of mental 
imbecility, the government was administered by her son, Don John, 
with the title of regent ; he introduced several great improvements into 
the government; Brazil was no longer treated as a colony; it was 



"724 MODERN HISTORY. 

raised to the dignity of a nation, and the progress of amelioration in its 
financial and commercial condition was unusually rapid. 

The first cause of discontent was the preference which the court 
naturally showed for officers of Portuguese birth ; and this jealousy 
was increased by the contempt with which the Europeans treated every 
one of Brazilian birth. Indeed, a Portuguese general formally pro- 
posed that all Brazilians should be declared incompetent to hold a high- 
er rank than that of captain, and though no such law was formally 
enacted, its spirit was acted upon in every department of the adminis- 
tration. Dissatisfaction was silent, but it was deeply felt and rapidly 
extending, when in October, 1820, intelligence arrived of the revolt in 
Portugal in favor of a constitutional government. On the 26th of Feb- 
ruary, 1821, the king was compelled to proclaim the constitution in Rio 
de Janeiro, and to promise that he would convoke a Brazilian cortes. 

In the meantime the cortes at Lisbon began to form projects for se- 
curing to Portugal its ancient monopoly of Brazilian commerce, and to 
render its provinces once more colonies dependant on the mother- 
country. These projects were eagerly supported by the Portuguese in 
Brazil, who trusted to revive their ancient ascendency over the colo- 
nists and natives. Violent disputes, frequently ending in bloodshed, 
arose between the Portuguese and the Brazilians ; Don John, who had 
assumed the title of king on his mother's death, returned to Lisbon, 
leaving his son, Don Pedro, at the head of the Brazilian government, 
which he clearly saw would not long remain dependant on Portugal. 
The cortes of Lisbon assumed the right of legislating for the colonies 
without consulting their inclinations ; they abolished the tribunals 
which had been created in Rio Janeiro, and passed a decree recalling 
Don Pedro to Europe. These decrees were resisted by the Brazilians, 
and after some delay they took the decisive step of declaring their in- 
dependence, and establishing a constitutional monarchy under Don Pe- 
dro as emperor. 

We have elsewhere noticed the revolution in which Pedro was de- 
throned and a regency established in the name of his son. Since that 
period Brazil has enjoyed more tranquillity than any of the other South 
American states, and but for the difficulties which arise from the con- 
tinuance of negro slavery in the country, it would seem to have every 
fair prospect of advancing rapidly in social prosperity and political im- 
portance. 

Paraguay can not with propriety be reckoned among the colonies 
either of Spain or Portugal, though both governments have claimed it 
as their own. It was first brought under European control by the Jes- 
uit missionaries, who professed a nominal obedience to the crown of 
Spain. Their success in making converts was greater than that of 
their brethren in any other quarter of the globe ; they instructed the 
Indians who embraced Christianity in agriculture and the arts of social 
life ; the surrounding tribes were not slow in perceiving the advantages 
which their countrymen had derived from the change, and they came 
voluntarily to seek instruction. In a very short time the Jesuits became 
complete masters of the country ; in order to perpetuate their dominion, 
they carefully excluded all foreigners from Paraguay, and infused into 



HISTORY OF COLONIZATION. 725 

the minds of the natives a suspicious jealousy, or rather hatred of for- 
eigners, which has never since been eradicated. 

When the order of the Jesuits was abohshed, Paraguay was all but 
left to itself, and its name was scarcely mentioned in Europe, until it 
took a share in the revolutionary movement which established so many 
new states in South America. Doctor Francia headed the revolution 
of Paraguay, and obtained absolute power for himself, with the title of 
dictator. He established as rigid a system for excluding foreigners as 
the Jesuits themselves, and his successors appear to continue the same 
course of policy. 

Section IV. — The English in America. 

England had shared in the ardor for discovery which the successful 
enterprise of Columbus diffused throughout Europe. Newfoundland 
was visited by Sebastian Cabot, in the reign of Henry VH. ; and two 
unsuccessful voyages were made to the southern seas, by the same 
navigator, in the reign of Henry VHI. But the object which long 
continued to be the favorite one of the English adventurers, was the 
discovery of a passage through the northern seas to India and China. 
Sir Hugh Willoughby, and Richard Chancellor, hoped that this might 
be attained by sailirvg to the northeast ; the latter reached Archangel, 
a port then unknown in western Europe, and though he failed in his 
principal object, he laid the foundation of an active commerce between 
Great Britain and Russia. The company of Merchant Adventurers, 
incorporated by Edward VI., were indefatigable in their efforts to open 
new courses of trade, by encouraging maritime and inland discovery ; 
while their navigators penetrated to Nova Zembla and the river Oby, 
several of their factors accompanied some Russian caravans into Per- 
sia, by the route of Astrachan and the Caspian sea ; and the accounts 
which they published on their return, first gave British merchants ac- 
curate intelligence concerning the state of the remote regions of the 
east. These enterprises were renewed under the reign of Elizabeth ; 
a commercial treaty was concluded with the shah of Persia, and such 
information obtained respecting India, as greatly increased the national 
ardor for opening a communication with that country by sea. But 
every effort to discover a northwest or northeast passage failed ; Mar- 
tin Frobisher, like every navigator from his days to those of Sir John 
Ross, found the seas blockaded with fields of ice, through which no 
opening could be made. This disappointment might have damped 
the spirit of the English, but for the successful enterprise of Sir Fran- 
cis Drake, who circumnavigated the globe with a small squadron, and 
returned home with an account of many important discoveries in the 
Pacific ocean. War writh Spain rendered this information peculiarly 
important ; and the English resolved to attack their enemies through 
their colonies, and thus cut off the sources of the wealth which ren- 
dered Philip II. formidable to Europe. 

In the sketch of the history of the United States will be found an 
account of the colonies planted by the English within the limits of that 
country. 

Canada was the first colony established by the French in Canada ;, 



726 MODERN HISTORY. 

but the early settlers suffered so many misfortunes, that the country 
was several times on the point of being abandoned. It began, however, 
to prosper after the foundation of Quebec, by Champlain (a. d. 1608), 
and the formation of a new colony at Montreal. The contests of the 
French with the Iroquois and the Hurons were less perilous than those 
of the New Englanders with the Pequods and Narragansets, but they 
were less ably conducted, and more injurious to the prosperity of the 
colony. 

At a much later period, the French colonized Louisiana (a. d. 1686), 
with the hope of securing the fertile countries watered by the Misissip- 
pi. The settlement was more valued by the government than Canada, 
because it was supposed to contain mines of gold, and for the same 
reason possession of it was equally coveted by the English and the 
Spaniards. Having two colonies, one at the northern and one at the 
southern extremity of the British settlements, the French government 
prepared to connect them by a chain of forts which would have com- 
pletely hemmed in the English. A furious Avar ensued between the 
two nations in the back woods, which ended in the complete overthrow 
of the French. Canada and Louisiana were ceded to England by the 
peace of 1763 ; but the latter is now joined to the United States, while 
the former still continues under British government. In the history of 
the other British American colonies there is nothing of sufficient im- 
portance to deserve a place in this summary. The most important of 
them now form a great republic, which must for the future occupy a 
conspicuous position in Modern History ; and among the best guides to 
a correct estimate of their future career, is a knowledge of the cir- 
cumstances attending their foundation. 

Section V. — Colonization of the West Indies. 

We have already mentioned the settlements of the Spaniards in His- 
paniola, Puerto Rico, and Cuba, and shall now briefly give a sketch of 
the colonization of the other principal islands. Barbadoes, one of the 
earliest English settlements, was totally uninhabited when the English 
took possession of it (a. d. 1623). Its prosperity first began to attract 
notice when some of the Dutch, who were expelled from Brazil by the 
Portuguese, introduced the manufacture of sugar, and the cultivation of 
the cane, from which that useful article is extracted. Negroes were 
not imported as slaves until about the year 1630 ; previously to which 
time the planters are said to have been frequently guilty of kidnapping 
the Caribs. The negroes multiplied so fast, that they frequently con- 
spired to massacre all the white inhabitants, and take possession of the 
island, but their plots were discovered and punished with remorseless 
severity. 

St. Lucia was first settled by the English (a. d. 1637), but the colo- 
nists were soon massacred by the Caribs, after which it was seized by 
the French, who are said to have instigated the revolt of the native 
tribes. The island frequently changed masters in the wars between 
France and England, but it now belongs to the latter power. St. Vin- 
cent and the Grenadine islands were similarly contested, and now belong 
to England. 



HISTORY OF COLONIZATION. 727 

Martinico and Guadaloupe were colonized by the French, in the be- 
.ginnino' of the seventeenth century. Their prosperity received very 
severe checks in the frequent wars between France and England. At 
the late treaty of peace they were restored to France. The other Car- 
ibbee islands are possessed by the Dutch, the Danes, the Swedes, and 
the English, but the largest share belongs to the English. Antigua is, 
perhaps, the most flourishing of these islands, but there is nothing re- 
markable in its history. 

Tobago was colonized by the Dutch, conjointly with the Courlanders 
, {a. d. 1632). It was wrested from them by the French, who subse- 
^quently ceded it to the English (a. d. 1737). 

Trinidad is a large and fertile island on the coast of South America, 
remarkable for a lake of asphaltum, or mineral pitch. It was early 
.colonized by Spain, but was captured by the English in 1797, and is 
still retained by them. It is one of the very few of these islands which 
.contains any portion of its ancient population. 

The Bahama islands, though discovered by Columbus, were com- 
,pletely neglected until they were accidentally visited by an Englishman 
named Sayle (a. n. 1667), who was driven to seek shelter among them 
by stress of weather. The account which he gave of their climate and 
productions, on his return home, induced some spirited adventurers to 
combine for their colonization. The early settlers suffered very severe- 
ly from hurricanes and the hostility of the Spaniards, but they sur- 
mounted these difficulties, and laid the foundation of communities which 
are now flourishing and prosperous. 

The Bermudas, or Summer islands, were discovered but never colo- 
nized by the Spaniards. An Englishman named May was shipwrecked 
on one of them ; he and his companions built a vessel of the native ce- 
dar, and returned to Europe, where they published a very exaggerated 
■ account of the beauty and fertility of these islands, which gave rise to 
-many poetic fictions. A colony was planted on St. George's island, by 
the Virginia company, but it narrowly escaped destruction in its infancy 
.from a very singular visitation. Some rats, imported in European ves- 
sels, multiplied so prodigiously, that they covered the ground and built 
nests in the trees. Their devastations were continued during five 
years, when they suddenly disappeared, but from what cause is uncer- 
tain. Since that period the prosperity of these islands has been unin- 
terrupted ; and of late years vast works for the purpose of establishing 
here a naval arsenal have been in progress, and are now near com- 
pletion. 

Jamaica was discovered by Columbus, and soon after colonized by 
the Spaniards, who massacred the greater part of the native inhabitants. 
As there were no mines in the island, it was neglected by the Span- 
iards, and was easily wrested from them by a British armament, under 
the command of Penn and Venables, during the protectorate of Crom- 
well. The position of Jamaica afforded many facilities for attacking 
the Spanish settlements, and it was therefore the great rendezvous of 
the formidable combination of pirates called the bucaniers. This 
confraternity was composed of adventurers from various nations, and the 
.Spanish ships and colonies were their chief objects of attack. They 
.were not, however, very scrupulous in ascertaining to what nation any 



728 MODERN HISTORY. 

richly-laden vessel belonged ; and, to prevent any discovery of their 
crimes, they generally massacred the crews. Morgan was their most 
noted leader ; he conquered Panama, and several other rich towns be- 
longing to the crown of Spain ; and having by his continued successes 
gained the command of a large force, appears to have meditated the es- 
tablishment of an independent sovereignty. Subsequently he abandoned 
his piracies, submitted to the English government, and received the 
honor of knighthood. The bucaniers being no longer protected in 
Jamaica, removed to the French settlement in Hispaniola, and long 
continued to be the terror of the American seas. Jamaica has often 
been harassed by negro insurrections, but since the mountains have 
been opened by roads, the insurgents, deprived of any place of shelter, 
have found themselves unable to make considerable stand. 

To the north of the river Amazon, on the eastern coast of South 
America, lies a vast level tract, known by the general name of Guiana, 
possessed by the Portuguese, the French, Dutch, and English. The 
land is exuberantly fertile, but the climate unhealthy. Formerly the 
Dutch settlements were the most considerable, but the chief of them 
were captured in 1797 by the English, and are now in their possession. 
This is the only portion which bears the appearance of regular coloni- 
zation, the other tracts being either held by the natives, or mainly used 
by the European rulers as penal settlements. 

Hispaniola, or St. Domingo, after having been long an object of con- 
tention between the French, Spaniards, and English, is now an inde- 
pendent negro state, and has resumed its old native name of Hayti. 

Section VI. — Tlie Portuguese in India. 

The colonies we have just described owe their origin to the discov- 
eries of Columbus ; we must now direct our attention to those in the 
opposite division of the globe, which were consequent on the discovery 
of a passage round the Cape of Good Hope, by Vasco de Gama. The 
first enterprises of the Portuguese, when a way was opened for them 
to Hindustan, were limited to securing their commerce ; but under the 
guidance of the illustrious Albuquerque, they procured a grant of ground 
from onfe of the native sovereigns, and founded a strong fortress. The 
Mohammedans, who had hitherto engrossed the entire commerce of 
India, formed a league to expel the intruders, in which they were en- 
couraged by the Venetians, who purchased Indian spices and other 
goods from the Arabs, with which they supplied the principal markets 
of Europe. This enterprise was defeated, and soon after Don Alphonzo 
Albuquerque laid the foundation of the future supremacy of the Portu- 
guese by reducing Goa, which afterward became the seat of govern- 
ment, and was also erected into an archbishop's see by the pope. This 
was the first commencement of territorial acquisition by European pow- 
ers in India, a system strongly deprecated by Vasco de Gama, and 
which it is impossible to defend on any principles of national justice. 
Albuquerque defended himself by declaring that it would be impossible 
for Portugal to command the trade unless it shared in the empire of 
India, a pretext whose obvious weakness it is not necessary to expose. 
Albuquerque also subdued the city of Malacca, and the island of Ormuz, 



f^ 



HISTORY OF COLONIZATION. f^ 

in the Persisn gulf. The efforts of his successors were principally di- 
rected to the maintenance of Albuquerque's acquisitions, and to check- 
ing the progress of the Turks, who, after the conquest of Egypt, made 
several attempts to establish themselves on the coast of Malabar. Had 
they succeeded, it is probable that the Christians would never have oc- 
cupied India, for the Mussulmans spread over the peninsula would have 
united to support a power equally iavorable to their religious prejudices 
and their temporal interests. In about sixty years the Portuguese had 
established an empire in the east, whose extent and power were truly 
wonderful. On one side, their authority extended as far as the utmost 
limits of the coast of Persia, and over all the islands in the Persian 
gulf ; some of the Arabian princes were their tributaries, others their 
allies, and through the whole Arabian peninsula none dared to confess 
themselves their enemies. In the Red sea, they were the only power 
■*that commanded respect, and they had considerable influence over the 
emperor of Abyssinia and the rulers of eastern Africa. They possessed 
the whole coast of Malabar, from Cape Ramoz to Cape Comorin ; they 
were masters also of the Coromandel coast, the bay of Bengal, the city, 
fortress, and peninsula of Malacca. The potent islands of Ceylon, Su- 
matra, and Java, paid them tribute, as did the Moluccas ; and they had 
obtained a settlement in China (Macao), and a free trade with the islands 
of Japan. 

The ruin of this empire arose chiefly from the union of Portugal with 
Spain (a. d. 1580). Immediately after that event, Philip II. issued au 
edict, prohibiting the Dutch from trading with Lisbon, and thus com- 
pelled them to seek for the spices and wares of India in other quarters. 
The enterprising republicans were then hardy and necessitous, and had 
everything to gain and nothing to lose ; the Portuguese, on the other 
hand, were divided in their counsels, depraved in their manners, and 
detested by their subjects and neighbors. The Dutch first established 
themselves in some distant islands, whence, being joined by new set- 
tlers from home, partly by force of arms and partly by taking advantage 
of the errors committed by the Portuguese, they finally supplanted them 
everywhere, and stripped them of their dominions in far less time than 
they had acquired them. 

The most remarkable of the Portuguese settlements was the island 
of Ormuz. It is nothing more than a salt and barren rock in the Persian 
gulf, destitute of water, save where rain, which rarely falls, is collected 
in natural or artificial cavities ; but its commodious situation rendered 
it the most flourishing commercial mart in the eastern seas. Its road- 
stead was frequented by shipping from all parts of the Indies, from the 
coasts of Africa, Egypt, and Arabia, while it possessed an extensive 
caravan trade with the interior of Asia, through the opposite ports of 
Persia. The wealth, the splendor, and the concourse of traders at Or- 
muz, during its flourishing condition, gave the world a memorable exam- 
ple of the almost omnipotent power of commerce : in the trading seasons, 
which lasted from January to March, and from the end of August to the 
beginning of November, not only was there an unparalleled activity of 
traffic, but a display of luxury and magnificence which seemed to real- 
ize the extravagances of fiction. The salt dust of the streets was con- 
cealed and kept down by neat mats and rich carpets ; canvass awnings. 



730 MODERN HISTORY. 

were extended from the roofs of the houses to exclude the scorching 
rays of the sun ; the rooms next the street were opened like shops, 
adorned with Indian cabinets and piles of porcelain, intermixed with 
odoriferous dwarf trees and shrubs, set in gilded vases, elegantly adorned 
•with figures. Camels laden with water-skins stood at the corner of 
•every street, vi'hile the richest wines of Persia, the most costl)'- perfumes 
and the choicest delicacies of Asia, were poured forth in lavish profu- 
:sion. The Portuguese, in the insolence of prosperity, provoked the 
hostility of Shah Abbas, the most powerful of the Persian monarchs, and 
quarrelled with the English, just as they were beginning to obtain con- 
sideration in the east. A league was formed between Shah Abbas and 
the English ; their united forces assailed Ormuz (a. d. 1622) ; it was 
taken' with little difficulty, and the value of its plunder was estimated at 
two millions. Thenceforward the trade of Ormuz rapidly declined : its 
merchants transferred their capital and enterprise to other quarters, the 
very materials of its splendid edifices were taken away by the Dutch 
ships as ballast, and it soon relapsed into its original condition of a bar- 
ren and desolate rock. Scarcely the smallest remains are now left 
to vindicate the records of history, or to prove that this was once the 
flourishing capital of extensive commerce, and the principal magazine 
of the east. 

Section VII. — The Spaniards in the East Indies. 

We have before stated that the object of the first voyage of Columbus 
was to discover a western passage to the East Indies, and this project 
was not forgotten by the Spaniards, even after a new world had been 
opened to their ambition. After the discovery of the passage round the 
extremity of South America by Magellan, they prepared to occupy some 
of the Moluccas, but were prevented by the papal division of newly- 
discovered countries between them and the Portuguese. But when 
Portugal was united to Spain, under Philip II., Lopez de Legaspi re- 
solved to form a settlement in a valuable cluster of these islands, which 
he called the Philippines, in honor of his sovereign. The city of Ma- 
nilla was speedily built and fortified ; scarcely were its defences com- 
plete, when it was attacked by the native islanders, instigated by the 
Chinese, who appear to have been, at some remote period, masters of 
the country. With some difficulty the insurrection was suppressed ; but 
more formidable rivals soon appeared : the Dutch occupied the most 
valuable of the Moluccas, and the Spanish court seriously contemplated 
the abandonment of the Philippine islands. But though these settle- 
ments have been frequently attacked both by the Dutch and English, 
they have been preserved to the crown of Spain, and are now almost 
the only remnant of the extensive colonial empire once possessed by 
that monarchy. 

Section VIII. — Tlie Dutch in the East Indies. 

It was the intolerable cruelty of the Spanish government that drove 
the Dutch to revolt ; and the incurable bigotry of Philip II. prevented 



HISTORY OF COLONIZATION. 731 

the insurgents from ever seeking an accommodation. But the same 
sanguinary and short-sighted policy laid the foundation of the future 
prosperity of Holland, and enabled the Dutch to attain, in a very short 
period, an unrivalled ascendency in commerce. To check the growing 
spirit of freedom in the Netherlands, the Spaniards destroyed the trade 
of Antwerp, discouraged every effort made for its restoration, and thus 
drove its merchants to increase the establishments and the trade of Am- 
sterdam. Desirous of humbling the Portuguese, Philip's ministers laid 
the most vexatious restraints on the commerce of Lisbon, and thus com- 
pelled the Dutch, whose subsistence almost wholly depended on the 
carrying-trade, to seek out means for the direct importation of Indian 
commodities. It was still hoped that a northeast passage to the Indian 
seas might be discovered, and three fruitless expeditions were sent out 
on this hopeless inquiry. In the meantime, Cornelius Houtman, who 
had been made prisoner by the Spaniards at Lisbon, obtained such in- 
formation from the Portuguese respecting the course of their voyages 
round the cape of Good Hope, that on his escape to Amsterdam, he in- 
duced some of the leading merchants to form a company for sending 
him out with an expedition ; and a fleet, well provided, sailed from the 
Texel (a. d. 1595). The Spaniards first attempted to defeat the enter- 
prises of the Dutch by main force, but being soon convinced of their 
inferiority at sea to the hardy republicans, they sent emissaries to the 
principal eastern sovereigns, describing the new adventurers as pirates. 
But the Dutch admiral, Heemskirk, having captured a rich Portuguese 
vessel, on her way from Macao, treated his prisoners with so much 
generosity, that letters of thanks were addressed to him from the prin- 
cipal Spanish authorities in the east ; these letters he produced in every 
port at which he touched, and thus satisfactorily refuted the calumnies 
which had been heaped upon his nation. A company was soon incor- 
porated in Holland for managing the Indian trade ; and the rest of the 
subjects of the United Provinces were prohibited from trading with 
Asia, either by the cape of Good Hope or Cape Horn. They first oc- 
cupied the Moluccas, or Spice islands, from which they were driven 
by the Spaniards, but soon retrieved their losses. Ere long, the Dutch 
and English East India companies, excited by mutual jealousy, began 
to assail each other's possessions. Tlie island of Java was the chief 
•object of their mutual ambition ; after a long struggle, the Dutch pre- 
vailed, and immediately secured their acquisition by building the city 
of Balavia. Soon afterward, all the English merchants resident at Am- 
boyna were massacred, and by this act of treachery the Dutch succeed- 
ed in securing for a long time the monopoly of the spice trade. They 
also vi^rested the Japanese trade from the Portuguese, and continue 
even now to be the only Europeans admitted to trade with the empire 
of Japan. 

The next great object of the Dutch was to gain possession of the 
island of Ceylon, from which they not only expelled the Portuguese, 
but reduced the native princes under their dommion, and thus gained 
the monopoly of the cinnamon trade. They long kept possession of 
this valuable island, but during the wars of the French revolution it was 
■wrested from them by the English, under whose power it still continues. 

The influence of the Jesuits at the court of Pekin baffled all the ef- 



732 MODERN HISTORY. 

forts of the Dutch to open a trade with the Chinese empire ; but they 
succeeded in establishing a flourishing settlement on the island of For- 
mosa, which opened to them a lucrative traffic with the Indo-Chinese 
nations. But soon after the conquest of China by the Mantchew Tar- 
tars, the Formosans, joined by a large army from China, besieged the 
Dutch settlement and compelled the garrison to surrender. Since that 
period, Formosa has been annexed to the empire of China, and is no 
longer visited by Europeans. 

The Dutch adopted a more exclusive system of policy than the 
Spaniards or Portuguese, and this was the principal cause of the ruin 
of the empire they had acquired. Their harsh conduct to the natives 
produced frequent civil wars or insurrections, which greatly weakened 
their settlements. In Java especially, their dominion was maintained 
only by an enormous expenditure of blood and treasure ; and as other 
European nations began gradually to obtain a share in the spice trade, 
the Dutch East India company found the profits of its monopoly rapidly 
diminishing. During the wars of the French revolution, most of the 
Dutch colonies were occupied by the English, but some of them were 
restored at the general peace. England, however, kept the two of 
greatest importance, the cape of Good Hope and the island of Ceylon ; 
but Holland still possesses the island of Java, and the monopoly of the 
trade with JapS,n. 

Section IX. — The Danes in the East Indies. 

An association was formed at Copenhagen for opening a trade with 
the East Indies (a. d. 1612), in consequence of the riches which so 
lucrative a branch of commerce seemed to have brought into the neigh- 
boring nations. A small expedition was sent out to the Coromandel 
coast, where the adventurers were hospitably received by the rajah of 
Tanjore, from whom they received permission to establish a settlement 
at Tranquebar. Many circumstances contributed to check the pros- 
perity of the Danish East India company, but none more than the per- 
tinacious jealousy of the Dutch, who excluded them from the most 
profitable branches of trade. But though the Danes did not attain to 
any remarkable eminence in East Indian commerce, they were honor- 
ably distinguished by their zeal for the propagation of the Christian 
religion ; and, notwithstanding their limited means, they have succeed- 
ed in diffusing the principles of true religion through a considerable 
portion of the south of India. 

Section X. — The French in the East Indies. 

Maritime aff'airs were long neglected in France ; and though Fran- 
cis I. and Henry III. issued edicts, exhorting their subjects to under- 
take long voyages, yet either a want of enterprise in the people, or the 
inability of the government to afllbrd pecuniary assistance, prevented 
any effort being made meriting notice. After some attempts to form 
an association of merchants, productive of little advantage, an East 
India company was founded (a. d. 1616), but meeting with some mis- 
fortunes, the members resolved to abandon the Indian trade, and to 



HISTORY OF COLONIZATION. 733 

direct their attention to the estabhshment of a settlement in the island 
of Madagascar. Toward the close of the seventeenth century, the 
French purchased the town of Pondicherry from the king of Visapur,. 
and began to form a settlement there with every reasonable prospect of 
success. It was, however, wrested from them by the Dutch (a. d. 
1693), but was subsequently restored by the treaty of Ryswick (a. d. 
1697). Thenceforward, the prosperity of the colony progressively in- 
creased, and the subsequent acquisition from the Dutch of the islands 
called the isles of France and Bourbon, but previously the Mauritius 
and the Mascarenhas, led the French to hope that they might acquire 
an important share in eastern commerce. A new career of ambition 
was opened to them by the sanguinary struggles which arose between 
the new states formed out of the fragments of the empire of Delhi ; 
M. Dupleix, the governor of Pondicherry, hoped by embroiling the 
natives with each other, to obtain territorial acquisitions as the price of 
his assistance to some of the combatants. The English adopted the 
same course of policy, and thus the ancient hostility between the two 
nations extended its influence to India. The talents of Clive, however, 
carried the English triumphantly through an arduous struggle, which 
ended in the almost total expulsion of the French from the peninsula, 
and the cession of most of their settlements, by the peace of 1763. 
They afterward intrigued with the native princes, Hyder Ali and Tip- 
poo Sultan, against their successful rivals, but they have been utterly 
unable to regain any portion of their former influence. 

Section XL — The English in India. 

A HUNDRED years have not elapsed since the possessions of the 
British East India company were limited to three settlements of narrow 
extent, inhabited by a few hundred Europeans, who were scarcely able 
to defend themselves against pirates and banditti, much less compete 
with the power of the native princes. Now this association of mer- 
chants, from its court in Leadenhall street, rules over an empire con- 
taining a hundred millions of subjects, raises a tribute of more than 
three millions annually, possesses an army of more than two hundred 
thousand rank and file, has princes for its servants, and emperors pen- 
sioners on its bounty. Calcutta, from a miserable village, has become 
the metropolis of the east ; Bombay possesses more trade than Tyre, 
in the days of its glory ; and Madras, in spite of its perilous surf, rivals 
the commercial prosperity of Carthage. There is no parallel to such a 
career in the annals of the world ; conquerors, indeed, have acquired a 
more extensive dominion in a shorter space of time, but they failed to 
establish a permanent empire ; after a few years, the traces of their 
tempestuous passage were as completely effaced as the track of a vessel 
in the waves of the ocean. 

In the preceding chapters, we have incidentally noticed the progress 
of the company's empire in its relation to the general politics of Europe, 
but it is of importance to mark more definitely the successive steps by 
which ^ch vast acquisitions have been won and secured. The history 
of the East India company, indeed, has more than ordinary claims on 
our attention ; it is intimately connected with our national character 



734 MODERN HISTORY. 

and national welfare, and all must desire to know whether our eastern 
empire has advanced the great cause of civilization, and whether our 
duinination is likely to endure, or to meet at some time or other a pre- 
cipiiato overthrow. 

Tlie London company for trading with the East Indies was incor- 
porated by Queen Elizabeth (a. d. 1600), and remained without a rival 
for nearly a century, when the necessities of the stale led to the forma- 
tion of the English company (a. d. 1698) ; it was soon found that the 
rivalry between these bodies was prejudicial to the interests of both, 
and at the recommendation of his majesty King VVilUam III., the two 
companies agreed to form one association, to be designated " The United 
Company oj Merchants of J^n^laml, trading to the East Indies." The 
first English settlement of importance was Bantam, in the island of 
Java ; but in 1658, they obtained a grant of land on the Coromandel 
coast, near Madras, where they erected a stronghold, Fort St. George. 
In 1668, the island of Bombay, ceded by the crown of Portugal to 
Charles II., as a part of the dowry of the infanta Catharine, was grant- 
ed by the king, and appointed the capital of the British settlements in 
India. Bengal was not at first estimated at its true value, but toward 
the close of the seventeenth century (a. d. 1698), the English had a 
settlement at Calcutta, the French at Chandernagore, and the Dutch at 
Chinsura, all situated on the river Hooghly. An embassy was sent to 
the court of Delhi with presents ; fortunately one of its members was 
an eminent physician, and his professional aid was required by the em- 
peror Ferrokshir. In gratitude for the services of Dr. Hamilton, Fer- 
rokshir granted valuable firmans, or patents of privileges to the com- 
pany, which gave them great advantages over their European rivals. 
The viceroy of Bengal, jealous of the privileges granted to the English^ 
advanced against Calcutta, took the town, and confined one hundred and 
forty-six in a dungeon called the Black Hole, so narrow and confined, 
that only twenty-three of the captives survived till the morning (a. d. 
1756). Colonel Clive, who had already given proofs of his military 
talents in the Madras presidency, was sent into Bengal. He soon re- 
covered Calcutta, and took Chandernagore from the French. Finding 
that the viceroy of Bengal, Suraj-u-Dowlah, was obstinate in his oppo- 
sition to the company's interest, Clive adopted the bold resolution of 
deposing him without waiting for, or indeed asking the emperor's sanc- 
tion, although the company was at peace with the court of Delhi. Act- 
ing promptly on this determination, Clive attacked the viceroy's troops 
at Blassey (June 23, 1757), and gained a decisive victory. Suraj-u- 
Dowlah was deposed, and his post given by the conquerors to Jaffier 
Ali Khan. 

After Clive's return to England, the government of Calcutta was in- 
trusted to a council, of which Mr. Vansittart was appointed president. 
The rapidity with which the English had acquired supremacy in Ben- 
gal, inspired them with feelings of contemptuous superiority, which in- 
volved them in angry disputes with the new viceroy. At length, the 
council of Calcutta, induced by a bribe of 200,000/.. resolved to depose 
Jafiier, and confer the viceroyship on Cossim Ali Khan. But#Cossim 
was soon as odious as his predecessor. The servants of the East India 
company claimed an exemption from all duties on commerce, and thus 



HISTORY OF COLONIZATION. T^S* 

ruined tlie native merchants ; Cossim, after many remonstrances to the 
council of Calcutta, abolished the transit duties altogether ; and this act 
of justice to his own subjects, though extorted by necessity, was loudly 
exclaimed against as an infringement of his engagements with the com- 
pany, and two agents were sent to demand the repeal of the decree. 
While negotiations were pending, the English resident seized the cita- 
del of Patna, and though it was immediately retaken by Cossim Ali, 
his rage was so excited by what he regarded a deliberate act of treach- 
ery, that he put all the English prisoners to death. War was instantly 
declared, Cossim Ali was defeated and deposed, and Jaffier Khan was 
once more declared viceroy of Bengal. It is not known at what price 
Jaffier purchased his restoration, but he did not long enjoy it ; he died 
a few months before Clive, who had been recently elevated to the peer- 
age, returned as governor-general to Calcutta. 

Lord Clive found the affairs of the presidency in a deplorable con- 
dition : their troops, goaded to madness by the insolence and rapacity 
of their officers, were in open mutiny ; the fertile province of Bengal 
was " marred to a wilderness" by the most corrupt of all the corrupt 
bodies ever intrusted with its destinies ; friendly native powers were 
estranged by systematic extortion ; hostile princes were confirmed in 
their enmity by witnessing such excesses of profligacy and peculation ; 
and, to complete his lordship's difficulties, his proceedings were con- 
trolled by a subordinate committee, wholly unused to subordination, 
dive's zeal in reforming such crying abuses, procured him a host of 
enemies, whose resistance was encouraged by their friends and patrons 
in the court of directors at home. The first outbreak of opposition was 
a general mutiny of the military officers, supported by a large subscrip- 
tion from the civilians in Calcutta. Through a defect in the mutiny 
act, the governor-general was not able to sentence any of the criminals 
to death, not even those who were found guilty of planning his assassi- 
nation. Sir Robert Fletcher, the general in command of the army, was 
subsequently proved to be the instigator of the whole plot, and having 
been convicted by a court-martial, he was cashiered. But it must be 
added, that this very officer was subsequently appointed commander-in- 
chief of the army of Madras, where he headed the mutinous opposition 
by which Lord Pigot was removed from that government. Another of 
the mutineers, sent home by Clive, on charges that affected his life, 
obtained a very high appointment in the civil service of Bengal by his 
party interest in the court of directors. 

Clive's firmness restored order in Calcutta ; and soon after, the sub- 
stitution of British rule for the native viceroyalties in Bengal, removed 
the chief source of intrigue and peculation. But in the meantime, the 
presidency at Madras was brought to the brink of ruin by the arms of 
Hyder Ali, whose abilities had raised him from the rank of a private 
soldier to that of an independent sovereign. After a protracted war, 
Sir Eyre Coote retrieved all the losses of the English, and, on the death 
of Hyder (a. d. 1782), concluded a treaty with his son, Tippoo, on 
terms very advantageous to the company. 

The charters granted at various times to the company, only secured 
to it the exclusive right of trade ; when, therefore, it began to make 
territorial acquisitions, it became a serious constitutional question 



jJjljBI*'* 



736 MODERN HISTORY. 

whether the British crown did not possess an inherent right to all 
provinces conquered by its subjects. The ministers, and especially 
Lord North, already embarrassed by the American war, were unwilling 
to attempt the decision of a matter encumbered with so many difficulties ; 
but the right of the British parliament to interfere in the affairs of 
India, was virtually asserted, by passing various acts of regulation, 
and the establishment of a custom of time-bargains Avith the company, 
Avhich were, in fact, mere expedients to escape from difficulties becom- 
ing more complicated every hour. 

The administration of Mr. Warren Hastings greatly extended the 
company's territories, and rendered its influence paramount in northern 
India ; but the means which he employed were not always consistent 
with European notions of equity ; and the disputes which arose between 
him and his council, fixed the attention of the British parliament and 
the British nation on the affairs of India. Mr. Fox, who was then in 
power, introduced a bill for transferring the government of India from 
the court of directors to a parliamentary committee, but the measure 
was frustrated by the reluctance of the king, and the dismissal of the 
ministry. We have already noticed the impeachment of Mr. Hastings, 
and his acquittal, after a trial of unparalleled duration, by the house of 
lords. 

At length an important change was made in the government of India, 
by the establishment of a board of control, according to a plan proposed 
by Mr. Pitt (a. d. 1784). The principal object of the new measure 
"was to secure the obedience and responsibility of the company's ser- 
vants to the authorities in England, and to remedy the most glaring 
abuses of patronage by^the court of directors. This measure, though 
not so stringent as it was originally intended to be, produced very bene- 
ficial effects, and introduced a system of subordination, in which the 
presidencies had long been deficient. 

Lord Cornwallis was sent out as governor-general, under the new 
system ; he exerted himself to remedy some of the most flagrant abuses 
in the administration, and, though opposed by a majority of the 
supreme court at Calcutta, he partially succeeded. He soon began to 
look with suspicion on the ambitious projects of Tippoo Sultan, who 
had inherited his father Hyder's hostility to the English. Tippoo's 
intrigues were secretly encouraged by the French government, for suf- 
ficiently obvious reasons. The French had been the first to try the 
plan of acquiring territorial possessions by interference in native wars, 
often excited by themselves : and they had been completely defeated, 
while the English had as completely succeeded. Anger at this failure, 
too high an estimate of the injury which the British power had 
received from the loss of the American colonies, and a confident belief 
that our empire in the east was as insecure as it had proved in the 
west, were popular feelings in France, and were just as rife in the court 
of Versailles as they were at a later period in the jacobin clubs of Paris. 
The danger which Lord Cornwallis anticipated, seemed more formid- 
able to Mr. Pitt than to the court of directors, and led to a serious dis- 
pute between the ministry and the company. The premier, through 
the board of control, insisted on sending regular British troops to India, 
and compelling the company to pay for their support. This was re- 



HISTORY OF COLONIZATION. 



m 



garded by the court of directors as an indirect effort on the part of the 
crown to grasp the patronage of the Indian army, and was, of course, 
strenuously resisted. Mr. Pitt settled the matter by forcing through 
parliament, with all the influence at his command, an act of explana- 
tion ; but he had the mortification to encounter a fierce opposition from 
many who were generally his stanchest supporters. The war with 
Tippoo, which rendered the English authority supreme from the river 
Krishna to Cape Comorin, soon followed. Lord Cornwallis having 
brought it to a prosperous termination, returned home, and was succeeded 
by Sir John Shore, afterward Lord Teignmouth. 

During Sir John Shore's peaceful administration, the organization 
of the internal government of India was considerably improved ; but 
its most remarkable events were the interference of the English, as 
arbitrators, in the disputed succession to the throne of Oude ; and the 
commencement of discontents, almost amounting to mutinies, among 
the officers of the Indian army, in consequence of the reduction of their 
field allowances by the court of directors. The latter subject soon be- 
came one of increasing annoyance, and even danger ; but the calamities 
which it threatened were fortunately averted by judicious measures of 
conciliation. 

Lord Momington, afterward marquis of Wellesley, was next ap- 
pointed governor-general. His first efforts were directed to lessen 
the growing influence of the French in Hindustan ; finding Tippoo 
indisposed to form new engagements with the British government, war 
was declared against him, which, as we have already stated, ended ill 
the defeat and death of that turbulent monarch. A subsequent war 
with the Mahratta powers completely established British supremacy 
in India, and made the company supreme in the Peninsula. But 
notwithstanding his brilliant services, the marquis of Wellesley was 
thwarted in many important points of policy by the court of directors. 
The chief of these were, the employment of India-built ships, the 
establishment of a college for the education of civil servants at Calcutta, 
and the patronage of certain appointments, which the court wished to 
reserve for its favorites. This last difference led to very angry re- 
monstrances, both from the marquis of Wellesley and Lord Clive, who 
was governor of Madras. Lord Clive resigned his situation ; and on 
quitting Madras, addressed a spirited remonstrance to the court of 
directors, in which the inefficiency, insubordination, and delinquency 
of many of their servants, were directly traced to the abuse of patron- 
age, and to the encouragement which the idle and the dissolute, 
possessing interest with the court, received from authority superior to 
the local government. Lord Wellesley, supported by the board of 
control, retained his place in defiance of the court, and, by his success- 
ful management of the Mahratta war, bore down all opposition. 

The great extent of country gained in the Mahratta war, gave rise to 
serious embarrassments after the marquis of Wellesley had returned to 
Europe ; his successor. Lord Cornwallis, died before completing the 
requisite arrangements, and Sir George Barlow, who acted as vice- 
governor, adopted a line of policy directly contrary to that which had 
received the sanction of his predecessor. This change led to an angry 
controversy with the English ministers (Lord Grenville and Mr. Fox) 

47 



7^8 MODERN HISTOEY. 

respecting the appointment of a successor to the marquis of Comwallis. 
The ministers nominated Lord Lauderdale to the vacant office, the court 
of directors insisted that Sir George Barlow should retain his power. 
After a very long negotiation, both parties agreed to withdraw the rival 
candidates, and they finally concurred in selecting Lord Minto as 
governor-general . 

When Lord Minto reached Madras, his attention was directed to 
certain transactions in that presidency, too important to be omitted 
even in this brief outline of Indian history. Lord William Bentinck 
succeeded Lord Clive (afterward earl of Powis) in the government 
of Madras, and, like his predecessor, was involved in serious disputes 
with the local council and the subordinate servants of the company. 
In the midst of these discussions, a dangerous mutiny of the native 
Indian army at Vellore, furnished a pretext for recalling the obnoxious 
governor with something like censure. In the Indian army no native 
could attain the rank of commissioned officer ; many of the sepoys were 
Mohammedans, and they could not forget how very recently the whole 
peninsula of India was their own ; the deposed dynasty of Mysore, 
including Tippoo's family and several of his ministers, were on the 
spot, to aggravate these feelings of natural discontent ; and the fakirs, 
or preaching friars of Mohammedanism, lent their aid to fan the flame. 
A regulation respecting the head-dress of the troops was the pretext 
for revolt ; though the shape of the sepoy turban had no more connex- 
ion with the real cause of the mutiny, than the color of the roses with 
the rival claims of the houses of York and Lancaster. The insurrec- 
tion was suppressed, but the leniency which Lord William Bentinck 
was disposed to show toward the mutineers, though sanctioned by Lord 
Minto, gave such displeasure to many influential persons, that the 
governor returned home. 

When Lord Minto reached Calcutta (a. d. 1809), he prepared to 
adopt a system of policy, which had long been a favorite scheme with 
the court of directors and indeed with the great majority of the people 
of England. This was simply to introduce the European principle of 
a balance of power in India ; — no plan could be more excellent in 
theory, but it was impossible to reduce it to practice, for no materials 
existed in the disorganized governments of India, from which such a 
system could be constructed. The company had ever opposed the 
colonization of India by Europeans, and had therefore rather occupied 
than possessed its successive acquisitions ; with the exception of its 
hired servants (and not all of them), there was not a single individual 
interested in maintaining its sway ; its soldiers were mere mercenaries, 
its subjects utterly indifferent to the continuance of its rule. In pursuit 
of this favorite but hopeless project, the establishment of a balance of 
power. Lord Minto committed many serious errors, but his administra- 
tion was on the whole very beneficial to England, especially as he was 
among the first to appreciate the value of the Indian archipelago, with 
which our commerce is so rapidly increasing, both in extent and im- 
portance. His prudence terminated a very serious dispute between the 
civil and military authorities at Madras, which had nearly produced the 
most calamitous results : he tried the experiment of neutral policy with 
greater success than could have attended such a system in less able 



HISTOEY OF COLONIZATION. WSf 

hands ; and when he at length perceived that " balance of power" was 
inapplicable to the state of society in India, he acknowledged the change 
in his opinions with a manly candor which is too rarely met with 
among modern statesmen. 

The earl of Moira, afterward marquis of Hastings, succeeded Lord 
Minto in the government. He was forced to abandon the neutral line 
of policy, by which the Goorkas, or wild tribes of the mountains of 
Nepaul, had been encouraged to encroach upon the territories both of 
the British and their allies. War was declared ; the Goorkas proved 
more formidable enemies than the company's troops had yet encoun- 
tered, but they were finally overcome, and the provinces ceded by the 
Nepaulese, as the price of peace, brought the English dominions into 
close contact with the frontiers of the Chinese empire. In the mean- 
time central India was devastated by ferocious bands of freebooters, 
known by the name of Pindarries, and extensive combinations were 
formed for their suppression. The treachery and duplicity of several 
of the nalive powers on this occasion compelled the marquis of Has- 
tings to demand from them considerable cessions of territory ; and, at 
the conclusion of the war, the company felt itself bound to retain 
those acquisitions, not only as essential to its own interests, but to those 
of the native inhabitants. Of greater importance than all these prov- 
inces was the establishment of a British settlement at Singapore 
(a. L. 1819), by which its present share in the lucrative commerce of 
the Indian archipelago was secured to Great Britain. 

The earl of Amherst, who had previously been sent on an embassy 
to China, was the next governor-general (a. d. 1823). In a few months 
after his arrival, he found himself constrained to adopt active measures 
for repressing the insiilts and encroachments of the Burmese. The war 
was one of more than ordinary difficulty, but it finally terminated to the 
advantage of the British, who obtained possession of many new and 
valuable provinces. Scarcely less important was the capture of Bhurt- 
pore, a fortress which, having been on two former occasions assailed in 
vain by the British, was fondly believed impregnable by the natives of 
Hindustan (a. d. 1826) ; its conquest therefore tended not a little to 
increase that general sense of British superiority on which the security 
of our Indian empire mainly depends. 

Earl Amherst was succeeded by Lord William Bentinck, whose 
generally peaceful administration is principally remarkable for a series 
of financial reforms in every department of the government. But the 
expiration of the company's charter, and the arrangements for its 
renewal, led to a total change of system (a. d. 1833). The company 
was deprived of its exclusive right of trade ; the commerce with India 
and China was opened freely to all British subjects : the political gov- 
ernment of Hindustan was continued to the company for twenty years, 
but all its other rights and possessions were ceded to the nation for an 
annuity of six hundred and thirty thousand pounds, secured by a guar- 
antee fund of two millions sterling. 

The East India company was not the only power that profited by the 
overthrow of the Mogul empire ; two new kingdoms, that of the 
Afghans and that of the Sikhs, were founded on the northwest of 
Hindustan, and both have risen to great importance. The Afghans 



740 MODERN HISTORY. 

were originally subject to Persia, but toward the close of the seven- 
teenth century they revolted against their rulers and nearly conquered 
the whole Persian empire. Nadir Shah restored the Persian supremacy, 
but on his death an Afghan leader proclaimed the independence of his 
country, and while the Persians wasted their strength in civil wars, 
founded a new kingdom at Cabul. The Afghan monarchy continued 
to prosper until the commencement of the present century, when it 
was distracted by the wars arising out of a disputed succession. Three 
brothers, Zeman, Mahmud, and Sujah, contended for the crown, and 
each prevailed in turn, according to the will of the chief vizier, who 
was head of the Baurikzye tribe. At length Zeman was blinded, 
Sujah driven into exile, and Mahmud placed on the throne. Unfor- 
tunately he permitted his son Kemran to assassinate the vizier, upon 
which the Baurikzye brothers revolted, and compelled Mahmud to seek 
shelter in Herat. 

Under the Baurikzye brothers, Afghanistan was divided into a num- 
ber of petty independent states, each governed by one or more chief- 
tains of this powerful family ; the principal being Dost Mohammed, the 
ruler of Cabul, whose supremacy was nominally recognised by all the 
rest. Soon after Lord Auckland had succeeded Lord William Bentinck 
as governor-general of India, an embassy was sent to Cabul for the 
purpose of forming a commercial treaty which might open the markets 
of central Asia to British manufactures. When the Persian court, 
yielding to Russian suggestions, had determined to advance against 
Herat, the mission to Cabul was changed from a commercial to a 
political legation, and a treaty was proposed to Dost Mohammed which 
it was believed might avert the danger of Russian influence being 
established on the banks of the Indus. The ruler of Cabul demanded 
as the price of his adhesion that the territory of Peshawer, recently 
seized by the king of Lahore, should be restored to the Afghans, and 
when this was refused he manifested a disposition so hostile to English 
interests that the envoy was recalled, and a resolution formed to restore 
Shah Sujah to his throne by the aid of a British army. 

The army of the Indus having surmounted all the toils and difficul- 
ties of its march through previously untraversed countries, soon arrived 
at the capital of Afghanistan, and Shah Sujah was reinstated upon the 
throne of his ancesters. 

Shah Sujah's government was not popular, and indeed did not de- 
serve to be so ; general dissatisfaction continued to exist, but had not 
begun to show itself in a dangerous shape when General Elphinstone 
took the command of the occupying force, in April, 1841. In the fol- 
lowing November a formidable insurrection unexpectedly exploded in 
Cabul ; Sir Alexander Bumes, and several other Englishmen, were 
treacherously massacred, while the most deplorable want of energy and 
decision was displayed, both by the envoy and the military authorities. 
The fort in which the provisions for the troops were stored was per- 
mitted to fall into the hands of the enemy, without an effort being made 
to relieve its feeble garrison ; and after the means of holding out in 
Cabul, until relief could be obtained from the other divisions of the 
army, had been sacrificed, it was resolved to commence a retreat. 

The only result from this calamitous war, is the occupation of the 



HISTORY OF COLONIZATION. 741 

territories of Scinde, which have been formally annexed to the British 
dominions. These districts command the navigation of the lower In- 
dus, and would possess some value and importance if that river could 
be rendered available for the purposes of commercial navigation, but in 
the present distracted condition of central Asia, it does not appear 
probable that the peaceful pursuits of trade will be found lucrative for 
many years to come, and it is therefore very doubtful whether the ac- 
cupation of Scinde will produce such a demand for British manufac- 
tures as to defray the heavy expenses which its retention will neces- 
sarily involve. 



74m MODERN HISTOEY. 



CHAPTER XTII. 
HISTORY OF CHINA. 

The Chinese, like the ancient Egyptians, lay claim to a most ex- 
travagant antiquity, but their authentic history does not commence till 
the age of Confucius, who flourished about five centuries before the 
Christian era. At the time of his birth, China was divided into a num- 
ber of independent states, which harassed each other by mutual wars, and 
his earliest efforts as a reformer were directed to unite them in one great 
confederation. He collected the old traditions of the country, and from 
them deduced a series of moral and political lessons, designed to form 
the basis of good government. His main principle was, that outward 
decorum is both the emblem and the test of goodness of heart ; he 
therefore constructed a ritual strictly regulating every relation of life, 
both public and private, which was gradually received as a standard 
authority by the nation. 

Ching-whang, the founder of the Tsin dynasty, was the first who 
united all the Chinese under one sovereign ; and it is probable that the 
name China was adopted from that of his family. He is said to have 
erected the Great Wall, to restrain the incursions of the Tartars (b. c. 
240), but this service was overbalanced by his cruelty and inveterate 
hostility to men of letters. Under the Han dynasty, which arose b. c. 
202, the Huns began to invade China and frequently devastated the 
country ; they at length were induced to direct their march westward, 
and burst like a torrent into the Roman empire, while China continued 
tranquil. Under the Han dynasty, foreigners came to China for the 
first time ; literature was zealously cultivated, the art of printing invent- 
ed, and the laws collected into an orderly system. For these reasons 
the memory of the Hans is still cherished in China ; their dynasty 
ended a. d. 264. 

No very important event occurred in the history of China from the 
extinction of the Han dynasty until the invasion of the empire by the 
Mongols, under the celebrated Zingis Khan (a. d. 1234). The sover- 
eign who then ruled was cruel and cowardly ; town after town sub- 
mitted to the invaders, and at his death the Mongols possessed the 
greater part of the country, though the conquest was not completed till 
the year 1279, by Kublai Khan, the grandson of Zingis. Ze-ping, the 
infant son of the last emperor, sought shelter in the fleet, but the Mon- 
gols soon prepared a navy and pursued him. The Chinese and Mongol 
fleets met, and after an engagement which lasted an entire day, the 
former was totally defeated. When the Chinese admiral saw that 
escape was impossible, he went to the prince^ who stood on the deck, 
and said, " It is better to die free than to dishonor our ancestors by an 



HISTORY OF CHINA. 743 

inglorious captivity," then, without waiting for a reply, he caught the 
prince in his arms and jumped into the sea, where they both perished. 

The Mongols, though foreigners, were wise and beneficent rulers ; 
Kublai Khan constructed several canals, and made every possible ex- 
ertion to restore the agricultural prosperity of China ; his grandson, 
Timur Khan, extirpated the bands of robbers that infested the country, 
and both labored to promote commercial intercourse with foreign na- 
tions. But on the failure of the direct royal line, the Mongols were 
so weakened by a war of disputed succession, that the Chinese easily 
drove them from the country, and placed a native dynasty on the throne 
(a. d. 1388). 

Choo-quen-chang, the conqueror of the Mongols and founder of the 
Ming dynasty, was the son of a poor laborer. In early life he was 
destined for the priesthood, but his martial spirit induced him to enlist 
as a soldier. He very soon became so distinguished for courage and 
conduct that he was promoted to high rank : his marriage to a lady of 
great wealth strengthened his influence, and he soon began to be re- 
garded as the leader of a party. So great was the hatred of the 
Chinese to their barbarian conquerors, that it required only a few 
months to drive the Mongols beyond the Great Wall ; they were pur- 
sued in their retreat and slaughtered without mercy. The new em- 
peror was a wise and prudent ruler ; his early death was a national 
misfortune, especially as it involved the country in the calamities of a 
disputed succession. 

The last of the Ming dynasty was Hwae-tsung. Very soon after his 
accession the king of the Mantchew Tartars advanced toward the fron- 
tiers, and issued a proclamation, declaring that he had been divinely 
summoned to assume the empire of China. There would have been, 
however, little reason to fear this invasion, had not rebellions in other 
quarters distracted the attention of the emperor. Bands of robbers in- 
fested the roads, and uniting themselves together under favorite chiefs, 
bade defiance to the imperial army. One of these, named Le, gained 
the favor of the populace by promising a remission of taxes ; crowds 
flocked to his standard, and entire battalions of the imperial army de- 
serted to him. Le no longer scrupled to declare himself emperor ; he 
marched to Pekin, the soldiers intrusted with its defence threw down 
their arms, and the emperor was abandoned even by his domestic ser- 
vants. In his despair, he slew his children, and then strangled him- 
self, leaving behind him a written request that the conqueror would be 
satisfied with the destruction of the royal family, and not inflict any cru- 
elty on the people. 

Woo-san-kivei, a celebrated general, was stationed with a large army 
on the frontiers of Mantchew Tartary, when he received intelligence of 
these events. He resolved to avenge his master, and punish the usurp- 
er ; for this purpose he had not only made peace with the Mantchews, 
but solicited their active assistance. The Tartars gladly assented to a 
proposal which opened them a passage into China ; and acting with a 
rapidity of which their opponents had no idea, their progress was irre- 
sistible. The usurper Le was defeated in three great battles, but when 
the general wished to dismiss his allies, they not only refused to return, 
but took possession of Pekin, and proclaimed a Mantchew prince em- 



744 MODERN HISTORY. 

peror. For many years the Chinese in different provinces sternly re- 
sisted the domination of the Tartars, but there was no harmony in their 
councils and no concert in their actions ; they were therefore succes- 
sively subdued, but not until the entire country had been so devastated 
that it almost became a desert (a. d. 1644). During this calamitous 
period, a pirate, named Coxinga, kept the entire coast of China in con- 
stant alarm ; he expelled the Dutch from the island of Formosa, which 
for a time flourished as an independent kingdom : but after his death, 
his son submitted to the Mantchews, and this noble island was annexed 
to the empire of China. 

Kang-he, the second of the Mantchew emperors, was very anxious 
to make his subjects acquainted with the arts and sciences of Europe ; 
he patronised the Jesuit missionaries who came to his court, and profit- 
ed so much by their instructions, as to become himself the author of a 
clever treatise on geometry. All his wishes, however, to give a new 
turn to Chinese literature were frustrated ; the native men of letters re- 
fused to quit the tracks of their ancestors, and nothing new was conse- 
quently produced. Equally able in the cabinet and in the field, Kang-he 
was unquestionably, next to Kublai Khan, the greatest prince who ever 
sat on the throne of China. He revived the empire, distracted by re- 
peated rebellions, impoverished by long and ruinous wars, and oppressed 
by vicious administration. When he died (a. d. 1722), peace and tran- 
quillity pervaded all the provinces, and the unruly barbarians on the fron- 
tiers had been reduced to obedience. 

Yung-ching succeeded his father on the throne, but did not pursue 
the same enlightened policy. He put an efTectual stop to improvement, 
by banishing the missionaries who had spread themselves over all the 
Chinese provinces, and only retained a few individuals at court, with 
whose services he could not dispense. It must, however, be confessed, 
that the intriguing spirit of the Jesuits had given some reasonable grounds 
for alarm, and that their extravagant assertions of papal supremacy might 
have infused suspicions of their designing to render the emperor de- 
pendant on the pope. In other respects Yung-ching was a good sov- 
ereign ; he preserved peace during his reign, and by prudent precau- 
tions he averted the horrors of those famines that periodically devastated 
China. He died a. d. 1735, and was succeeded by his illegitimate son, 
Keen-lung. 

The long reign of Keen-lung was almost wholly spent in wars with 
the various barbarous races on the whole western frontier of China. 
There is no interest in the record of these savage contests, which were 
for the most part a series of ruthless massacres. He cruelly persecuted 
the Christians, whom he accvised of treasonable designs without a 
shadow of reason ; and the relentless fury he displayed was eagerly 
seconded by the mandarins, who had been jealous of the superior intel- 
ligence of the missionaries. Keen-lung always thought that he had a 
just cause when he butchered whole tribes. After the defeat and mas- 
sacre of the Kalmuks, he erected a stone tablet at Ele, with the follow- 
ing inscription : " The tree which Heaven plants, though man may fell 
it, can not be unrooted : the tree which Heaven fells, though man may 
replant it, will never grow." 

The fame of Keen-lung extended to Europe, and missions from Hoi- 



HISTORY OF CHINA. 745 

land, England, and Russia, were sent to his court. These embassies 
did not produce the good expected from them : the Chinese, with all the 
conceit of ignorance, believed or pretended to believe themselves the 
only enlightened nation in the universe, and claimed homage from all 
others as barbarians. The emperor himself appears to have been free 
from these prejudices, but all the officers of state were opposed to an in- 
crease of foreign intercourse, which they feared would be fatal to their 
privileges. 

After a reign of sixty years, Keen-lung abdicated the throne in favor 
of his fifth son, Kia-king (a. d. 1795), and died three years afterward 
at the age of eighty-eight. His successor had all his vices, without 
any of his redeeming qualities ; his misconduct provoked frequent in- 
surrections, while his feeble administration encouraged the pirates to 
renew their depredations in the Chinese seas. Unfortunately the great- 
est maritime power in the world submitted to receive laws from this 
feeble government. In 1808, a British squadron commanded by Admi- 
ral Drury was sent to take possession of the Portuguese settlement of 
Macao, and prevent it from falling into the hands of the French. The 
Chinese authorities at Canton became alarmed, and threatened to stop 
all trade unless the English garrison was withdrawn from Macao : their 
demands were granted with a precipitation which closely resembled 
cowardice, and the Chinese erected a pyramid to commemorate what 
they were pleased to call their victory over the English. It must be ac- 
knowledged that the concessions then made to their arrogance have been 
the chief cause of the repeated insults they have since offered to the 
British flag. 

Kia-king's bitter hatred of Europeans was supposed by many to have 
arisen from the misrepresentations of the Canton authorities, and it was 
therefore resolved to send Lord Amherst as an ambassador to Pekin, for 
the purpose of establishing amicable relations between England and 
China. This embassy completely failed ; the officers of the imperial 
court prevented Lord Amherst from obtaining an audience, and he re- 
turned to Canton. In the meantime the Chinese had shown a disposi- 
tion to insult the naval forces that had conveyed the embassy, but a few 
shots from one of the frigates brought them to their senses, and the 
mission returned in safety. 

Kia-king died in 1820, and was succeeded by the reigning emperor, 
Tao-kwang, who is even more prejudiced against Europeans than his 
predecessor. Proclamations against the importation of opium were is- 
sued by the Chinese government, but the prohibited article continued 
to be largely smuggled into the country. At length Captain Elliot, the 
English resident at Canton, was compelled by the Chinese authorities 
to consent to the destruction of several cargoes of opium, and his prot- 
ests against the restraint to which he was subjected, were disregarded. 
War was declared against the emperor of China by the English govern- 
ment, and a large naval and military force sent against Canton. Canton 
and Ningpo, two of the most important cities in China, were taken by 
mere handfuls of British troops, and the immense masses collected in 
the imperial armies were unable to withstand an organized force rarely 
amounting to the tenth of their numbers. A treaty was at length nego- 
tiated, in which great concessions were very reluctantly made to the 



746 MODERN HISTORY. 

English demands : the island of Hong-kong was ceded to them in per- 
petuity, fire ports were freely opened to their trade, and the emperor 
consented to pay a large sum to defray the expenses of the war, and 
compensate for the large quantities of opium, the property of the British 
subjects, which had been destroyed at the commencement of the war. 

A nation so completely isolated by natural boundaries as the Chinese, 
having no neighbors but the barbarous tribes of Tartary, is of course 
disposed to indulge in national vanity. They believe that their country 
occupies the centre of the globe, and that " the middle kingdom," as 
they therefore call it, is unequalled on the earth. Their own law^s and 
usages, the origin of which is lost in remote antiquity, appear to them 
perfect, and every successive government has shown itself a decided 
foe to innovation. But the Chinese are the only people that have per- 
severed in treating all foreigners as barbarians, and even when com- 
pelled to abate their absurd claims for the time, have invariably revived 
them on a more favorable opportunity. Hence it is impossible to nego- 
tiate with them according to the rules of European diplomacy, for until 
intimidated by defeat or terror, they will look upon attempts to form a 
treaty as signs of submission. It is singular that the Tartar conquerors 
of China have invariably adopted the institutions and prejudices of the 
vanquished ; but they have not succeeded in winning the affections of 
the nation. During the greater part of a century, insurrections have 
followed each other with frightful rapidity, and the Mantchew domina- 
tion has been more than once on the point of ruin. Secret societies 
exist at the present moment, formed to restore the ancient supremacy 
of the native Chinese, and it is not improbable that any signal humilia- 
tion of the imperial forces may lead to a revolution. 



HISTORY OF THE JEWS. 747 



CHAPTER XIV. 
HISTORY OF THE JEWS. 

In the "Manual of Ancient History" we sketched the history of the 
Jews from the days of the patriarchs to the suppression of the revolt of 
Bar-Cochab (a. d. 136) : it now remains to trace the fortmies of this 
singular race down to our own times, and briefly to exhibit their condi- 
tion at the present day. 

Though the number of Jews who perished in the successive over- 
throws of their nation was doubtless very great, we ar||,by no means to 
believe that on any of these occasions the whole body feu into the hands 
of the victor ; in proof of the contrary, we may refer to the Jewish colo- 
nies which we early find in places to which their conquerors would 
not have transported them, and where, consequently, we must look upon 
them as located by their own choice. Beside other places of less im- 
portance, we have mention of a flourishing Jewish community in Rome 
before the Christian era ; and the travels of the apostles furnish evidence 
that shortly after that period they were to be met with in almost every 
part of Asia, Greece, and northern Africa. Though their fathers in 
their own land had been noted for a proud contempt for all literature but 
their own, these colonists did not neglect the opportunities of mental 
culture thus laid open to them, and accordingly we find that many of 
the most learned philosophers of Alexandria were either Jews, or in 
habits of such intimacy with them, as imply that the sciences were pur- 
sued with equal ardor by both parties. Indeed, it was only under such 
circumstances that that strange mixture of pagan, Jewish, and Christian 
dogmas, called Gnosticism, could have originated ; and this we know to 
have taken its rise in the schools of Alexandria. 

Though the Jews who spread over the east seem chiefly to have re- 
sorted to the more polished regions of Egypt or Babylon, circumstances 
induced many of them to repair to Arabia, and others penetrated even 
to China, where their reception seems to have been favorable. In the 
days of Mohammed, great numbers of Jews, wealthy, and possessed of 
political power, were found settled in the peninsula, whom the impostor 
endeavored in vain to conciliate. His successors granted them tolera- 
tion, and both parties being animated by a like hatred of the Christians, 
we often find them acting in concert, especially during the Saracen con- 
quest of Africa and Spain. 

The Abbaside khaliphs, who seized the throne of Islam from the 
Ommiade dynasty, were generally tolerant of the Jews ; the khaliph 
Almanzor, indeed, went so far as to restore their academies, and evinced 



748 MODERN HISTORY. 

some taste for Hebrew literature himself. In the beginning of the ninth 
century, the khaliph Mamun caused the best of the Jewish books to be 
translated into Arabic, for the purpose of diffusing a taste for literature 
and science among his subjects. Several eminent men of Jewish race 
flourished at his court ; they were particularly famous for their skill in as- 
tronomy and medicine, which had up to this period been very slightly 
cultivated by the Saracens. The fame of the Jewish physicians was 
spread over all the Mohammedan countries, so that few of any other 
race could find employment ; but the wealth acquired by this lucrative 
profession excited the cupidity of several of the later khaliphs, who 
availed themselves of religious prejudices to gratify their avarice. Du- 
ring this season of persecution the Jews were frequently duped by false 
prophets and pretended messiahs, who induced them to raise partial in- 
surrections, which only served to furnish a pretext for renewed perse- 
cutions. In the midst of their difficulties the khaliphate was overthrown 
by the barbarous Mongols, and the Jews were exposed to renewed per- 
secutions from the Saracens, who attributed to their impiety all the ca- 
lamities of the empire. 

From the death of Timur Lenk to the accession of Shah Abbas, the 
Jews, like the other inhabitants of Media and Persia, had to endure all 
the calamities a^ing from a violent war, a rapid conquest, and the long 
series of sanguinary wars for succession between the conqueror's de- 
scendants. At the accession of Shah Abbas, Persia was almost unin- 
habited ; and in order to obtain subjects, that monarch granted large 
privileges to all strangers willing to settle in his dominions. Numbers 
of Jews who were oppressed in other eastern countries accepted his 
offers, but their wealth soon excited suspicions, and the shah issued an 
edict that they should either embrace Islamism or prepare for death. 
The remonstrances of the Mohammedan priests prevented the execution 
of this sanguinary edict, but legal protection was withdrawn from the 
persecuted race, and has not been again restored in the provinces sub- 
ject to Persia. 

The Jews from Africa crossed into Spain, and thence to Gaul, Ger- 
many, and even Britain. In Spain they were often subject to persecu- 
tion under the Gothic monarchs, which induced some to dissemble 
their faith, and others to leave the country. Of these latter, many re- 
tired to Africa, whence they returned with the Saracens, whom they 
materially assisted in the conquest of the country. Under the rule of 
the Spanish Moslems, the condition of the Jews was highly prosperous ; 
they cultivated science, were intrusted with the highest offices of the 
state, and enjoyed complete toleration ; indeed to this era belong the 
names of Rabbi Hasdai, Benjamin of Tudela, Isaac of Cordova, and 
numerous others, whose works have been preserved, and which prove 
their proficiency in almost every art or science then known. 

In more northern countries their state was materially different. 
Though their industry and abilities rendered them valuable to their 
rulers, and some few are to be found even in the courts of princes, they 
were as a body subject to the most galling restrictions, being in the eye 
of the law mere chattels of the superior lord, not human beings. 
Charlemagne, and his immediate successors, employed many of the 
Jews as their ph^'sicians, or as bankers, and even despatched them on 



HISTORY OF THE JEWS. 749 

important embassies ; but about the year 870, by a decree of the 
council of Meaux, they were declared incapable of filling any civil 
offices, and under Philip Augustus (a. d. 1180) they were stripped of 
their property, and banished from France. They soon returned, but 
were exposed to the most rigorous and unjust treatment ; Louis IX., 
whose right to the title of Saint appears more than questionable, began 
the career of renewed persecution by forbidding the legal officers to 
seize the persons or estates of Christians indebted to Jews in default 
of payment ; catholics were strictly prohibited from employing Jewish 
physicians ; it was ordained that they should have only one synagogue 
and burial-ground in each diocese, that they should not exercise any 
of the higher industrial arts, and that they should wear some distinctive 
mark on a conspicuous part of their dress. In 1288 the parliament of 
Paris fined the Jews for singing too loud in their synagogues. Philip 
the Long pronounced sentence of banishment against them, but granted 
charters of protection to a few who were able to gratify his cupidity by 
large bribes. A strict search was made for those who dared to remain 
in the kingdom ; several were burned alive, and, as an additional insult, 
dogs were thrown on the funeral pile. A great number were slain 
with less ceremony by the populace, who practised all sorts of cruelty 
upon the unfortunate sufferers. In 1350 John revoked the edicts of 
banishment, and the Jews, grateful for his kindness, cheerfully aided 
him in raising the large ransom with which he purchased his deliver- 
ance from captivity in England. This tranquillity was disturbed by 
the renewal of persecution under Charles VI., but the edicts of in- 
tolerance were found so difficult of execution that they were permitted 
soon to sink into oblivion. 

Many of the popes commiserated the sufferings of the Jews, and en- 
deavored to restrain the fanaticism of their persecutors. Honorius lit. 
issued a bull, forbidding the use of force in converting them to Chris- 
tianity, and menacing excommunication against those who insulted or 
injured them on account of their religion. Gregory IX., when a sudden 
burst of bigotry threatened the extermination of the Jews in every 
country in which they had settled, not only protected them in his own 
states, but wrote urgent letters in their behalf to all the monarchs of 
Europe. When the holy see was transferred to Avignon at the com- 
mencement of the fourteenth century, the favor shown to the Jews in 
Italy was continued, and the lot of those in France gTeatly alleviated. 
Avignon itself became the chief residence of the wealthy Jews, and 
their riches contributed not a little to the splendor of the pontifical 
court. 

After the popes had returned to Rome, several pontiffs exhibited less 
wise and humane policy toward the Jewish race. Gregory XIII., who 
celebrated the atrocious massacre of St. Bartholomew with public 
thanksgivings, was of course a persecutor of the Jews. He ordained 
that they should be subject to trial before the inquisition, for blasphemy, 
for ridiculing the ceremonies of the catholic religion, or for reading the 
Talmud and similar prohibited books. He further enjoined that all the 
Jews in Rome, above twelve years of age, should be assembled once a 
week to listen to a sermon in condemnation of their religion. Sixtus 
V. was a pontiff" of a different character ; on the 22d of October, 1586, 



750 MODERN HISTORY. 

he re-established the Jews in all their municipal privileges, allowed 
them full right of citizenship in the Roman states, with power to hold 
houses and lands ; he restored their synagogues and burial-grounds, 
imposing on them only a very moderate tribute, and promising them 
exemption for the future from all arbitrary exactions. Subsequent 
popes revoked the tolerant edicts of Sixtus, but they did not revive the 
cruel code of Gregory XIII., and in general the Jews have been per- 
mitted to enjoy greater freedom and to hold their property with greater 
tranquillity in the papal states, than in most other countries of Christen- 
dom. Hence while the Spanish Jews generally favored the reformation, 
those of Italy regarded the progress of protestant opinion with complete 
indifference, and sometimes with avowed hostility. 

In the tenth and eleventh centuries, most of the great German cities 
had among their inhabitants numerous Jews, wealthy, intelligent, and 
polished in their manners, but their prosperity was at all times at the 
mercy of their rulers, and it was only by means of their purchased and 
precarious protection that even their lives were secure. At length 
arose the crusading spirit, and the Jews in Germany, to the number 
of many thousands, were its first victims. Again the fanatics who 
were preparing to march to the third crusade (a. d. 1188), butchered 
all the Jews they met with in Germany and Italy, and similar bar- 
barities were exercised in this and other countries, so that the annihila- 
tion of the devoted race seemed inevitable ; but this, like other storms, 
passed away. After a while the Jews again arose from the dust, some 
returned to their ancient habitations, and others pushed forward into 
the then almost unknown regions of Poland, where they at length be- 
came, and still continue, a very influential part of the population. 

At what period the Jews first reached Britain does not distinctly ap- 
pear ; but in the eighth century we find them reckoned among the 
property of the Anglo-Saxon kings, who seem to have exercised abso- 
lute power over both their lives and goods. In this state they re- 
mained under the Norman princes and the early Plantagenets, as is 
sufficiently testified by their butchery in the reign of Richard I. ; the 
conduct of John, who drew out a tooth daily till he obtained a large 
sum of money from a rich Jew ; the enormous fines levied on them by 
Henry III. ; and their expulsion by Edward I. (a. d. 1290), after the 
confiscation of all their property. The conduct of the monarchs was 
of course imitated by the nobles to the extent of their power, and the 
hatred of all classes was. excited by marvellous stories of the cru- 
cifixion of Christian children, the profanation of the sacraments, and 
other improbable outrages, of which they were said, but never proved, 
to be guilty. 

As the Arabs lost their hold on Spain the Jews found themselves 
exposed to all the horrors of persecution. The inquisition was intro- 
duced, and after great numbers had been burnt, all who refused to be- 
come Christians were expelled the kingdom, being allowed to retain 
only their moveable property (a. d. 1492) ; their number is said to 
have exceeded 800,000, and they chiefly took refuge in Africa and 
Turkey. They were treated in a similar manner in Portugal. But it 
soon appeared that Judaism, though suppressed, was by no means ex- 
tinguished in the peninsula, and the severity of the inquisition was 



HISTORY OP THE JEWS. 751 

then exercised upon the nominal Christians ; such was the case also 
in Italy. Thus persecuted in every country under the influence of the 
see of Rome, the Jews at the era of the reformation eagerly flocked 
toward the rising protestant states, where they were at least sure of 
personal safety. This was more especially the case in Holland, where 
they were equitably treated, and where they are now exceedingly 
numerous. 

Although no repeal of the edict for their banishment had taken 
place, the Jews entered into some negotiations with Oliver Cromwell 
for their return to England, but which do not appear to have led to 
any result. At the time of the restoration they came in, in small num- 
bers, without exciting any particular notice, and have ever since re- 
mained unmolested. In 1753, an act was passed to facilitate their 
naturalization, but it was speedily repealed, and though popular feeling 
is less strong at present on the subject, the attempt to place them upon 
the same footing as other British subjects, though several times made, 
has been unsuccessful. 

In the course of the last and the present centuries the condition of 
the Jews in European countries has been greatly ameliorated. Maria 
Theresa of Austria, and, after her, most of the German states, have 
granted them equal privileges with Christians ; in France they enjoy 
every civil right ; in Poland they form the only middle class, and are 
found engaged in agriculture and manufactures ; in Italy, Spain, and 
Portugal, they now reside unmolested, and in many of the British colo- 
nies (as Malta, Gibraltar, and Jamaica), they are among the principal 
merchants and traders. Indeed, Russia is the only civilized state where 
they are now subject to anything like their former restrictions, or are 
looked upon with much of the antipathy of former days. In Moham- 
medan countries, however, they are still an obnoxious sect, against 
whom the most improbable charges are readily credited, a circum- 
stance frequently taken advantage of by the local governors. 

As might be expected with regard to a people so widely scattered, 
the most contradictory statements of the number of the Jews have been 
made, few of them being anything more than mere conjecture. The 
most probable statement seems to be that of the Weimar Almanac, which 
gives a total of about 3,200,000, reckoning near 2,000,000 in Europe, 
740,000 in Asia, 500,000 in Africa, and 5,000 in America. 



752 MODERN HISTORY. 



CHAPTER XV. 

HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 

Section I. — Colonial History. 

Several unsuccessful attempts to plant colonies within the limits of 
the United States were made in the sixteenth century ; but no perma- 
nent settlement was effected until the beginning of the seventeenth. 
Before the close of that century, however, all the colonies composing 
the original thirteen states were established except one, that of Georgia. 

In the reign of Elizabeth of England, the whole country between the 
thirty-fourth and forty-fifth degrees of north latitude, received the name 
of Virginia, in honor of the queen. In the next reign it was granted 
by royal charter to two companies formed for the purpose of settling it, 
the southern portion, called South Virginia, to the London company, 
and the northern, called North Virginia, to the Plymouth company. 

In 1607, one hundred and fifteen years from the discovery of San 
Salvador by Columbus, the first permanent settlement was made at 
Jamestown under the auspices of the London company : and thus com- 
menced the planting of the colony of Virginia. 

In 1613 the settlement of New York was begun by the Dutch, on 
the island of New York, then called Manhattan. The same year, a 
naval force from Virginia compelled the Dutch to acknowledge the 
sovereignty of the king of England : but it was not until 1664 that the 
colony was finally conquered and occupied by the English. 

In lf)20 the colony of Ply/noulh was planted by English indepen- 
dents, who had for some years been settled in Holland. Two unsuc- 
cessful attempts had been previously made to form settlements in New 
England, one by the Plymouth company in 1607, at the mouth of the 
Kennebec river ; the other, a little later by the celebrated Capt. John 
Smith, the father of the Virginia colony. 

In 1628 the Massachusetts colony was established by a company 
under a grant of lands from the Plymouth company. The first settle- 
ment was at Salem. Shortly after Charlestown, Boston, and the towns 
adjacent, were settled. In 1692, the Plymouth colony was incorpo- 
rated with that of Massachusetts. Up to this time it had remained a 
voluntary association, governed by regulations made by the settlers 
among themselves. 

In 1623, the settlement of New Hampshire was begun at the mouth 
of the Piscataqua river, and subsequently at Dover, Portsmouth, and 
Exeter. These three settlements continued distinct and independent 
governments until 1641, when they united in coming under the govern- 



HISTORY OP THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 753 

«inent of Massachusetts. In 1679 New Hampshire was by a royal or- 
dinance erected into a separate province. 

New Jersey was first settled by the Danes about the year 1624 ; and 
•shortly after some Dutch families planted themselves in the vicinity of 
New York. In 1655, Peter Stuyvesant, the Dutch governor of New 
York, conquered the country, which was finally occupied by the English' 
on the conquest of New York in 1664. 

Delaware was first occupied by the Swedes in 1627. The Dutch, 
however, disputed the possession of it with them, from the first, and in 
1655 obtained and held it until it fell into the power of the English 
-along with New York and New Jersey in 1664. Most of the Swedes, 
after the Dutch conquest, left the country. 

Maine was settled in 1639. The first town founded was York. 
This province was united to Massachusetts in 1652, and so continued 
until 1820. 

Maryland was settled in 1634 by English Roman catholics, under a 
patent to Cecil Calvert, Lord Baltimore, by whom a colony was planted 
at the mouth of the Potomac, at a place called St. Mary. 

The first settlement in Connecticut was begun in 1635 at Hartford 
and its vicinity, by a company from Massachusetts. In 1638, New Ha- 
ven was settled, and with the towns around it was called the colony of 
New Haven ; but in 1662, it was united to the colony of Connecticut. 

The settlement of Rhode Island dates from 1636, when Roger Wil- 
liams, banished from Massachusetts on account of his religious princi- 
ples (which were those of the baptists), established the town of Provi- 
dence. Rhode Island itself was occupied in 1638, by persons also 
driven from Massachusetts by religious persecution. Roger Williams 
was a man far in advance of his time. To him belongs the eminent 
glory of giving the first practical example of religious toleration- 
The Providence and Rhode Island colonies were politically united ia 
1644. 

North Carolina was occupied by settlers from Virginia between the 
years 1640 and 1650. They established themselves on lands north of 
Albemarle sound. It became a distinct colony in 1729. 

In 1670 the settlement of South Carolina was begun at Port Royal ; 
but the colony removed the next year, and founded a town which was 
called Charleston; but in 1680 this place was abandoned, and the 
settlement of the present city of Charleston commenced. 

Pennsylvania was settled in 1682, imder a royal grant to William 
Penn. This colony had a more rapid and prosperous growth than any 
of the other colonies, owing partly to the later date of its settlement 
when the obstacles to colonization had become less, and partly to the 
mildness and equity of its laws and administration. 

Georgia was not colonized till 1733. It was then settled under a 
patent granted to twenty-one trustees, for the purpose of giving land 
gratuitously to indigent subjects of Great Britain. Liberal donations 
•were made by benevolent persons to defray the expense of transporting 
and providing for the settlers. The first place founded was Savannah. 

The limits of this sketch will not permit any details in regard to the 
iistory of the separate colonies, the dates of whose settlement have 

48 



754 MODERN HISTORY. 

now been given. A few matters of more general interest can only be 
noted. 

In 1643, the colonies of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New 
Haven, formed a union by articles of confederation, under the style of 
" The United Colonies of New England." To protect themselves 
against the Indians, and against the claims and encroachments of the 
Dutch of New Netherlands (as New York was then called), were the 
motives of this confederation. Rhode Island, refusing to merge her 
political existence under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, was excluded 
from the union. The conquest of New York, New Jersey, and Dela- 
ware, in 1664, brought the whole country, from Maine to Carolina, 
under the dominion of the English. 

In 1675 New England was afflicted by a memorable war with the 
Indians, called Ki7iur Philip's war, from the name of an Indian sachem 
of great abilities, who combined the Indian tribes against the English. 
The capture and death of Philip the following year put an end to the 
war, in which New England suffered the loss of six hundred men, the 
flower of her strength, twelve or thirteen towns destroyed, and six 
hundred dwellings consumed. 

In 1676 a rebellion broke out in Virginia, known as " Bacon's rebel- 
lion" from the name of the leader, an able and ambitious man, who 
seized, and for some months maintained, the supreme authority. His 
death put an end to the civil war. The causes of this rebellion were 
oppressive restrictions on commerce, and heavy taxes imposed by 
Governor Berkley. 

During the reign of James II. the New England colonies were 
severely oppressed. The king revoked the charters and assumed the 
government into his own hands, appointing Sir Edmund Andros gov- 
ernor. Under his arbitrary and tyrannical administration the colonies 
suffered until the accession of William and Mary in 1689. 

The news of the abdication of James, and the accession of William 
and Mary to the English throne was the signal for a revolution in New 
England. Sir Edmund Andros was deposed and imprisoned. Con- 
necticut and Rhode Island resumed their charters and were allowed to 
retain them. Massachusetts obtained a new charter, in some respects 
preferable to its former one. 

In New York, where Sir Edmund Andros had formerly been the 
tyrannical governor, and where his successors had generally followed 
his example, the discontents of the people led likewise to a revolution, 
■which at length resulted in a constitution ; but the collisions between 
the colonial assemblies and the royal governors retarded the restoration 
of peace and prosperity to the colony. 

It will be proper here to advert to the forms of government which 
prevailed in the several colonies. These were of three sorts — the 
charter ; the royal ; and the proprietary. 

1. The CHARTER governments. These were confined to New Eng- 
land. By their charters the people of these colonies were expressly 
entitled to all the privileges of British born subjects ; and invested with 
the legislative, judicial, and executive powers of government. They 
chose their governors and legislative bodies, and established their own 



HISTORY OP THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 755* 

courts. Their legislatures were, however, restrained from passing any 
laws contrary to those of England. The crown claimed the right of 
revoking the charters ; but this was denied by the colonists, unless they 
were forfeited for cause. They were sometimes declared forfeited, or 
forcibly revoked, as we have just seen in the reign of James II. The 
disputes arising on this subject were one of the causes of the 
revolut'on. 

2. The ROYAL governments. These were Virginia, New York, and 
subsequently, North and South Carolina and New Jersey. In these 
colonies, the people had legislative assemblies of their own choosing; 
but the governor and council were appointed by the crown, who had a 
negative on all proceedings of the popular assemblies, and also the 
appointment of the judges and most of the administrative officers. 
The sources of grievance in these colonies were the arbitrary conduct 
of the governors, and the claim of absolute power by the crown ta 
negative the acts of the assemblies. 

3. The PROPRIETARY governments. These were Maryland and Penn- 
sylvania, and, at first, the Carolinas and Jerseys. In these colonies, 
the proprietors, or individuals to whom the territories had been granted 
by the crown, were empowered, under certain limitations reserved by 
the crown, to establish civil governments and to make laws. There 
were in most cases colonial assemblies, partly summoned by the pro- 
prietors, and partly chosen by the people. Perpetual quarrels arose be- 
tween the people and the proprietors, chiefly respecting the prerogative 
exercised by the latter of repealing or negativing the acts of the as- 
semblies. 

At thfe time of the accession of William III., in 1689, the populatioa 
of the colonies is estimated to have exceeded two hundred thousand. 
There was but little trade or commerce except with England, whence 
the colonists derived all their merchandise, sending thither in retura 
tobacco, peltry, some pork, and fish. Agriculture was the principal 
employment ; and the manufactures in use were principally limited to 
the most common articles of necessity and convenience, and these were 
mostly imported from England. 

The year 1692 is signalized in the annals of New England by the 
commencement of the trials for witchcraft. This fanatic delusion went 
on increasing until about twenty persons were publicly executed ; one 
hundred and fifty were in prison, and two hundred more were accused. 
The phrensy then subsided as suddenly as it had sprung up and spread. 
The principal theatre of these deplorable scenes was in Salem, Massa- 
chusetts, and the neighboring towns, though there were some cases in 
Connecticut. 

The English revolution, which placed William III. on the throne, 
while it freed the colonies from the oppressions they endured during 
the reign of his predecessor, involved them in the calamities of the war 
between France and England, which lasted from 1690 to the peace of 
Ryswick in 1697. The French in Canada directed an expeditioa 
against the English colonies, instigating the Indians to join them ia 
their hostilities. In return, an armament was fitted out by Massachu- 
setts for the invasion of the French settlements. Port Royal in Nova 



756 MODERN HISTORY. 

Scotia was taken. A second expedition was undertaken by the colo- 
nies of New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, for the reduction 
of Montreal and Quebec. It failed in its object, and had the effect of 
producing dissatisfaction among the Indian tribes in New York, who 
were the allies of the English. This war, commonly called King Wil- 
liam's war, was marked by the most savage atrocities on the part of the 
French and Indians. 

Scarcely had the colonies begun to recover from this war, when in 
1702 they were plunged into another with the French, Indians, and 
Spaniards, commonly called Queen Anne's war, arising from disputes 
about the boundaries, which had been left unsettled at the peace of 
Ryswick. The colonies of Massachusetts and New Hampshire were 
the chief sufferers, being most exposed to the devastating and murder- 
ous incursions of the French and Indians from Canada. Several expe- 
ditious were sent into Canada ; but the only success that attended the 
English arms was the taking again of Port Royal, which had been re- 
stored to the French at the close of the former w^ar. It w^as now 
named Annapolis. The peace of Utrecht, in 1713, put an end to the 
war in the northern colonies ; but South Carolina continued to be an- 
noyed for some time by the Indians. By the treaty of Utrecht, France 
ceded Newfoundland and Nova Scotia to England. 

In 1744, England again declared war against France and Spain, 
which again involved the colonies in hostilities with the enemies of the 
mother-country and with their Indian allies. The principal event of 
this war, in America, was the capture of Louisburg from the French by 
forces from New England. The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748 
again gave peace to the colonies. Prisoners were to be released on 
both sides without ransom, and all conquests to be mutually restored. 

This war was extremely disastrous to the colonies. Many lives 
were lost ; the growth of population was checked ; great losses were 
sustained in the commercial interests of the country ; and finally a bur- 
densome debt of several millions had been incurred to defray the ex- 
penses of the war. With the return of peace, however, commerce 
revived ; the settlements began to extend, and public credit was restored. 

But only a brief interval of repose was allowed to the colonies. In 
1756, eight years from the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, Great Britain 
again declared war against France, on the ground of the encroachments 
of the French upon the English territories in America. 

Some years previous to this war the French had commenced a chain 
of posts, designed to extend from the head of the St. Lawrence to the 
Mississippi, with a view to maintain a communication between their 
northern possessions and Louisiana. 

In 1750, the English government granted a large tract of land on the 
Ohio river to a company called the Ohio company, formed for the pur- 
pose of settling the country, and carrying on a trade in furs with the 
Indians. The French governor of Canada, apprehending both the loss 
of the fur-trade and the interruption of his communications with Louis- 
iana, claimed the whole country between the Ohio and the AUeganies, 
and prohibited the further encroachments of the English. He also 
opened a new communication between Lake Erie and the Ohio, and 
stationed troops at posts along the line. The Ohio company, thus 



HISTOHY OF THE UNITED ST'ATES OP AMERICA. 757 

tlireatened in their trade, persuaded Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia, 
in 1753, to send a remonstrance to the French commandant. George 
Washington was the hearer. The commandant returned for answer 
that he had taken possession of the country by order of the governor- 
general of Canada, whose orders alone he could regard. 

The British government, on learning the claim set up by the French, 
directed the Virginians to resist it by force. In 1754, an expedition 
was conducted against the French by Washington ; but the superior 
force of the French obliged him to capitulate, with the privilege of re- 
turning with his troops to Virginia. This was properly the commence- 
ment of what is commonly styled the French war, although the formal 
declaration was not yet made. 

In the meantime, the British government recommended the colonies 
to unite for their common defence. A convention of delegates from all 
the northern colonies accordingly met at Albany in 1754, and adopted 
a plan of union ; but it was rejected, both by the provincial assemblies 
and by the home government : by the former because it gave too much 
power to the crown, and by the latter because it gave too little. 

In the spring of 1755, vigorous preparations were made for carrying 
on the war. An expedition was sent against Nova Scotia, which met 
with entire success : the colonial forces, with trifling loss, subdued the 
French, and gained complete and permanent possession of the whole 
country. 

An expedition under General Braddock, directed against the French 
on the Ohio, was unfortunate. Owing to the arrogance and rashness 
of the commander, the British troops were surprised and defeated with 
great loss by a very inferior force of French and Indians. General 
Braddock was mortally wounded, and the conduct of the retreat de- 
volved on Washington, who was in command of the colonial militia, and 
by whom the army was saved from total destruction. 

The American arms were more successful in the north. The French 
were signally defeated on the borders of Lake George, and their com- 
mander, Baron Dieskau, was mortally wounded. The moral effect of 
this victory, following within a few weeks the discomfiture of Braddock, 
was very great and salutary in its influence upon the colonies. 

The next year, 1756, war was formally declared between Great 
Britain and France ; and in Europe began what is called the seven 
years' war, in which Prussia was united with England against France. 
In America the campaign of 1756 was very disastrous to the colonists ; 
they were unable even to attempt gaining possession of Niagara and 
Crown Point, places of great importance in the hands of the French, 
and the reduction of which was in the plan of operations. The French, 
under Montcalm, took Fort Oswego, thus gaining entire command of 
Lakes Ontario and Erie, besides inflicting upon the English a very se- 
vere loss, amounting to sixteen hundred men made prisoners, one hun- 
dred and twenty cannon, with fourteen mortars, two sloops-of-war, and 
two hundred bateaux. 

The British government made great preparations for the campaign of 
1757. A large force was destined for the reduction of Louisburg ; but 
the indecision and incapacity of Lord Loudon, the commander-in-chief, 
caused the expedition to be abandoned. Meantime, Montcalm, the 



758 MODERN HISTORY. 

French commander, besieged and took Fort William Henry, on Lake 
George, after a most spirited defence by Colonel Munroe. The Eng- 
lish troops, after being admitted" to honorable capitulation, were treach- 
erously massacred by the Indians attached to Montcalm's army. 

The campaign of 1758 was more prosperous. Lord Chatham had 
now become prime minister, and infused new energy into the prosecu- 
tion of- the war. In answer to a call made by him upon the colonies, 
Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire, united in raising fif- 
teen thousand men. The tide of success now turned in favor of the 
English. Three expeditions had been planned : one against Louisburg, 
another against Ticonderoga, and the third against Fort du Quesne on 
the Ohio. Louisburg was taken, with great loss to the French in 
prisoners, ships, and munitions of war. Fort du Quesne was abandoned 
by the French, taken possession of by the English, and named Pitts- 
burgh. The expedition against Ticonderoga failed, but the failure was 
compensated by the capture of Fort Frontinac, an important fortress at 
the outlet of Lake Ontario. 

The campaign of 1759 commenced with a nearly simultaneous attack 
upon all the French strongholds in Canada, namely, Ticonderoga, Crown 
Point, Niagara, and Quebec. One division of the army, under General 
Amherst, the commander-in-chief, proceeded against Ticonderoga and 
Crown Point, which were successively taken. Another division, under 
General Prideaux, advanced and took Niagara. General Wolfe was no 
less successful in the great enterprise of conquering Quebec. The 
P>ench, under Montcalm, were defeated on the plains of Abraham, and 
Quebec fell into the hands of the British. General Wolfe died upon 
the field of battle. 

In 1760, the French made an unsuccessful attempt to recover Quebec. 
In less than a year from the capture of that city, Montreal, Detroit, and 
all other places in the possession of the French, were surrendered to the 
British, and the conquest of Canada was completed. 

By the treaty of peace definitively concluded at Paris in 1763, Nova 
Scotia, Canada, Cape Breton, and all other islands in the gulf and river 
St. Lawrence, were ceded to the British crown. 

Thus it appears that in the seventy-one years from 1689 to 1760, the 
colonies were involved in four wars, occupying in all ticenty-seven years. 
Yet during this period the population had increased from two hundred 
thousand to about three millions." The arts and manufactures, being 
opposed by the mother-country, made but little progress ; but there was 
a steady advancement in agriculture. Trade and commerce had gone 
on very greatly increasing — so much, that in the ten years preceding 
the revolutionary war, the average annual exports to Great Britain and 
elsewhere amounted to four million pounds sterling, and the imports to 
three and a half millions. 

In the meantime, colleges and other superior institutions of learning 
had been established in nearly all the colonies, and popular instruction 
provided for, especially in New England ; the country was advancing 
in intellectual culture ; and more than all, the necessity of uniting for 
the common defence, and the intercourse between the colonies that 
grew out of it, had tended to create a national spirit, which the events 



HISTOHY OF THE UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. 759 

of the twelve years succeeding the peace of Paris still further developed 
and strengtheped. 

Section II. — Revolutionary History. 

In 1775, twelve years from the peace of Paris, began the war which 
terminated in the final separation of the United States from the British 
empire. We will briefly glance at the causes of this revolution. 

The colonists, from the first, always cherished a jealous sense of 
their rights : as early as the middle of the seventeenth century, it was a 
settled doctrine among them that the authority of parliament was limited 
to the regulation of trade, and that taxes could not be imposed upon them 
without their own consent. Previous, indeed, to the peace of Paris, the 
home government had never attempted to interfere with internal taxa- 
tion. For a century, however, before that event, a variety of restric- 
tions had from time to time been imposed upon the trade of the colonies, 
the object of which was to oblige the colonists to buy and sell exclu- 
sively in the English markets. Colonial manufactures were also in 
every possible way discouraged. These restrictions produced much 
discontent and ill-blood. 

In 1764, the first act avowedly for the purpose of raising a revenue 
in America was passed in parliament. This was followed the next 
year (March 22, 1765) by the famous Stamp Act, making void all bonds, 
notes, and such like instruments, unless written on stamped paper, upon 
which a duty to the crown was imposed. These acts excited great dis- 
pleasure throughout the colonies ; and in October a congress of delegates 
from Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jer- 
sey, Maryland, and South Carolina, met at New York, and passed sev- 
eral resolutions, acknowledging the rightful authority of parliament, but 
denouncing the stamp act and other acts, as subversive of the just rights 
and liberties of the colonists as natural-born English subjects. The 
proceedings of this body were sanctioned by all the colonies. The 
public indignation, inflamed by newspapers, pamphlets, and popular 
meetings, rose to the highest pitch ; combinations were everywhere 
formed to abstain from using articles of British merchandise, and in 
every way to oppose the measures of the home government. The offi- 
cers appointed under the stamp act were in many places insulted, abused, 
and forced to resign ; and when the first of September, the day for the 
act to go into operation, arrived, neither stamps nor stamp-officers were 
to be found. Business of all kinds requiring stamps was for a time 
suspended ; law proceedings were stayed, the courts shut, and mar- 
riages ceased to be celebrated. 

The next year (March 18, 1766) the stamp act was repealed, though 
the repeal was accompanied by a declaration of the " right of parliament 
to bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever." In a few months from this 
time, a new ministry came into power, and a new plan for taxing Amer- 
ica was introduced into parliament, namely, by laying a duty on glass, 
paper, pasteboard, painters' colors, and tea, imported into the colonies. 
The bill imposing these duties and providing for their collection by a 
new customhouse system, was passed June 29, 1767. A body of 
troops was soon after sent out and quartered in Boston. These meas- 



760 MODERN HISTORY. 

iires produced great exasperation in the colonies, and led to combinations ■ 
against using the articles subjected to duty. In 1770, this act was re- 
pealed, with the exception of the duty on tea. The colonists were only 
the more decided in renouncing the use of that article. An act of par- 
liament was passed in 1773, allowing the East India company such a 
drawback of duties on teas exported to America that they could afford 
to sell them there cheaper than in England. This was done with the 
hope of inducing the colonists to return to the use of the article. Large 
shipments were accordingly made ; but the Americans refused to pay 
the slight duty upon it ; the cargoes sent to New York and Philadelphia- 
were, not suffered to be landed ; in Charleston it was not allowed to be 
put to sale ; and at Boston it was thrown into the sea by a party of mea- 
disguised as Indians. These proceedings excited the fierce displeasure 
of the British government, especially against Boston ; and in March, 
1774, the ^* Boston Port Bill" so called, was passed, prohibiting all 
commercial intercourse with that town. Another bill subverted the 
charter government of Massachusetts, vesting the appointment of the 
council and judges in the crown ; and a third shortly after empowered 
the governor to send persons indicted for capital offences to another 
colony or to Great Britain for trial. 

These violent proceedings awakened the greatest indignation through- 
out the colonies. All made common cause with Massachusetts. On- 
the 5th of September a general congress met at Philadelphia, and 
adopted a declaration of rights and grievances, and agreed to an entire 
suspension of all commercial intercourse with Great Britain until the 
repeal of the acts of which they complained. They likewise voted an 
address to the king, another to the people of Great Britain, and a third 
to the inhabitants of Canada. These peaceful measures for redress 
proving ineffectual, the feeling of the necessity of resisting by force 
became quite general in the colonies. Preparations began to be made ; 
warlike stores were collected, and the citizens began to arm. 

In Massachusetts Governor Gage had convoked the legislative as- 
sembly for the 5th of October, 1774, but afterward judged it expedient 
to countermand the writs. The assembly notwithstanding convened, and 
the governor not appearing, organized themselves and adopted a plan ■ 
for the, defence of the province. In November they met again and . 
resolved to raise a force of twelve thousand men, and to request the 
other New England states to increase the number to twenty thousand. 

Early the next year, 1775, parliament, in spite of the conciliatory 
counsels of the Earl of Chatham, proceeded to pass a bill restraining, 
still further the trade of New England. Soon after they i.mposed re- 
strictions upon the middle and southern colonies, except New York, , 
Delaware, and North Carolina. This exception was made with a view 
to produce dissension among the colonies : but it failed of its object. 

This brings us to the commencement of actual hostilities. General. 
Gage, the royal governor of Massachusetts, sent a detachment of eight 
hundred soldiers to destroy some military stores deposited at Concord. 
On their way, they arrived at Lexington on the morning of the 19th of 
April, 1775, where they found a company of provincial militia assem- 
bled on parade. This company, not instantly obeying an order to 
throw down their arms and disperse, were fired upon and eight of their 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 761 

number killed. The detachment proceeded to Concord and destroyed! 
the stores, though not without opposition and bloodshed. But the 
spirit of the people was up, and on their return to Boston the British 
were harassed the whole way, and continually fired upon from behind 
walls, buildings, and fences. The British loss, in killed, wounded, and 
missing, amounted to nearly three hundred : the American to less than 
a hundred. 

The war was now begun in good earnest. The important fortresses 
of Ticonderoga and Crown Point were taken by the Americans ; and 
soon after (June 17, 1775) the memorable battle of Bunker's Hill was 
fought. The result of this engagement, though the Americans, from 
failure of ammunition, were obliged to retreat, was in its moral effect 
equal to a victory. The British loss was two hundred and twenty-six 
killed, and eight hundred and twenty-eight wounded. The Americans 
lost one hundred and thirty-nine killed, and three hundred and fourteen 
wounded and missing. 

The second continental congress was at this time in session, having 
met at Philadelphia on the 10th of May, and resolved to organize an 
army. On the 15th of June, George Washington was appointed 
commander-in-chief. He proceeded at once to the American army 
amounting to about 14,000 men, posted in the environs of Boston, 
The British occupied Boston, Bunker's and Breed's hill, and Boston 
Neck. The first cares of the commander-in-chief were directed to in- 
troducing discipline, order, and system, into the army. 

Meantime, an expedition against Canada was planned. St. John's 
and Montreal were successively taken ; Quebec was unsuccessfully 
besieged. General Montgomery, the commander of the expedition, 
fell beneath its walls. The Americans, for want of adequate forces, 
were obliged to retire from Canada. 

In March, 1776, General Washington executed a plan for driving the 
British from Boston, by seizing and fortifying Dorchester heights, and 
thus getting command of the harbor and British shipping. On the 17th 
the British forces evacuated the town and sailed for Halifax. 

In the month of June, General Clinton and Sir Peter Parker made an 
attack on Fort Moultrie, near Charleston, South Carolina ; but were 
repulsed with considerable loss. 

Congress meanwhile continued in session, and on the 4th of July 
adopted the memorable Declaration of Independence. This declaration 
was received with every demonstration of joyous enthusiasm throughout 
the colonies. The royal authority had been everywhere entirely sub- 
verted the year before : the revolution was now in a political sense 
completed ; but the war for its establishment was yet to be waged. 

Shortly after the evacuation of Boston by the British, General Wash- 
ington removed to New York, making that place his headquarters. 
The American forces in and around the city were about 17,000 men, 
of whom a part were encamped near Brooklyn, on Long Island, under 
the command of General Sullivan. In June following, General Howe 
with the forces from Halifax, arrived near New York, and was shortly 
after joined by his brother Admiral Lord Howe, with a reinforcement 
of troops, a strong naval force, and abundant military stores. The 
army under General Howe now amounted to twenty-four thousands 



762 MODERN HISTORY. 

On the 27th of August, the Americans on Long Island were attacked 
and defeated with the loss of upward of a thousand men. Generals 
Sullivan, Woodhull, and Lord Sterling, iVere taken prisoners. General 
Washington crossed over from New York during this engagement and 
witnessed the defeat of his best troops with indescribable anguish. He 
immediately withdrew the American forces from Long Island and 
shortly afterward from New York, which was taken possession of by 
the British. Washington at first took position at Harlem heights, but 
soon retired to White Plains. Here on the 28th of September a battle 
was fought, but without any decided advantage to either side. General 
Washington had adopted the policy of wearing out the enemy by keep- 
ing them in perpetual pursuit, and avoiding any general engagement 
for the present, and by engaging in skirmishes whenever he could do 
so with decided advantage. In pursuance of this policy he withdrew 
from White Plains, leaving part of his army in a position a few miles 
from there, crossed the Hudson, and took post near Fort Lee. The 
British general having been thus far baffled in his attempts to draw on 
a general engagement, turned his forces against Fort Washington and 
Fort Lee. The former was first attacked, and after a spirited defence 
was taken, Avith between 2,000 and 3,000 men made prisoners. The 
garrison of Fort Lee abandoned the place and joined Washington, who 
was now at Newark. 

The forces with the commander-in-chief Avere now reduced to three 
thousand men, and they were destitute of tents, blankets, and even of 
utensils to cook their provisions. Pursued by the enemy, Washington 
retreated successively to Brunswick, Princeton, Trenton, and finally 
across the Delaware into Pennsylvania. So hot was the pursuit that 
the rear of the American army was often in sight of the van of the 
enemy. 

This retreat through New Jersey was the darkest hour of the revolu- 
tionary struggle. On the same day that Washington was driven across 
the Delaware, the British took possession of Rhode Island. They 
were already in possession of New York and New Jersey. The divis- 
ion of the army with Washington was continually diminishing by the 
discharge of the militia whose term of service expired, and by desertion 
of the i-egulars. The militia of New Jersey and Pennsylvania disre- 
garded the call made upon them ; and the handful of men that remained 
with Washington were exposed in an open country, without tools to 
intrench themselves, sufTering the greatest hardships and privations in 
the midst of a population of whom many were hostile and all disheart- 
ened. A general gloon) and despondency hung over the country. But 
nothing could shake the constancy of Washington. Being at length 
reinforced by some militia and by the second division of the regular 
army that had been left in New York under General Lee, but which 
(in consequence of that general being surprised and taken prisoner by 
the British) was then in command of General Sullivan, his forces now 
amounted to about 7,000 men. Feeling the absolute necessity of doing 
something to rouse the army and the country from the depression that 
was weighing down all minds, Washington crossed the Delaware with 
a detachment of his army, surprised and took prisoners a body of a 
thousand Hessians, with the loss of but nine men on his own side. 



HISTORY OP THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 763 

Soon after evading by night the British who were encamped at Tren- 
ton in the confident expectation of forcing him to a general engagement 
the next day, he marched upon Princeton where a part of the British 
force had been left, routed and put to flight two regiments which he 
met on his way, and captured nearly the whole of another. These 
brilliant affairs turned the tide. The British immediately evacuated 
Trenton, and retreated to New Brunswick ; the inhabitants, stung to 
revenge by the brutalities they had suffered, took courage, and the 
enemy were driven from every post in New Jersey, except Amboy and 
New Brunswick ; and Washington went into secure winter quarters at 
Morristown. Thus closed the campaign of 1776. 

During the darkest period of this campaign the American congress 
showed no sign of dismay. They adopted articles of confederation for 
a perpetual union of the states ; took measures for raising a new army 
with a larger term of enlistment ; created a paper currency ; and sol- 
emnly proclaimed that they would listen to no terms 6f peace short of 
independence. They sent commissioners to France to treat for the 
acknowledgment of their independence and for aid in their struggle. 
The cause of America was popular at the French court ; countenance 
and assistance were at once in various ways secretly given. Many 
French officers became desirous of enlisting in the struggle, among 
whom was the young Marquis de la Fayette, who arrived in season to 
take part in the next campaign. 

The campaign of 1777. In May, Washington broke up his winter 
encampment at Morristown. His army now amounted to little more 
than 7,000 men. The British also removed from New Brunswick. 
No decided movement was made till August, when General Howe, the 
British commander, sailed for the Chesapeake with 16,000 men. 
Washington immediately put his army in motion to save Philadelphia 
from falling into the enemy's hands. The two armies met at Brandy- 
wine, September 11, and the Americans, after fighting nearly all day, 
were forced to retire. In this battle La Fayette was wounded in the 
leg After another inefl^ectual attempt to save Philadelphia, Washing- 
ton was obliged to withdraw his force, and General Howe entered the 
city. Congress adjourned to Lancaster. 

On the 4th of October, Washington attacked a part of the British 
army posted at Germantown, but was repulsed with a loss double that 
of the enemy. After this the British remained for some time inactive 
at Philadelphia. 

But while the southern army under Washington accomplished so 
little, brilliant success crowned the army of the north. As a part of 
the plan formed by the British, General Burgoyne invaded the states 
from the north, with a view to form a communication between Canada 
and New York, and cut off New England from the more southern 
states. After various movements — in the course of which Ticonderoga 
was abandoned by the Americans, and a detachment of the British was 
defeated at Bennington — the two armies met at Saratoga, where, after two 
severe engagements. General Burgoyne, finding himself hemmed in 
without chance of escape, and his provisions reduced to a three days' 
supply, found himself under the necessity of surrendering to General 



764 MODERN HISTORY. 

Gates, with his whole army, consisting of five thousand and seven 
hundred eflective men. 

This event was hailed throughout the country with transports of joy. 
Its moral effect was every way important. Among its consequences 
was the acknoM'ledgment of the independence of the United States by 
France, and the conclusion of a treaty of alliance and commerce be- 
tween the two nations. The campaign was terminated by the British 
army going into winter quarters at Philadelphia, and the American at 
Valley Forge, about fifteen miles distant. The hardships and suffer- 
ings of the American army this winter, from badness of shelter, destitu- 
tion of clothing, and scarcity of food, with consequent sickness, were 
intense. 

Campaign of 1778. The intelligence of the alliance between Amer- 
ica and France, determined the British to evacuate Philadelphia. They 
began their retreat to New York on the 18th of June. General Wash- 
ington crossed the Delaware in pursuit, and on the 28th an engagement 
took place at Monmouth, in New Jersey. Night broke off" the battle, 
but the Americans on the whole gained the advantage, passing the night 
on the field, intending to renew the attack in the morning. But under 
cover of the night, the British general made good his retreat. 

Toward the close of this year, the southern states became the theatre 
of the operations of the enemy. Savannah was taken, and with it the 
whole state of Georgia fell into the hands of the English. 

The campaign of 1779 was marked by nothing memorable or deci- 
sive. An attempt was made to recover Savannah and Georgia by the 
combined forces of the Americans, under General Lincoln, and the 
French, under Count D'Estaing, who had arrived the year before with 
twelve ships-of-the-line and six frigates. Several British vessels-of-war 
were taken, but the attempt to reduce Savannah failed. D'Estaing left 
the continent. 

The enemy limited their efforts this year chiefly to predatory expedi- 
tions, fitted out from New York, with a view to distress and impoverish 
the country. An expedition of this kind was sent to Virginia ; New 
Haven, in Connecticut, was plundered ; and Fairfield, Norwalk, and 
some other towns in the same state, were wantonly burnt. 

With the exception of taking Stony Point (July 15), and sending an 
expedition against the Six Nations of Indians, little was done or at- 
tempted by the Americans. This is attributable partly to the disappoint- 
ment of the country with respect to the advantage they expected from 
the aid of D'Estaing and the French, but still more to the embarrass- 
ments and difficulties which resulted from the depreciation of the " con- 
tinental currency," as the bills of credit issued by Congress were called. 
The amount in circulation had now risen to nearly two hundred millions 
of dollars ; and so great was the depreciation, that it is said " four 
months' pay of a private would not procure his family a single bushel 
of wheat, and the pay of a colonel would not purchase oats for his 
horse." Under circumstances like these, the wisdom and pru- 
dence of Washington were tasked to the utmost to keep an army 
together. 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 765 

The campaign of 1780 was marked by more important events. Sir 
Henry Clinton, leaving General Kniphausen in command at Nevir York, 
conducted a force of between seven and eight thousand men against 
Charleston, South Carolina. General Lincoln, who was in command 
of the army of the south, attempted to defend the place, but was obliged 
to capitulate, and his army, amounting to five thousand men, became 
prisoners. Sir Henry Clinton soon returned to New York, leaving 
Lord Cornwallis with four thousand men in South Carolina. 

General Gates succeeded General Lincoln in command of the Amer- 
ican army of the south. On the 16th of August, a bloody battle was 
fought at Camden, in which the Americans were defeated. 

Meanwhile, at the north, the British continued their system of im- 
poverishing the country by marauding expeditions sent out from New- 
York. 

In July, arrived at Rhode Island a French fleet of seven sail-of- 
the-line, five frigates, and five smaller armed vessels, and several trans- 
ports, with six thousand men, under the command of Count de Rocham- 
beau. Great was the joy and great were the hopes inspired by this 
event ; but the British naval force was still the greatest ; and both the 
French fleet and army were for some time prevented from aiding the 
Americans, by being blocked up at Rhode Island. 

This year is memorable in the annals of the war, for the treachery 
of General Arnold, and the sad fate of Major Andre. Arnold was in 
command of the important fortress of West Point, and engaged to betray 
it into the hands of the enemy. Major Andre was the agent employed 
by the British general in conducting the negotiation. The plot was 
discovered ; Arnold fled to the British, and Andre was taken and hung 
as a spy. 

The campaign of 1781 was opened by an inauspicious event, the re- 
volt of the Pennsylvania line-of-the-army, occasioned by want of pay, 
clothing, and provisions. Their grievances were considerately exam- 
ined and redressed by congress, and the mutiny subsided. 

Virginia was meanwhile suffering from the marauding incursions of 
the British, commanded by the traitor Arnold. 

In the south. General Greene succeeded General Gates. Lord Corn- 
wallis was preparing to invade North Carolina, but unwilling to leave 
an enemy in his rear, sent Colonel Tarleton to engage General Morgan, 
whom Greene had put in command of one division of his army, and sta- 
tioned in the western part of South Carolina. They met at Cowpens, 
on the 17th of January, and more than one thousand of the choicest 
veterans of the British army were defeated by scarcely five hundred 
Americans, chiefly militia. This was the most brilliant affair of the 
war. 

Hereupon Lord Cornwallis went in pursuit of Greene, who evaded 
him until the 8th of March, when, having received a reinforcement, he 
marched against the British, and a general engagement took place at 
Guilford Courthouse, which was decided in favor of the enemy. Gen- 
eral Greene then led his forces to South Carolina, to attack Lord Raw- 
don at Camden. A battle was fought, March 25, and Greene was 
obliged to retreat. Meanwhile General Lee, with a detachment des- 



766 MODERN HISTORY. 

patched for that purpose, took possession of a post at Mottes, near the 
junction of the Santee and Congaree rivers. This led the British to 
evacuate Camden and their whole line of posts, except Ninety-six and 
Charleston. Not long after. Ninety-six was abandoned, and the British 
encamped at Eutaw Springs, forty miles from Charleston. Here, on 
the 8th of September following, an indecisive battle was fought. The 
British now retired to Charleston. 

After the battle of Guilford, Lord Cornwallis began his march to Vir- 
ginia, where he arrived on the 20th of May. General Lafayette hast- 
ened to oppose him, and to cut off the reinforcements which were march- 
ing to join him. In this he failed. Cornwallis's force now amounted 
to eight thousand men. Lafayette was obliged by inferiority of num- 
bers to avoid a battle, and continued to retreat, manoeuvring with great 
prudence and skill. Cornwallis at length retired to Yorktown, near the 
mouth of York river, and fortified himself there. 

The plan of the campaign, as first formed by Washington, had for its 
main project the siege of New York, in concert with a French fleet 
under Count de Grasse, expected to arrive in August. Being advised, 
however, that De Grasse would arrive at the Chesapeake, instead of 
New York, Washington changed his whole plan of operations, and 
began to move upon Yorktown with a combined force of Americans and 
French amounting to twelve thousand, while Count de Grasse with his 
fleet occupied the mouth of York river, and thus cut off the retreat of 
Cornwallis in that direction. 

The siege of Yorktown commenced on the 6th of October, and on 
the 19th Lord Cornwallis was obliged to capitulate, surrendering his 
whole force, amounting to seven thousand men, and one hundred and 
sixty pieces of artillery. 

With so much skill had Washington arranged his measures for with- 
drawing his army from New York, and combining his forces for the 
blockade of Yorktown, that Sir Henry Clinton, the British commander- 
in-chief, then at New York, did not suspect his designs till he was far 
on his way to Virginia. On the very day that Cornwallis surrendered, 
Clinton left New York with a reinforcement of seven thousand men ; and 
five days after, arrived off" the capes of Virginia. Receiving intelligence 
of the fate of Cornwallis, he returned to New York. 

This great and important victory filled the country with joy and ex- 
ultation. Congress passed resolutions of thanks to the generals, ofiicers, 
and soldiers, and went in procession to church to render solemn thanks 
to Almighty God : and appointed the 30ch of December as a festival of 
national thanksgiving. 

Thus ended the campaign of 1781, and with it the war was substan- 
tially ended. The British held a few posts of importance — New York, 
Charleston, and Savannah — but the country at large was wrested from 
their possession. 

On the 4th of March, 1782, the British house of commons passed a 
resolution that " the house would consider as enemies to his majesty 
and to the country all those who should advise or attempt the further 
prosecution of offensive war on the continent of North America." The 
government immediately appointed Sir Guy Carleton commander-in- 
chief, in place of Sir Henry Clinton. In obedience to his instructions, 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 767 

Sir Guy made advances for negotiations, but congress refused to nego- 
tiate except in concert with the French government. Not long after, at 
the instance of the French court, commissioners were appointed to ne- 
gotiate a peace. These were John Adams, Benjamin Frankhn, John 
Jay, and Henry Laurens. The commissioners on the part of England 
were Mr. Fitzherbert and Mr. Oswald. Provisional articles of peace 
were signed on the 30th of November, 1782. The definitive treaty was 
not signed until September 30, 1783. A formal proclamation of the 
cessation of hostilities was made to the army on the ]9tli of April, 1783. 
In July, the British evacuated Savannah ; in November, New York ; and 
in December, Charleston. 

On the 3d of November, the army of the United States was disband- 
ed ; and on the 23d of December, Washington appeared in person in 
the hall of congress, and resigned his commission as commander-in- 
chief. The moral grandeur of that act and of that scene is without par- 
allel in history. Washington concluded his address on that occasion 
as follows : — 

" I consider it an indispensable duty to close the last solemn act of 
my official life by commending the interests of our dearest country to 
the protection of Almighty God, and those who have the superintend- 
ence of them to his holy keeping. 

" Having now finished the work assigned to me, I retire from the 
great theatre of action ; and, bidding an affqctionate farewell to this 
august body, under whose orders I have long acted, I here offer my 
commission, and take my leave of all the employments of public life." 

Mr. Mitflin, president of congress, in behalf of that body, replied to 
this address, expressing their high sense of his wisdom and ability in 
the conduct of the war ; concluding in these words : — 
' '' We join you in commending the interests of our dearest country to 
the protection of Almighty God, beseeching him to dispose the hearts 
and minds of its citizens to improve the opportunity afforded them of 
becoming a happy and respectable nation. 

" And for you, we address to him our earnest prayer that a life so 
beloved may be fostered with all his care ; that your days may be as 
happy as they have been illustrious ; and that he will finally give you 
that reward which this world can not give." 

Well for the nation if it always remember the example and the lesson 
here presented ! 

During the war, the trade and commerce of the country were nearly 
destroyed. Agriculture was greatly interrupted and depressed ; but the 
necessity of providing articles which could no longer be imported, led 
to a greater progress in manufactures than at any former period. The 
population of the country at the close of the war was about three mil- 
lions and a quarter. 

Section III. — Constitutional History. 

The return of peace found the country burdened with more than forty 
millions of dollars of debt, due partly to foreign holders, and partly to 
the officers and soldiers of the revolutionary war. By the articles of 
confederation, under which the general government of the country had 



768 MODERN HISTORY. 

been carried on since 1777, congress had exclusive right to declare war, 
make peace, borrow money, issue bills of credit, and make requisitions 
upon the states for men and money : but it had no power to discharge 
the national debt. It could only recommend the states to raise money. 
Various plans were proposed, to redeem the credit of the country, among 
which was that of the states granting congress power to impose a duty 
oi five per cent, on foreign goods. But this was defeated by the oppo- 
sition of Rhode Island and New York. The interest of the public debt 
remained unpaid ; the certificates of it depreciated every day, and many 
of the poor officers and soldiers who held them were obliged to sell 
them for almost nothing. Some of the states made attempts to main- 
tain their credit ; Massachusetts imposed a heavy tax to this end, but it 
produced an armed insurrection (a. d. 1786), which was with some diffi- 
culty put down. 

lu this disturbed and distressed condition of affairs, it became obvi- 
ous that the common danger from foreign war being over, the confedera- 
tion was an insufficient basis for the government of the country. Ac- 
cordingly, in the month of May, 1787, a convention of delegates from 
all the states, except Rhode Island, assembled at Philadelphia, and after 
about four months' session, adopted the present constitution of the Uni- 
ted States, with a resolution that as soon as it should be ratified by nine 
states, it should be carried into operation by congress. July 14, 1788, 
ten states having acceded to it, it was declared ratified and adopted by 
congress. The other states subsequently assented to it : New York, 
July 26, 1788 ; North Carolina in November, 1789 ; and Rhode Island 
in May, 1790. 

George Washington was unanimously elected the first president 
under the new constitution : John Adams vice-president. The first con- 
gress assembled at New York, March 4, 1789 ; and on the 30th of April, 
Washington was inaugurated. The most important affairs pressed upon 
the attention of congress : the government was to be organized ; the ad- 
ministrative and judiciary departments to be established ; and a revenue 
to be provided. These measures occupied the first session of congress, 
which terminated on the 29th of September. 

The second session of the first congress began January 8, 1790. 
Agreeably to a plan submitted by Mr. Hamilton, secretary of the treas- 
ury, congress proceeded to make provision for discharging in full the 
foreign and domestic debt, and assumed also the debts incurred by the 
several states in carrying on the war. To this object the proceeds of 
the public lands lying in the western territory, the surplus revenue from 
the duties on imports, and a loan of two millions, were appropriated. 
This measure immediately restored public credit ; certificates of public 
debt rose to par ; and those who had purchased low, realized immense 
fortunes. Business of all kinds revived, and the country entered upon 
a career of prosperous activity and enterprise. 

At the next session of congress, after a protracted debate, a bill was 
passed imposing a tax on domestic spirits, for the purpose of paying the 
interest on the state debts assumed by the Union. A national bank was 
also established, not without opposition, mainly on the ground of its un- 
constitutionality. The party lines between the federalists and anti- 
federalists (as they were called), which had begun to appear when the 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES OP AMBIIICA. 769 

. adoption of the new constitution was under discussion, became this 
session more broad and clear. A regular opposition to the administra- 
tion began to be organized. 

Meantime the hostilities of the Indians northwest of the Ohio made 
it necessary to send an expedition against them. General Harmar was 
put in command, but he was defeated with considerable loss in a battle 
near Chilicothe. General St. Clair, who succeeded in command, was 
also totally defeated. A bill then passed congress for raising an addi- 
tional force to the army. The measure was bitterly resisted by the op- 
position, chiefly on the ground that standing armies were dangerous, and 
that the proposed increase showed the existence of monarchical designs 
on the part of the administration. An unsuccessful attempt was made 
the next session to reduce the military establishment ; and the opposi- 
tion introduced various resolutions, evincing their hostility to the admin- 
istration. The public press became also the vehicle of vehement attacks, 
particularly upon the secretary of the treasury, Mr. Hamilton ; and party 
spirit, from day to day, grew stronger throughout the country. 

On the expiration of his first term of office, Washington was never- 
theless unanimously re-elected president, March, 1793 ; Mr. Adams 
again vice-president. Beside the still unsettled condition of Indian af- 
fairs, this term of Washington's administration was embarrassed by new 
difiiculties, growing out of the French revolution. The French republic 
had just declared war against England and Holland ; and so strong in 
the United States was the hatred of the people to the British, and so 
lively their sympathy with the French, that the opinion was entertained 
in many quarters that America was bound by every consideration, both 
of gratitude to an old ally, and sympathy with the cause of republican- 
ism, to make common cause with France. 

Immediately on receiving intelligence of the declaration of war, Wash- 
ington convened a cabinet council, and by their unanimous advice, issued 
a proclamation, enjoining strict neutrality to be observed on the part of 
the United States toward the belligerant powers, April 22, 1793. The 
opposition (anti-federalist) party, through the press, bitterly inveighed 
against this proclamation, denouncing it as a high-handed assumption 
of power on the part of the president, " a royal edict," evincing his mon- 
archical disposition, and also as dishonorable and ungrateful toward 
France. 

In this state of things, Mr. Genet, the new minister appointed by the 
French republic, arrived in the coi^try, with the object of engaging the 
co-operation of the United States against England. Misled by the flat- 
tering reception he met with at Charleston, where he landed, he imme- 
diately began, even before he had been recognised as minister, to excite 
the people against the government ; and carried his audacity so far, as to 
set at defiance the proclamation of neutrality, fitting out expeditions, and 
giving commissions to American vessels to cruise against the enemies 
of France, and assuming the power to hold admiralty courts, for the trial 
and sale of prizes thus made. In these measures he was supported by 
the opposition, or as it began to be called, the democratic party, which 
now began, under the influence of the French minister, and in imitation 
of the afixliated clubs in France, to form democratic societies throughout 
the country. 

49 



770 MODERN HISTORY. 

Washington demanded the recall of Mr. Genet, The French govern- 
ment complied, and instructed his successor to express its entire disap- 
proval of Genet's conduct. 

When congress assembled in December following, the proclamation 
of neutrality, and the conduct of Washington toward Genet, were ap- 
proved by that body, as they were finally by the great body of the 
nation. 

1794. Congress this year passed a bill providing for a naval force 
lo protect American commerce against the Algerines. The slave-trade 
was likewise prohibited. 

There seemed now reason to apprehend the necessity of another war 
with England. In addition to severe and unjust commercial restrictions 
imposed by that government, she had proceeded to capture and condemn 
neutral vessels having on board French goods, or carrying corn and other 
supplies to France. In anticipation of a war, congress passed several 
bills — for imposing an embargo ; for organizing the militia ; and for in- 
creasing the standing army. Meanwhile information was received that 
the British government was disposed to redress the grievances com- 
plained of, and amicably adjust all differences. John Jay was accord- 
ingly nominated and approved as envoy to Great Britain. 

All attempts to make peace with the Indians having failed, the war 
was renewed. General Wayne was appointed to succeed General St. 
Clair. On the 20th of August, he gained a decisive victory over a large 
body of the Miamies, and then proceeded to lay waste their country. 
This victory prevented a general war with the Six Nations and with 
the tribes northwest of the Ohio. 

The " Whiskey Insurrection" in Pennsylvania is one of the events of 
this year. It grew out of the duty on domestic spirits ; this tax pressed 
heavily on the inhabitants of the west, and was besides considered un- 
just in principle. The proclamation of the president being disregarded, 
a considerable force of militia (fifteen thousand men), under Governor 
Lee of Maryland, was ordered out. On their approach, the insurgents 
laid down their arms, and promised submission to the laws. 

1795. This year Mr. Jay having concluded a treaty of amity, com- 
merce, and navigation, with Great Britain, the senate was convoked to 
consider it. Meanwhile, its contents ha\'ing been disclosed, the most 
violent opposition was made to it ; public meetings were held, and peti- 
tions against it were sent from all quarters of the country. The parti- 
sans of France and the enemies of •England denounced it in the most 
unmeasured terms. The objections to it " were, generally, that it wanted 
reciprocity ; that it gave up all compensation for negroes carried away 
contrary to the treaty of peace, and for the detention of the western 
posts ; that it contravened the French treaty, and sacrificed the interest 
of our ally to that of Great Britain ; that it gave up in several important 
instances the law of nations, particularly in relation to free ships making 
free goods, cases of blockade, and contraband of war ; that it improperly 

interfered with the legislative powers of congress and that the 

commercial part gave few advantages to the United States."* The 
treaty was, however, ratified by the senate, and signed by the president, 
August 14, 1795. 

• Pitkin, Civil History of the United States. 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 771 

In October, after a long negotiation, a treaty was made with Spain, 
settling some questions of bomidary, and acquiring for the United States 
the right of navigating the Mississippi. Treaties were also concluded 
with Algiers, and with the Indians in the west. 

1796. On the assembling of congress this year, it became necessary 
to make appropriations and pass resolutions for carrying these treaties 
into effect. This gave occasion for a new display of hostility to the 
British treaty ; and it was only after a debate of seven weeks, that the 
necessary resolutions passed the house of representatives, and then only 
by a majority of three. Public opinion at length gradually settled in 
favor of this treaty, as the only means of saving the country from be- 
coming involved in the wars of the French revolution ; and in the sequel 
it proved of great advantage to the United States. 

The close of the second term of Washington's administration was now 
approaching. Signifying his intention to retire from public life, the 
Father of his country took occasion to issue a farewell address to his 
countrymen, replete with maxims of political wisdom, and sentiments 
of patriotism and virtue. If anything in this incomparable document 
may be signalized, where all should be profoundly weighed, the conclu- 
sion may justly claini attention: "Of all the dispositions and habits 
which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indis- 
pensable supports Whatever maybe conceded to the influence 

of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experi- 
ence both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclu- 
sion of religious principle .''^ This was said, let it be considered, at a time 
when the infidel spirit, the sneering spirit, of French atheism, was fash- 
ionable, almost the prevailing spirit, among the higher classes through- 
out the land. 

The personal influence of Washington, due alike to his wisdom, his 
virtues, and his eminent services, was of the utmost importance in the 
first working of the new government. During the eight years of his 
administration, all differences with foreign nations had been peaceably 
settled, except those with France ; and at home the Indian tribes had 
been pacified. " Public and private credit was restored ; ample provis- 
ion made for the security and ultimate payment of the public debt ; 
American tonnage had nearly doubled ; the exports had increased from 
nineteen to more than fifty-six millions of dollars ; the imports in about 
the same proportion ; and the amount of revenue from imposts had ex- 
ceeded the most sanguine calculations."* The population had increased 
from three and a half to five millions ; and agriculture and all the indus- 
trial interests of the country were in a flourishing state. 

The only drawback to this picture of prosperity were the difficulties 
with France. Discontented at the neutral policy of America, the French 
republic continued to make demands upon the gratitude of the United 
States, which could be yielded to only by surrendering the right of self- 
government. Finding all attempts to involve America in its wars with 
Europe ineffectual, and feeling aggrieved at the treaty with its enemy, 
the French government proceeded to retaliate, by adopting certain reso- 
lutions injurious to American commerce, under the operation of which, 
■moreover, several hundred American vessels were seized and confis- 

• Pitkia. 



772 MODERN HISTORY. 

cated. Just before his retirement from office, Washington had recalled 
Mr. Monroe, and despatched Mr. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney to 
France, as minister plenipotentiary, to settle the difficulties between the 
two nations. 

Such was the state of the country at the close of Washington's ad- 
ministration. 

On the 4th of March, 1797, John Adams became president. The 
French republic refusing to receive Mr. Pinckney ; a subsequent mis- 
sion extraordinary to that government having also totally failed ; and 
spoliations upon American commerce continually increasing ; congress 
began to adopt vigorous measures for defence and retaliation. The 
treaties with France were declared no longer obligatory on the United 
States ; an army was raised ; and Washington was appointed comman- 
der-in-chief. Several engagements at sea took place between French 
and American vessels. The French government now signified indi- 
rectly a willingness to treat, and envoys were again sent from the Uni- 
ted States. Before their arrival, the revolution of the 18th Brumaire 
(November 10, 1799) had taken place ; the directorial government was 
overthrown, and Bonaparte was at the head of affairs as first consul. 
This event changed the policy of the French government ; negotiations 
were commenced, and a treaty was concluded September 30, 1800. 

On the 14th of December, 1799, died George Washington, mourned 
by the nation as no other man was ever mourned by any people. There 
have been great men superior perhaps to him in particular qualities and 
endowments : but in the perfect proportion and harmony of all the quali- 
ties of his nature, intellectual and moral, in the entireness and unity of 
his character, he is distinguished above all the great men whom history 
presents to our contemplation. In this consisted the secret of the re- 
pose, dignity, and grandeur, that through his whole life made so strong 
an impression upon all who approached him, and gave him such power 
over them. 

Party spirit ran high during Mr. Adams's administration. Its meas- 
ures were violently assailed by the opposition, particularly the " alien" 
and "sedition" laws : by the former of which, any alien considered dan- 
gerous might be ordered to depart from the country ; and by the latter, 
combinations to oppose the government, libellous publications, &c., were 
made penal. The unpopularity of these and some other measures gave 
great strength to the democratic party, and defeated the re-election of 
Mr. Adams. 

On the 4th of March, 1801, Thomas Jefferson succeeded Mr. Ad- 
ams as president of the United States. 

At the next session of congress, several of the most important acts 
of the preceding period were repealed, particularly those imposing inter- 
nal taxes, and reorganizing the United States courts. 

Among the most important events of this period was the purchase of 
Louisiana from the French for fifteen millions of dollars. 

Mr. Jefferson's term of office expiring, he was re-elected, and com- 
menced a second term, March 4, 1805. The same year a war, which 
had been carried on for several years with Tripoli, was brought to a 
close by a treaty of peace. 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 773 

The close of the year 1806 is marked by the explosion of Aaron 
Burr's plot for revolutionizing the western and southwestern territory. 
This ambitious and unprincipled man was engaged in the western coun- 
try ostensibly with the purpose of settling a tract of country on the 
Washita, in Louisiana ; but the nature of his preparations, the character 
of the men he was collecting, &c., excited suspicions — which the in- 
discreet disclosures of some of his associates confirmed — that his real 
object was to seize New Orleans, and establish himself at the head of 
a new empire in the southwestern territory of the United States ; or, 
failing that, in Mexico. He was seized and brought to trial the next 
year, but no overt act being in proof against him, he was discharged. 
He was, however, generally believed to be guilty ; and under the odium 
thus incurred, joined with that which attached to him for his murderous 
duel with General Hamilton in 1804, he sunk to abject contempt and 
wretchedness. 

The interests of the United States were now becoming complicated 
with policy of the belligerant powers of Europe. The peace of Amiens 
(a. d. 1802) gave but a short repose from war; hostilities were soon 
renewed between France and England, and all the powers of Europe 
became involved in them. The United States maintained a strict neu- 
trality, and engaged in an extensive and profitable carrying-trade. 

But in 1806, the English government, by an orrfsr q/' com/ic«7, declared 
the blockade of all the ports and rivers from the Elbe to Brest. Napo- 
leon retaliated by the famous " Berlin decree^'' declaring all the British 
islands in a state of blockade. This was met by another British order 
of council, prohibiting all coasting-trade with France. 

While these measures, which were partly in contravention of the law 
of nations, operated very injuriously upon the commerce of America, 
and tended to embroil her with both the belligerant powers, an old diffi- 
culty with England was aggravated by a special outrage. Great Britain 
had always claimed the right of searching American vessels, and of 
impressing from them native-born British subjects. They had also im- 
pressed some thousands of Ainerican seamen, under the pretext that 
they were British born. In this course the English government per- 
sisted in spite of the remonstrances of the United States. In June, 1807, 
Commodore Barron, commanding the American frigate Chesapeake, re- 
fusing to deliver three men claimed by the British, the Chesapeake was 
attacked by the British frigate Leopard off the capes of Virginia, very 
much injured and crippled, and the men in question forcibly taken away. 

The public mind was greatly exasperated by this outrage. The pres- 
ident, by proclamation, ordered all British armed vessels off the waters 
of the United States, until satisfaction should be made, which the Amer- 
ican minister, Mr. Monroe, was instructed to demand forthwith, as well 
as security against future impressments from American vessels. The 
British government declined to treat concerning the general question of 
search and impressment, but sent a special envoy to the United States, 
to settle the particular injury in the case of the Chesapeake. Mr. Rose 
was instructed, however, not to treat until the president's proclamation 
was revoked. This being refused, the matter rested ; and was not 
finally adjusted until four years later, when satisfactory reparation was 
made by the British government. 



774 MODERN HISTORY. 

Meantime, on the 17th of December, 1807, Bonaparte, in retaliation 
for the British order in council, issued " the Milan decree." declaring 
every vessel denationalized that should submit to search by the British, 
and every vessel a good prize taken sailing to or from Great Britain or 
its colonies, or any place occupied by British troops. 

The embargo failing to compel the belligerant powers to revoke meas- 
ures so injurious to American commerce, and so subversive of the rights 
of neutrals, it was repealed on the 1st of March, 1809, and a law passed 
prohibiting all trade and intercourse with France and England. 

Mr. Jefferson declining a re-election, was succeeded, March 4, 1809, 
by James Madison. 

The state of the country was gloomy. Her commerce was sufTering 
both from foreign and domestic restrictions ; and it seemed that she must 
indefinitely submit to this condition of things, or make war with the 
belligerants. 

In passing the non-intercourse act of March 1, congress had empow- 
ered the president to repeal it by proclamation in regard to either of the 
hostile parties revoking their edicts. The British minister at Washing- 
ton engaged for his government the repeal of the orders of council, so 
far as the United States were concerned. The president accordingly 
notified the renewal of commercial intercourse with Great Britain. But 
the English government disavowed the engagement of its minister, and 
non-intercourse was again proclaimed. 

On the 23d of March, 1810, Napoleon retaliated the non-intercourse 
act of congress by issuing the '• Ramboui'let dfcree" — ordering all ves- 
sels arriving in French ports, or the ports of countries occupied by 
French troops, to be seized and condemned. On the 1st of May, con- 
gress passed an act excluding British and French armed vessels from 
the waters of the United States — with a provision for renewing inter- 
course with whichever nation should within a given time cease to violate 
the commercial rights of neutral nations. In consequence of this act, 
the French decrees were revoked, and intercourse with France was 
renewed. 

It had been made a condition on the part of the French government, 
in revoking its decrees, that the English orders of council should be 
also revoked. But England, affecting to question the fact of the actual 
revocation of the French decrees, continued to enforce its orders, sta- 
tioning vessels-of-war just out the harbors of the United States, searching, 
and in many instances capturing and condemning American merchant- 
vessels. In the period between 1803 and the close of 1811, nine hun- 
dred American vessels had been thus captured. 

On the 3d of April, 1812, an act was passed by congress laying an 
embargo for ninety days on all vessels within the jurisdiction of the 
United States. And on the 4th of June following, war was declared 
against Great Britain. The grounds of war alleged were the impress- 
ment of American seamen, and the violation of neutral rights. 

The feeling of the nation was by no means unanimous in favor of the 
war. It was protested against by a strong minority in congress, as un- 
necessary, impolitic, and immoral ; and was generally condemned by 
the federal party throughout the country. 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 775 

Thus the United States were again at war with England. The con- 
test lasted for nearly three years. The limits of this history forbid any- 
thing but a slight sketch of its events. 

In the campaign of 1812, nothing of any importance was achieved 
by land. The invasion of Canada was planned : forces were drawn to 
the northern frontier of the Union, and naval preparations made upon 
the lakes. No footing was, however, gained in the British territory ; on 
the contrary, Detroit and all the forts and garrisons in Michigan fell into 
the hands of the British, together with a considerable force under the 
command of General Hull, who surrendered without a battle, August 
19 ; and the Americans were repulsed in an attack on Queenstown, and 
obliged to surrender, October 13. 

But on the ocean the American arms were more successful. The 
series of brilliant naval victories which distinguished the war was com- 
menced by the capture of the British frigate Guerriere by the Constitu- 
tion, Captain Isaac Hull, August 10. This was followed (August 13) 
by the capture of the Alert by the Essex, Captain Porter ; of the Frolic 
by the Wasp {October 17) ; of the Macedonian by the United States, 
Commodore Decatur (October 25) ; and of the Java by the Constitution, 
then commanded by Commodore Bainbridge. 

On the 4tk of March, 1813, Mr. Madison was re-elected presi- 
dent. 

The military operations of this year extended along the whole line 
of the northern frontier. The Americans were signally defeated at 
Frenchtown by a body of British and Indians, and five hundred men 
made prisoners, Avho were nearly all massacred by the Indians after 
their surrender. York (now Toronto), the capital of Upper Canada, 
was taken by the Americans, with a large quantity of military stores. 

On the 1st of June, this year, the American navy suffered a severe 
loss in the capture of the frigate Chesapeake, Captain Lawrence, by the 
British frigate Shannon. In the engagement. Captain Lawrence and 
several brave officers were kiUed. This was followed (August 14) by 
the loss of the Argus. 

These losses were counterbalanced by the capture of the British brig 
Boxer by the Enterprise, on the 5th of September, and by a brilliant 
victory gained (September 10) by the fleet on Lake Erie, under the 
command of Commodore Perry. This made the Americans masters of 
the lake, and opened the way to Detroit, which was soon after taken ; 
its fall being preceded by the battle of the Thames, in which the British 
and Indian forces, under the command of General Proctor, were totally 
defeated by General Harrison. This victory had the effect of putting 
an end to the Indian, war in the northwest, and of giving security to that 
frontier. 

The invasion of Canada was again attempted ; but unexpected cir- 
cumstances concurred to disarrange the plan of operations, and at length 
the northern army went into winter-quarters, without having effected 
anything toward the accomplishment of the object. High expectations 
had been formed of the success of this campaign, and the public disap- 
pointment was proportionably great. 

At the south, the Creek Indians, instigated by the British, had taken 
up arms against the United States, and a sanguinary war was carried on 



776 MODERN HISTORY. 

in that quarter during the year 1813, and until in the summer of 1814, 
when General Jackson, having reduced the enemy in several engage- 
ments, at length inflicted upon them an almost exterminating defeat at 
Horseshoe Bend. The remnant of the tribe submitted, and the war was 
at an end. General Jackson was soon after appointed to the command 
of the forces at New Orleans. 

In the spring of 1814, the American frigate Essex was captured by a 
superior British force in the bay of Valparaiso. But about the same 
time, the British brigs Epervier and Reindeer were captured, the former 
by the United States sloop-of-war Peacock, the latter by the sloop 
Wasp. 

After some ineffectual movements at the north by General Wilkinson, 
little was attempted by either nation until midsummer, when the British 
government, freed from the burden of the European war by the abdica- 
tion of Napoleon, augmented their armies in America by the addition 
of fourteen thousand of the veteran troops of Wellington, and at the 
same time sent a strong naval force to blockade the harbors, and ravage 
the towns upon the coast. 

On the 3d of July, General Brown crossed the Niagara river from 
Buffalo, and took the British fort Erie ; and on the 4th, after an obsti- 
nate and bloody engagement, gained a victory over the British at Chippe- 
wa. On the 25th, was fought the battle of Bridgewater, near the falls 
of Niagara, one of the most bloody battles of modern times. The Brit- 
ish force amounted to nearly five thousand men ; the American was one 
third less. The loss of the English was eight hundred and seventy- 
eight ; of the Americans, eight hundred and sixty. The Americans 
were left in possession of the field. 

About the middle of August, a large British fleet arrived in the Ches- 
apeake bay. Six thousand men, under the command of General Ross, 
landed and proceeded to Washington, burnt the capitol, the president's 
house, and the buildings of the executive departments ; and then by 
rapid marches retired to the ships, having lost about one thousand men 
in the expedition. 

On the 12th of September, an attack was made on Baltimore ; but 
the place was so gallantly defended by militia and the inhabitants, that 
the enemy abandoned the attempt. General Ross, the commander-in- 
chief of the British forces, was among the killed. 

While the English were thus repulsed from Baltimore, signal success 
attended the American arms at the north. The naval force of the ene- 
my on Lake Champlain was annihilated by Commodore M'Donough. 
The engagement took place off Plattsburgh ; and while it was raging-, 
Sir George Provost, with a force of fourteen thousand men, commenced 
an assault on the American works at Plattsburgh : but he met with such 
a destructive fire from the Americans imder General Macomb, that he 
was compelled to retire, with the loss of twenty-five hundred men, aban- 
doning his military stores, his sick and wounded. 

The close of the year 1814 is memorable in the annals of the coun- 
try on account of the celebrated Hartford convention. The federal 
party, as has been said, was from the first opposed to the war, as 
unjust and impolitic. The opposition was particularly strong in the 
New England states. As the war advanced, the opposition became 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMEEICA. 777 

still more decided, and serious apprehensions were expressed that the 
measures of the general government would involve the country in ruin. 
The opposition was aggravated by a misunderstanding between the gov- 
ernors of those states and the president in relation to the requisitions 
made by the latter for the militia to be placed under the command of 
officers of his appointment. Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Con- 
necticut, were at this time unprotected by any national troops against 
the enemy's forces hovering on the coast. 

In this state of things, a convention of delegates from the New Eng- 
land states met at Hartford on the 15th of December, 1814 ; and after a 
session of three weeks, published a statement of grievances, and recom- 
mendations for redress. "The convention recommended — 1. That the 
states they represent take measures to protect their citizens from ' forcible 
drafts, conscriptions, or impressments, not authorized by the constitu- 
tion of the United States ;' 2. That an earnest application be made to 
the government of the United States, requesting their consent to some 
arrangement, whereby the states separately, or in concert, may assume 
upon themselves the defence of their territory against the enemy, and 
that a reasonable portion of the taxes collected within the states be ap- 
propriated to this object ; 3. That the several governors be authorized 
by law to employ the military force under their command in assisting 
any state requesting it to repel the invasions of the public enemy ; 4. 
That several amendments of the constitution of the United States, cal- 
culated in their view to prevent a recurrence of the evils of which they 
complain, be proposed by the states they represent for adoption .....; 
5. Lastly, that if the application of these states to the government of 
the United States should be unsuccessful, and peace should not be con- 
cluded, and the defence of these states be still neglected, it woitld, in 
their opinion, be expedient for the legislatures of the several states to 
appoint delegates to another convention, to meet at Boston, in June, 
with such powers as the exigency of a crisis so momentous may re- 
quire. 

" The effect upon the public mind in the aggrieved states was alike 

seasonable and salutary served greatly to allay the passions, and 

to inspire confidence and hope. Nor was the influence of this body 
upon the national councils less perceptible. Within three weeks after 
the adjournment of the convention, and the publication of their report, 
an act passed both houses of the national legislature, and received the 
signature of the president, authorizing and requiring him to ' receive 
into the service of the United States any corps of troops which may 
have been or may be raised, organized, and officered, under the author- 
ity of any of the states,' to be ' employed in the state raising the same, 
or an adjoining state, and not elsewhere, except with the consent of the 
executive of the state raising the same.' Before the commissioners who 
were sent to confer with the government could reach Washington, a bill 
passed the senate, providing for the payment of the troops and militia 
already called into service under the authority of the states. The arri- 
val of the treaty of peace, at this juncture, arrested all further proceed- 
ings."* 

While the Hartford convention was in session, on the 24th of De- 
* Holmes's Aanals. 



778 MODERN HISTORY. 

cember, a treaty of peace was signed at Ghent. But before its arrival, 
the last and most memorable battle of the war was fought at New Or- 
leans. On the 8th of January, 1815, the American forces, amounting to 
about six thousand, chiefly militia, under the command of General Jack- 
son, intrenched before the city, were attacked hy fifteen thousand British 
troops, commanded by Sir Edward Packenham. After three charges, 
in which they were swept down with incredible slaughter, the British 
fled in confusion, leaving their dead and wounded on the field of battle. 
General Packenham was killed while rallying his troops to the second 
charge ; General Gibbs, who succeeded in command, fell mortally 
wounded in the third charge. The loss of the British in killed was 
seven hundred ; in wounded, fourteen hundred ; in prisoners, five hun- 
dred : in all, twenty-six hundred. The Americans lost seven killed and 
six wounded. 

The joy excited by this victory was merged in the still livelier joy 
with which the news of the treaty of peace was soon after received. 
On the 17th of February, the treaty was ratified by the president and 
senate. This treaty made no allusion to the causes of the war, and set- 
tled none of the matters in dispute, and for which it was professedly 
declared. All parties, however, welcomed the return of peace. At a 
subsequent convention, signed by plenipotentiaries of the two countries 
appointed for the purpose, various articles for the regulation of com- 
merce between England and the United States were adopted. 

Before the expiration of the time, within which, by the treaty, all 
vessels taken by either party were to be held good prizes, several en- 
gagements at sea were fought, and several captures made. Among 
them the American frigate President was captured by a British squad- 
ron ; and the British ships Cyane, Levant, and Penguin, were taken by 
the Americans. 

At the next session of congress, a bill was passed incorporating the 
" bank of the United States,''^ with a capital of thirty-five millions of dol- 
lars. The charter was to continue in force until the 3d of March, 1836. 
This measure was the subject of a very earnest and protracted debate, 
both as to its constitutionality, and as to the principles on which the 
bank should be established. 

Mr. Madison was succeeded in the office of president by James 
Monroe, March 4, 1817. 

The country was now at peac.e, but its condition was by no means 
prosperous. Commerce had not yet revived, and the manufactures 
which had been carried on during the war were entirely broken dowa 
by the influx of foreign merchandise. 

In 1818, a war broke out between the Seminoles and the United 
States, occasioned by the removal of some Indians from lands ceded to 
the United States by the Creeks in 1814. The Indians were entirely 
subdued by General Jackson. 

In 1819, another convention was made between Great Britain and 
the United States, granting to American citizens the right to fish on the 
banks of Newfoundland ; establishing a portion of the northern bounda- 
ry ; and extending for ten years longer the commercial convention con- 
cluded four years before. 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 779 

A treaty was also this year concluded with Spain, by which East 
and West Florida, with the islands adjacent, were ceded to the United 
States. 

On the 4th of March, 1821, Mr. Monroe was unanimously elected to 
a second term of office. Much less unanimity, however, was displayed 
in the deliberations of the next congress. Some important commercial 
acts were passed ; revolutionary soldiers were provided for by pensions ; 
and the ratio of population and representation fixed at one representa- 
tive to forty thousand inhabitants. 

The year 1824 is signalized in the annals of the country by a visit 
from La Fayette, the friend and companion-in-arms of Washington, to 
whose services in the dark day of the revolutionary war the nation 
owed so much. He passed about a year in the country, visiting every 
part of it, and receiving everywhere the most enthusiastic tokens of 
homage and gratitude. He returned to his own country in a national 
frigate prepared for the purpose, and named, in honor of him, the Bran- 
dyuiine — the name of the battle in which he was wounded nearly fifty 
years before. During his visit, congress appropriated two hundred 
thousand dollars, and a township of land in Florida, as an acknowledg- 
ment of his eminent services. 

Mr. Monroe retired from office with the respect and good will of all 
parties. His administration of affairs, both foreign and domestic, had 
been uninfluenced by party spirit, and characterized by uprightness, 
prudence, and good sense. The country was everywhere peaceful and 
prosperous. 

No choice of a successor to Mr. Monroe having been made by the 
electors, the choice devolved upon the house of representatives. 

On the 4th of March, 1825, John Quincy Adams was inaugurated 
president of the United States. 

Among the noticeable events during this administration, the first to 
be mentioned is a controversy between the general government and the 
executive of Georgia, in relation to certain lands held by the Cherokees 
and Creeks in that state. The general government had agreed to ex- 
tinguish, for the benefit of Georgia, the Indian title to those lands — ■ 
" whenever it could be peaceably done, upon reasonable terms." But 
the Creeks, at a national council, refused to alienate their territory. Af- 
ter the council had broken up, and a majority of the chiefs had departed, 
a few who remained were induced to make a treaty, ceding the lands 
in question to the United States. This treaty was repudiated by the 
Creek nation. But the governor of Georgia determined to act upon it 
as valid. To prevent a war, the president ordered General Gaines to 
repair to the Creek country, for the protection of the Indians ; and di- 
rected Governor Troup of Georgia to suspend his intended measures. 
Congress approved the course of the president ; and at length a treaty 
was formed with the Creeks, which gave satisfaction to all parties ex- 
cept the state of Georgia. 

The fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence (July 4, 
1826) was rendered memorable by the death of ex-presidents Adams 
and Jefferson. 

The most important among the measures which occupied the first 



780 MODERN HISTORY. 

session of the twentieth cpngress, was the revision of the tariff, with a 
view to afford protection to American manufactures. The principle of 
a protective tariff was warmly opposed by the south, and by a large 
portion of the commercial body at the north ; while the details of the 
bill which was passed were far from satisfactory to the friends of pro- 
tection. 

During the last year of Mr. Adams's administration, the most absorb- 
ing subject of public interest was the approaching election ; and never 
before had party spirit displayed itself in such virulent and unjustifiable 
attacks upon private life and character. Mr. Adams was defeated. Du- 
ring his administration the prosperity of the United States had increased 
to an unexampled height. Agriculture, commerce, and manufactures, 
were everywhere flourishing. The public debt, which at the close of 
the war, amounted to nearly one hundred and fifty millions of dollars, 
was almost extinguished. The annual revenue largely exceeded the 
demands of government ; and at the close of Mr. Adams's term, there 
was a surplus of more than five millions in the treasury. 

On the 4th of March, 1829, Andrew Jackson was inaugurated pres- 
ident of the United States. 

The new president signalized his accession to office by a sweeping 
removal from office of the functionaries of the general government ap- 
pointed by his predecessors. Besides the principal officers of the treas- 
ury, marshals, district attorneys, revenue and land officers, nearly five 
hundred postmasters were removed from office. During Mr. Adams's 
administration there were but two removals, both for cause.* 

Among the most important measures which engaged the attention of 
the twenty-first congress, were, the modification of the tariff; Indian 
affairs ; internal improvements ; and the renewal of the charter of the 
United States bank. 

It was not until 1832 that a memorial came before congress for a re- 
newal of the charter of the United States bank. A bill to that effect passed 
both houses of congress ; but on the 10th of July it was returned by the 
president with objections. 

The policy of making appropriations for internal improvements was 
adopted during Mr. Jefferson's term of office, and had continued through 
all the succeeding administrations. To this policy General Jackson 
was opposed, and accordingly returned, with his veto, several bills ma- 
king such appropriations. 

In 1832, the hostility of the south to the protective tariff assumed in 
South Carolina an attitude dangerous to the peace of the country. A 
convention of delegates assembled at Columbia, November 24 ; pro- 
nounced the acts of congress imposing duties for protection unconstitu- 
tional, and of no binding force in that state ; and that it was the duty of 
the state legislature to pass laws to prevent the payment or enforcement 
of such duties. The remedy thus proposed received the name of nulli- 
jication. 

President Jackson immediately issued a proclamation, containing an 

• Washington removed from office nine ; John Adams, ten ; Jefferson, thirty-nine ; 
Madison, five ; Monroe, nine .- making, with the two removed by John Q. Adams, 
seventy-four in all. 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 781 

admirable exposition of the principles and powers of the general gov- 
ernment, and expressing a firm determination to maintain the laws. 
This only increased the exasperation in South Carolina : the governor 
of the state, by the authority of the legislature, issued a counter-procla- 
mation, urging the people to be faithful to their primary allegiance to the 
state, and to resist the general government in any attempt to enforce the 
tariff laws. General orders were also issued to raise volunteers for re- 
pelling invasion, and supporting the rights of the state. 

General Jackson hereupon addressed a message to congress, recom- 
mending such measures as would enable the executive to suppress the 
spirit of insubordination, and sustain the laws of the United States. 

Everything thus betokened a civil war. But an appeal to South 
Carolina by the general assembly of Virginia, and the passage of a bill 
modifying the tariff (introduced by Henry Clay, and commonly known 
as the " compromise act"), joined with the manifestation of firmness 
and energy on the part of the executive, served to allay the ferment in 
South Carolina, and lead to a repeal of the nullifying ordinances. 

On the 4th of March, 1833, Andrew Jackson entered on a second 
term of office. 

The charter of the United States bank being about to expire, the 
president, who had before expressed to congress his doubts of the ex- 
pediency of continuing that institution the depositary of the funds of the 
United States, directed the secretary of the treasury, Mr. Duane, to 
remove the government " deposites" from the bank. This Mr. Duane 
declined to do. He was immediately removed from office by the presi- 
dent ; and Mr. Taney was appointed in his place, by whom the depos- 
ites were removed, and placed in the custody of several state banks. 
This measure was strongly censured by a resolution which passed the 
senate, June 9, 1834, 

The country was now disturbed with serious apprehensions of a col- 
lision with France. By a treaty, negotiated in 1831, by Mr. Rives, the 
French government had agreed to make indemnity for spoliations com- 
mitted on American commerce during the reign 6f Napoleon ; but it had 
failed to fulfil its stipulations. In December, 1834, the president rec- 
ommended reprisals upon French commerce. This was deemed by 
congress not expedient at present. Happily, however, ihe danger of 
hostile collision was removed in the course of the next year by the 
action of the French government in making provision to fulfil its stipu- 
lations. 

The most important act of the first session of the twenty -fourth con- 
gress, which began December 7, 1835, was a law directing the depos- 
ite, under certain regulations, of the moneys of the United States in 
several of the state banks, and distributing the surplus revenue among 
the several states. 

In December, 1835, one of the most destructive fires on record oc- 
curred in the city of New York. The amount of property destroyed is 
computed not to have fallen much short of twenty millions of dollars, 
without estimating the injury and' loss from suspension and derangement 
of business. 

Near the close of this year, the Seminole Indians, refusing to remove 



782 MODERN HISTORY. 

from Florida to the lands appropriated for them west of the Mississippi, 
the country became involved in a war with them ; and it was not until 
1842 that they were finally subdued and sent west. 

On the 11th of July, 1836, the receivers of public money were in- 
structed, by a circular from the treasury department, to receive nothing 
but gold and silver in payment for public lands. 

On the 16th of January, 1837, the " expunging resolution" (so called) 
introduced by Mr. Benton, passed the senate by a small majority. By 
this act, the resolution of the senate passed June 9, 1834 — censuring 
the president for removing Mr. Duane, and ordering the withdrawal of 
the United States deposites from the bank of the United States — was 
expunged from the journal of the senate. Against this proceeding, Mr. 
Webster, of Massachusetts, in behalf of himself and his colleagues, read 
a solemn protest. 

On the 4th of March, 1837, Martin Van Buren became president 
of the United States. 

Mr. Van Buren's administration was, in its general policy, a continu- 
ation of that of his predecessor. Scarcely, however, had he entered 
upon office, when the country was overwhelmed by one of the most 
severe commercial revulsions ever known. 

For several years previous, the wildest spirit of speculation had pre- 
vailed throughout the country. Vast public works were undertaken by 
states and chartered companies ; immense importations of foreign goods 
were made ; and real estate, especially lots in cities and towns, went up 
a hundred fold, not to say in many cases a thousand fold, beyond its in- 
trinsic value. The multitude of state banks that had been chartered, 
after the expiration of the charter of the United States bank, and the 
consequent excessive expansion of the paper currency, had contributed 
to increase the spirit of speculation. At length a crisis came ; and the 
revulsion was proportionably severe. Some idea of it may be formed 
from the fact that a list of failures in the city of New York (including 
only the more considerable, and omitting hundreds of less importance) 
shows a total amount of more than sixty millions of dollars. All credit, 
all confidence, was at an end. 

On the 10th of May, all the banks of the city of New York suspend- 
ed specie payments, and the suspension became general throughout the 
country. The general government became involved in the universal 
embarrassment — the banks in which its deposites were placed having 
stopped in the general suspension. The government still insisted, how- 
ever, upon all postages and duties being paid in specie or its equivalent, 
and even refused its own checks and drafts when offered in payment of 
customhouse bonds. 

In this state of things, the president convoked an extra session of 
congress, which began on the 4th of September. Agreeably to the rec- 
ommendation of the executive, as measures for the immediate relief of 
the general government, congress passed a law postponing to the 1st of 
January, 1839, the payment to the states of the fourth instalment of the 
surplus revenue ; and authorizing the issue of ten millions of treasury 
notes, to be receivable in payment of public dues. The president also 
recommended the " separation of the fiscal operations of the government 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 783 

from those of corporations or individuals." A bill in accordance with 
this recommendation — commonly called the sub-treasury bill, placing 
the public money in the hands of certain receivers-general, subject to 
the order and control of the treasurer of the United States — passed the 
senate, but was lost in the house. 

At the next regular session of congress (December, 1837 — July, 1838), 
a reissue of treasury notes was authorized. The sub-treasury system 
was again urged upon the attention of congress, but was not adopted. 

On the 13th of August, 1838, the banks throughout the country gen- 
erally resumed specie payments : but in October following, the banks of 
Philadelphia again suspended, and their example was followed by the 
banks in Pennsylvania, and in all the states south and west. The 
banks of New York and New England continued to pay specie. 

The twenty-sixth congress commenced its first session December 2, 
1839. Among its acts, two only need be mentioned : one for taking 
the sixth census of the United Slates ; the other, " for the collection, 
safe keeping, transfer, and disbursement, of the public revenue" — being 
the sub-treasury system so earnestly recommended by the president. 

At the second session of this congress, nothing was done of sufficient 
importance to find a place in this sketch. 

The administration of Mr. Van Buren was drawing to a close. He 
was a candidate for re-election ; William Henry Harrison, of Ohio, was 
the candidate of the opposition. After a contest unprecedented for in- 
tensity of political excitement, Mr. Van Buren was defeated. 

On the 4th of March, 1841, William Hknry Harrison was inau- 
gurated president of the United States. ' 

Scarcely had the new president entered upon his office, and organ- 
ized his administration by the appointment of his cabinet, when he was 
stricken with sickness ; and on the 4th of April, one month from the 
day of his inauguration, he expired. " In death, as in life, the happi- 
ness of his country was uppermost in his thoughts." 

By the death of General Harrison, John Tyler, of Virginia, the vice- 
president, became, according to the constitution, president of the United 
States. 

The passage of a general bankrupt law was one of the earliest meas- 
ures passed by congress. This law was, however, subsequently re- 
pealed. The tariff was modified with a view to further protection of 
American industry. To the influence of this measure, the friends of 
protection mainly attribute the return of the country to a state of pros- 
perity as great as ever before. It has, however, created great dissatis- 
faction in some of the southern states, where it is considered an infrac- 
tion of the compromise act. 

Among the most memorable events of this administration is i\ie treaty 
of Washington, concluded in September, 1842, between Great Britain 
and the United States, by Lord Ashburton and Daniel Webster, by 
which the difi'erences about the boundary line between Maine and 
Lower Canada, long a matter of dispute and ill-blood, were amicably 
and satisfactorily adjusted. 

The disturbances in Rhode Island are a less agreeable subject of 



784 MODERN HISTOEY. 

record ; though happily the apprehensions they excited have been dis- 
pelled. In 1841, a convention of inhabitants of Rhode Island framed 
a new constitution, giving the right of suffrage (which under the exist- 
ing government was extremely limited) to all free white inhabitants ; 
and proceeded to organize a new government under this constitution. 
They elected a legislative body, and chose Thomas W. Dorr governor 
of the state. All these proceedings were considered as unlawful and 
revolutionary by those opposed to them, inasmuch as they had taken 
place without any legal warrant, and without being in anyway initiated 
by the lawful and actual government. A civil war seemed inevitable. 
The legal government applied to the president of the United States, 
who detached several companies of troops to Newport to await events. 
Dorr mustered a considerable force of armed men, with two pieces of 
artillery, and made an ineffectual attempt to gain possession of the ar- 
senal at Providence. Shortly after, he took a position at Chepachet, 
where his force was increased by volunteers from New York and other 
states. Upon the approach of a body of the state militia, under Gleneral 
M'Neil, Dorr and his party broke ground and fled, June 25, 1842. His 
government fell to pieces. After two years. Dorr returned to Rhode 
Island ; was tried and convicted of treason, and sentenced to the state- 
prison for life. This sentence, however, the government of the state 
have signified their readiness to revoke, whenever Dorr shall acknowl- 
edge his allegiance to the existing government — which now rests upon 
a new constitution, legally formed and adopted by the people of the 
state since the commencement of the disturbances, making the right of 
suffrage as extensive as in that proposed by the revolutionary party, ex- 
cept that two years' residence in the state is required instead of one. 

During the last session of congress, Mr. Tyler communicated to the 
senate a treaty formed with the republic of Texas, by which that state 
was to become a member of the Union. The treaty was not ratified by 
the senate. 

During the summer and autumn of 1844, the election of president 
was the absorbing subject of public interest. The candidates of the 
rival parties were Henry Clay, of Kentucky, for president, and Theo- 
dore Frelinghuysen, of New Jersey,* for vice-president, on the one 
side ; and James K. Polk, of Termessee, and George M. Dallas, of 
Pennsylvania, on the other. 

Thus have been briefly sketched the leading events, political and 
civil, of the history of the United States, from the first feeble and scat- 
tered colonial establishments to the formation of a great and prosperous 
nation. The great problem of the possibility of a permanent and well- 
ordered republic, on so extensive a scale, doubtless yet remains to be 
solved. It depends on the intelligence and virtue of the people, 
whether it shall be solved as the friends of free institutions desire. 
Theoretically the most perfect of all forms of human government, it re- 
quires, beyond any other, the presence of these conditions to preserve 
it from being practically the worst. May the Almighty Ruler of nations 

• Mr. Frelinghuysen has for five years past resided in New York, as chancellor 
of the university of that city. 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 785 

dispose the hearts and minds of the people to such a religious observ- 
ance of his holy commandments, that the history of the nation in all 
coming ages may be as glorious as its rise and progress have been 
wonderful ! " Blessed are the people who have the Lord for their God ; 
yea, happy are the people that are in such a case !" 

50 



786 



CONTEMPORARY DYNASTIES, 



FIFTH 



Sarmatians. 



General movement of 
the Sarinatian tribes 
toward SouUiern and 
Western Euope ; for 
six centuries their 
history obscure. 



Movements of the Sax- 
ons to England : 
tlie Franks to Gaul ; 
the Goths to Italy ; 

the Lombards to Pan- 
nonia,and in tlie next 
century to Italy ; 

theAleinanni to the Ro- 
irian provinces on the 
Rhine, &.C. 



Franks and Gauls. 



420 Pharamond. 

44'J Merovaeus. 

481 Clovis, who, by the 
defeat of Syagrius, 
establislied the pow- 
er of the Franks in 
Gaul. 



Italy. 



476 End of Western 
empire. 

— Odoacer becomes 
king of Italy. 

493 Establishment of 
the Gothic kingdom 
of Italy, by Tiieodo- 
ric. 



SIXTH 



France. 


Italy. 


Spain. 




511 Thierry T. 
,Clotaire I. 
534 Thpndobert. 
561 Caribert 


Ostrogoths. 
526 Athalaric. 
534 Theodobalus. 


Visigoths. 

507 Gesalric. 
526 Amalaric. 




Gontram, Sigibert. 
Chilperic. 
593 Childebert. 


536 Vitiges. 
5t0 Heldibadus. 


531 Theudis. 
548 Theodogesil. 




541 Elaric. 


549 Agila. 




596 Theodobert II. 


551 Theia, conquered by 


554 Athanagild. 




Thierry 11. 


Lombards. 


572 Leovigild. 

566 Recared I.; he renounces 






568 Alboinus. 


Arianism and establishea 






573 Clephes. 


orthodox Christianity. 






586 Antharis. 








590 Agilulphus. 








569 Longinus, Exarch of Ra- 








venna ; his successors 








tributary to the Lombards. 







SEVENTH 



France. 



614 Clotaire II. 
628 Dagobert I. 
638 Sigebert II. 
— Clovis II. 
660 Clotaire III. 
66!) Childeric II. 

672 Uagobert II. (Pepin 
Heristal ) 

673 Thierry III. 
690 Clovis III. 
695 Childebert II. 

Tlie kingdom frequent- 
ly divided. 



Lombards. 
616 Adaloaldus. 
626 Ariovaldus. 
638 Rotharis. 
654 Rodoaldus. 
659 Aribertus. 
fifi2 Gundebertus. 

672 Garibald. 

673 Pertharit. 
691 Cunibertus. 

The Exarchate of Ra- 
venna nominallyheld 
by the Eastern Em- 
pire, but tribute paid 
by its governors to 
the Lombards. 



Visigoths. 
603 Witeric. 
610 Gondomar. 
612 Sisebad. 
621 Recared II. 
— Suintilla I. 
631 Sisenaud I. 
636 Sisenaud II. 
640 Tulca. 
f42 Chindaswind. 
649 Recheswind. 
672 Wamba. 
680 Ervig. 
687 Egiga. 

Toward the close of 
the century theMoors 
begin to threaten the 
South of Spain. 



Heptarchy. 

617 Rodoald. 
East Anglia. 

624 Edwin. 

Northumberland. 

643 Oswyn unites sev- 
eral kingdoms. 

656 Ceadwalla, Sussex 
and Wessex. 

688 Ina, Wessex. 

The native Britons 
seek shelter in Scot- 
land and Wales from 
the Saxon invaders. 



iry 



787 



FROM A. D. 400, TO a. d. 1840. 
CENTURY. 



Under the Vandals, 
438 Rechilda. 
448 Uechiarius. 
456 Maldias. 
^^i() Fumaiius. 
463 Regismund. 
Under the Visigoths. 

451 I'lierismond. 

452 Theodoric II. 
465 Euaric. 

484 Alaric. 

The Vandals conquer- 
ed by the Visigoths. 



426 Relinquished 
the Romans. 

Under the Britons, 

445 Vortigern. 
454 Vortimer. 
465 Ambrosius. 

Saxons. 
454 Hengist in Kent. 
491 Ella in Sussex. 



by 



Eastern Empire. 



408 Theodosius III. and 

Pulcheria. 
450 Marcian. 
457 Leo I. (Thracian). 
474 Leo IL 
— Zeno. 
491 Anastasius I. 

Rise of the factions of 
the Circus. 



Progress of Civili- 
zation. 



Bells used in Churches. 



Commencement of the 
middle or dark ages. 



Establishment of the 
Salic Law. 



Introduction of Christi- 
anity into France. 



CENTURY. 





England. 


Scotland. 


Eastern Empire. 


Pkogress of Civili- 
zation, 




519 Cerdic, 


501 Goran. 


518 Justin I. 


Silk worms brought to 




Kingdom of Wes- 


535 Eugene III. 


527 Justinian I. 


Europe. 




sex. 


558Congal 11. 


(Belisarius. Narses). 








569 Kinathal. 


565 Justin II. 


Code of Civil Law 




527 Erchenwin, 


570 Aidan. 


578 Tiberius II. 


formed. 




Kingdom of Essex. 




582 Maurice. 






547 Ida, 






Water-mills erected at 




Kingdom of North- 






Rome. 




umberland. 










575 Uffa, 






The Anglo-Saxons con- 




Kingdom of East 






verted to Christian- 




Anglia. 






ity. 




582 Cridda, 










Kingdom of Mercia. 










The Saxons were join- 










ed by the Angles and 










Jutes from Germany. 









CENTURY. 





Scotland. 


Eastern Empire. 


Saracens. 


Progress of Civili- 
zation. 




604 Kenneth I. 


602 Phocas. 


622 Hejira, or Flight of 


Latin disused as a liv- 




603 Eugene IV. 


610 Heraclius L 


Mohammed from 


ing langruage. 




622 Ferchard I. 


641 Constantine III. 


Mecca. ^ 


Pens made from quills. 




636 Donald IV. 


— Heraclius Heracli- 


632 Abu Bekr. 






tt.'iiO Ferchard II. 


anus. 


634 Omar. 


Glass manufactured in 




6riS Maidrum. 


— Constans II. 


644 Othman. 


England. 




68s Eugene V. 


668 Constantine IV. 


6'.6 All. 


The Alexandrian Libra- 




692 Eugene VL 


685 Justinian II. 


660 Hassan. 


ry destroyed. 






695 Leontius. 
698 Tiberius III. 


661 Moawiyah, founder 
of the Ommiade 
dynasty. 

679 Yezid I. 

683 Merwan I. 

684 Abdalmater. 


The Greek fire ior 
vented. 



788 



TABLES OF 



EIGHTH 



Spain. 



711 Dagobert III. 
715 Chilperic II. 

Charles Marcel. 
717 Clotaire IV. 
7«0 'Vhieny iV. 

741 Pepiii (regent). 

742 Oliilderic III. 
754 I'epin (king) 
768 Charlemagne. 

T5J3 Merovingian dy- 
Misty set aside by 
repi 11 , father of Cliar- 
ieruagne, and foun- 
der of the Carlovin- 
•giata dynasty. 



Lombards. 

700 Luitpertus. 

701 Ariinbertus. 
712 Ausprandus. 

— Luilprandus. 

743 Ilildebrand. 

744 Rachisius. 
750 Astolphus. 
756 Desiderius. 

The dynasty of the 
Lombards subverted 
by Charlemagne. 



Popes. 
The Popes raised to the 
rank of temporal 
princes by Pepin, 
king of France. 

752 Stephen III. 
757 Paul I. 
768 Stephen IV. 
772 Adrian 1. 
795 Leo III. 



712 Dynasty of the Vi.si- 
goths subverted by 
the Saracens under 
Tarik and Musa. 
755 Abderrahman, in- 
dependent khaliph. 
The power of his suc- 
cessors, who reign in 
Spain until a. d. 1051, 
is gradually weaken- 
ed both by internal 
discords and continu- 
ed wars vvitli Chris- 
tian insurgents. 
718 Pelagius founds a 
petty Christian 
kingdom in the 
Asturian mount- 
ains. 



NINTH 



NO'llTHERN 

JVations. 



76i. Regular 
government 
■established 
JD Russia by 
lUuic. 

DenEiark 
formed into 
» kingdom. 

Sweden 
.formed into 
;a kingdom. 

T!be petty prin- 
cipalities of 
Norway 
i'ormed into 
a kingdom 
by Harold 
Harfager. 



Austrian, 
bominions. 



794 TheMagyars 
occupy Hunga- 
ry, the ancient 
Pannonia. 

The Moravians 
become a for- 
midable nation. 

Bohemia form- 
ed into a reg- 
ular state, and 
Christianity in- 
troduced. It 
was generally 
governed by 
dukes tributary 
to the emperors 
of Germany. 



Western Empire. 



800 Charlemagne, emperor of the West. 
814 Louis the Pious. 
843 Empire divided. 



Germany. 

843 Louis the 
German. 

876 Carlo- 
man and 
Louis III. 

881 Charles 
the Fat. 

887 Arnulph. 

899 Louis 
the Child. 



Italy, ifc. 
843 Lothaire I. 
855 Lothairell. 
879 Boson, 

duke of B\ir- 

gundy. 

The great feu- 
datories of 
the crown as- 
sume the 
power of so- 
vereign prin- 
ces in various 
parts of the 
empire. 



France. 

843 Charles 

the Bald. 
877 Louis the 

Stammerer. 
879 Louis III. 

Carloman. 
887 Eudes. 
898 Charles 

the Simple. 

The family of 
the Capets 
begins to u- 
surp the royal 
authority. 



Popes. 



816 Stephen V. 

817 Pascal I. 
824 Eugenius IT. 
627 Valentine. 
828 Gregory IV. 
844 Sergius II. 
847 Leo IV. 

855 Benedict III. 
858 ^'icholas I. 
867 Adrian II. 
872 .Tohn VIII. 
862 Martin II. 
884 Adrian III. 
685 Stephen VI. 
891 Formosus. 
896 Boniface VI. 

— Stephen VII. 
898 Theodore II. 

— John IX. 
900 Benedict IV. 



TENTH 



&CXKOINAVIA. 



9S% Christiani- 
Ityestabhshed 
in Denmark. 

891 Christiani- 
ityestablished 
in. Norway. 

Tha Scandina- 
vian pirates 
formidable to 
Southern and 
W<estern Eu- 
rope. 

U^and and 
Oreenland 
discovered 
and coloaiz- 

OdL 



Russia and 
Poland. 



975 Wladimir 
the Great ex- 
tends theRus- 
sian monar- 
chy, and 

968 Establish- 
es Ciiristiani- 

ty. 

942 Poland be- 
comes a king- 
dom. 



Hungary, &c. 



994 Christiani- 
ty introduced 
intollungary. 

997 Stephen I. 
estabUshes 
the Hunga- 
rian monar- 
chy. 

990 Bodeslaus 
III. indepen- 
dent in Bohe- 
mia. 

The Lptti,&c., 
established in 
Lithuania 
and Prussia. 



912 Conrad I. 
of Franconia. 

919 Henry the 
Fowler. 

936 Otho the 
Great. 

962 Empire of 
the West re- 
stored and gi- 
ven to Otho. 

973 Otho II. 

983 Otho HI. 

Jealousies be- 
gin to arise 
between the 
emperors and 
the popes. 



France. 



922 Robert. 

923 Rodolph. 
933 Louis 

Outremer. 

954 Lothaire. 

966 Louis V. 
the Idle. 

987 Hugh Ca- 
pet, founder 
of a new dy- 
nasty. 

996 Robert the 
Wise. 

The province 
of Neustria 
assigned to 
the5formans, 
and thence 
called Nor- 
mandy. 



904 Leo V. 

— Christopher. 

905 Sergius HI. 

913 Anastasius 

914 Lando [IIL 

915 John X. 

928 Leo VI. 

929 Stephen Vm 
931 John XI. 
936 Leo VII. 
939 Stephen IX. 
943 Martin III. 
946 Agapetus II. 
956 John XII. 

963 Leo VIH. 

964 Benedict V. 

965 John XIII. 
972 Benedict VI. 

974 Donus II. 

975 Benedict VH 
982 John XIV. 
965 John XV. 

— John XVI. 
996 Gregory V. 
999 Sylvester II. 



CENTURY. 



CONTEMPORARY DYNASTIES. 



761 



The Heptarchy still 
continues, but the 
states frequently 
vary both in number 
and extent 

717 Kthelbald in Mer- 
cia. 

707 Offa unites East 
Anglia to Mercia; 
but toward tlie close 
of the century Wes- 
sex becomes the pre- 
dominant stale. 



r02 Amhes 
Keleth. 
"04 Eugene 

vn. 

?'21 Mordach 
1?,0 Elfinius. 
nil Eugene 

VIII. 
'64 Fergus 

III. 
r67 Salva- 

thus. 
787 Achaius. 



Eastern Empire. 



705 Justinian II. re- 
stored, [nes. 

711 Philippicus Barda- 

713 Anastasius II. 

716 Theodosius HI. 

718 Leo 111. Isauricus. 

741 Constantine V. 
Copronymus. 

775 Leo IV. 

780 Constantine VI. 
Porphyrogennetus. 
(Irene. Nicephovusi). 

During the greater 
part of this century 
the ■ empire is dis- 
tracted by the Icono- 
clast controversy. 



Progress o\ 
Civilization 



705WahdT. 
714 Suleiman. 
717 Omar II. 
719 Yezid II. 
7-23 Ilashem. 

742 VValid II. [TIL 

743 Mervvan ; Yezid 
7S0 Abu i'Abbas, foun- 
der of the Abasside 
dynasty. 

753 Almanzor. 

775 Mohadi. 

7^5 Al Hadi. 

786 Harun-al-Rashid. 

The seat of the Kha- 
liphate fixed at Bag- 
dad, A. D. 7G2. 



Paper made 
from cot 
ton. 

Carprts: 
troduced. 



Schools; s€ jj 
learwag; [| 
fouHjieeS 'fej3 
the Sc;iai4j 
cens. I 

Greek. woTfi»|: 
of scieBfOsj" 
translateiSi 
intoAia&KE, 



CENTURY. 



Southern 
Italy. 



The islands 
of Sicily, 
Corsica and 
Sardinia, 
and a con- 
siderable 
part of the 
kingdom of 
Naples, oc- 
cupied by 
the Sara- 
cens. 



Gradual de- 
cay of the 
Saracenic 
power. 

Foundation 
of the 

Christian 
kingdoms 
of Navarre 
and Leon. 



Scotland. 



828 End of 
the Heptar- 
chy. E.gbert 
the Great, 
king of 
England. 
838 Ethel- 
wolf, [bald. 
857 Ethel- 
866 Ethelred 
872 Alfred 
the Great. 
England fre- 
quently ra- 
vaged by 
Danish and 
Norwegian 
pirates. 



819 Congal 
HI. 

824 Dongal. 

831 Alpin. 

833 Kenneth 
11. 

831 Alpin. 

854 Donald 
V, 

858 Constan- 
tine 11. 

874 Ethus. 

875 Gregory 
the Great. 

892 Donald 

VI. 
The Picts 
subdu'ed and 
expelled by 
Kenneth 11. 



Eastern 
Empire. 



811 IMl- 
chael I. 

8i:^Le'oV. 

620 .Mi- 
chael II. 

829Theo- 
philus. 

841 Ha- 
run. 

842 Mi- 
chael HI 

867 Basi- 

lius I. 
886 Leo 

VI. 



809 Al A mm. 
814 Al Mamun. 
833 Motassem. 
846 Motawakkel 
861 Montaser. 
662 Mostain. 

Fall and division 
of the Khaliph- 
ate. 

Fatimate dynas- 
ty founded 768, 
by Motaz. 

The seat of the 
Fatinrites 
transferred in 
the next centu- 
ry to Egypt. 



Progress- 
CivilizatfOSii. 



J 



Streets e«J | 
Cordova I 
paved. I 

Saxon cotfel 
of la.'wsi 
formed. 
Clocks 
brought So| 
Westerns 
Europe- 
Oxford oat- J 
versity 
foundeoT.- 
Agricultare' 
and horti- 1 
culture e-tt-.l 
couragsd mi 
Germanji I 



CENTURY. 



England. 



901 Edward I 

the Elder. 
925 Athelstan. 
911 Edmund I. 
946 Edred. 
953 Edwy. 
959 Edgar. 
975 Edward II, 

the Martyr. 
978 Ethelred H. 



The Danes ac- 
quire posses- 
sion of a great 
portion of Eng- 
land. 



903 Constantine 
III. 
943 iMalcolm I. 
958 Tnduiph. 
968 DulTus. 
972 Cullen. 
'.177 Kenneth III. 

994 Constantine 
IV. 

995 Grimus. 



Eastern Empire. 



900 Alexander. 
91 1 Constantine 

VII. Porphyro- 

gennetus. 
919 Romanus I. 

— Constantine 

vni. 

959 Romanus II. 
96S Nicephorus H. 
969 .fohn Zimisces 
976 Basilius H. 

and Constantine 

IX. 

The prosperity of 
the empire par- 
tially restored in 
consequence of 
the decline of the 
Saracenic power. 



Saracens. 



Progress of 
Civilization), 



The Khaliphs in 
subjection to 
their Turkish 
mercenaries, 
whose chief 

935 Takes the title 
of Emir al Omrah 

997 The Ghazne- 
vid dynasty 

founded. 

The Fatimite Kha- 
liphs possess a 
powerful empire 
in Egypt. 



University oi 

Cambridge f»t£B' 
ded. 

Figures of arcitb- 
metic introduced 
from the Araba. 

Mining in the 
Hartz mountsuaaa 

Wine presses first 
introduced, iuia 
Italy. 



790 



TABLES OF 



ELEVENTH 



Norway. 



Sweyn. king of both 

countries. 
14 Canute tlie Great, 

king of England. 



11 Olavus II. 
32 Suiiio. 
36 Magnus 

Oleron. 
47 Harold III 

Haardrade. 
66 Ohivus II. 
TO Magnus I. 
87 Hacon. 
89 Magnus 

II. 



36 Ilardica- 

iiute. 
42 Magnus. 
47 Sweyn 

Elpisdon 
74 Harold 

VII. 
76 Canute 

the Saint. 
85 Glaus II. 
95 Eric III. 



Russia. I Poland. iHunoart 



1 Olau^. 
19 Amund I. 
35 Edmund 

II. 

40 Ilacquin 

III. 
61 Sturkill. 
75 Ingo the 

Good. 



The nations of the North abandon their 
piratical habits, and make great ad- 
vances in civilization. 



25 Miesko 
II. 

37 Casimir 
1. Anar- 
chy. 

41 Casimir 
recalled, 

58 Boles- 
laus II. 
the Bold. 

77 Bo- 
leslaus 
takes the 
title of 
king. 

bl Wladis- 
laus I. 



38 Peter. 

41 Expel- 
led, and 
succeed- 
ed by 
Otto. 

44 I'eter 
restored 

47 Anchar 
I. 

61 Bela 1. 

63 Solo- 
mon. 

74 Giezal. 

77 Ladis- 
laus I. 

95 Colo- 
man. 



2 Henry II 
24 Conrad II. 

of Franco- 

nia, who 
32 Inherits 

Durgundy. 
.39 Henry III 
56 Henry IV 

Wars with 
the Saxons: 
and with 
the Popes 
on the 

question of 
ecclesiasti' 
cal invest! 
tures 



France 



31 Hen- 
ry I. 

60 Philip 
I. the 
Amo- 
rous. 



95 Commencement of 
the t;rusades, first 
preached by Peter 
the Hermit, and 
then sanctioned by 
the Popes. 



TWELFTH 



Northern 
Nations. 



Norway. 
3 Sigurd. 
62 Magnus III. 



Denmark. 

7 Nicholas. 
35 Eric IV. 
39 Eric V. 
47 Canute V. 
55 Sueno IV. 
57 Waldemar I. 
82 Canute VI. 



Russia. 



Sweden. 
10 Ingo IV. 
29 Ragwald. 
40 Suercher II. 

60 Eric X. the 
Holy. 

61 Charles VII. 
68 Canute. 

92 Suercher III. 



14Wlademir 

H. 

25 Motislaus 
32 Jaropolik. 
38 Vzevolod 

II. 
46 IsialausII 

56 Jourje or 
George I. 
the found- 
er of Mos- 
cow. 

57 Andrewl. 
reigning at 
Wladimir. 

75 Michaell. 



2 Boleslaus 
III. 

Civil dissen- 
sions and 
constant 
wars with 
the Letti in 
Lithuania 
and Prus- 
sia. 

38 viriadis- 
laus II. 

46 Boleslaus 
IV. 

3 Miesko 
III. 

7 Expelled 

by Casimir 

II., the Just 

95Lescho V. 



Hungary & 
Bohemia. 



Hungary- 
It Stephen 

II. 
31 Rela II. 
41 Gieza II. 
61 Stephen 

III. 
7-1 Bela III. 
96 Emeric. 



Bohemia. 

40 MHadisla- 
us III duke. 

75 Freder- 
ick, duke. 

90 Conrad II. 
duke. 

97 Premisla- 
us Ottoa- 
ere I. king. 



Germany France 



6 Henry 
V. 
25 Lo- 

thaire II. 
the Sax- 
on. 

37 Conrad 
III. 

52 Frede- 
ric I. Bar- 
barossa 

90 Henry 
VI. As- 
per. 

98 Philip 
(Otho). 



6 Louis 

VI. the 
Fat. 

,S7 Louis 

VII. the 
Young. 
80 Philip 
II. Au- 
gustus. 

The 

great 
feudato- 
ries of 
the 
crown 
gradual- 
ly re- 
duced to 
obedi- 
ence, 
and the 
royal 
authori- 
ty estab- 
lished. 



Popes. 



18 Gelasius H. 

19 Calixtus II. 
24 Honorius II. 
30 Innocent II. 

43 Celestine II. 

44 Lucius II 

45 Eugenius III. 

53 Anastasius 
IV. 

54 Adrian IV. 

59 Alexander II. 
81 Lucius III. 
85 Urban III. 
87 Gregory VIII. 
— Clement III. 
91 Celestine III. 
98 Innocent HI. 



CENTURY. 



CONTEMPORARY DYNASTIES. 



791 



3 John XVII. 

— JolinXVUl. 
9 Sergius IV. 

12 Benedict 

viir. 

24 John XIX. 
3:f Benedict IX 
45 Gregory VI. 
4.6 Clement If. 

— Benedict X. 
48 Uaniasus 11 

— Leo IX. 
55 victor II. 

57 Steplien X. 

58 Nicholas II 
til Alexanderll 
73 Gregory Vli 
86 Victor III. 
88 Urban II. 
99 Paschal II. 



Southern 
Italy. 



Norman 

dukes of 

Naples. 

4.SW^illiam 
5a Robert. 
1:5 Roger. 



90 Roger, 
Count of 
Sicili/. 



22 Sardi- 
nia and 
Corsica 
recover- 
ed from 
tlie Sara- 
cens by 
the citi- 
zens of 
Pisa. 



10 Sancho 
the Great 



Aragon. 

34 Rami- 
rez. 

67 Sancho 
I. 

94 Peter I. 



Castile. 

35 Ferdi- 
nand I. 

65 Sancho 
H. 

72 Alphon- 
so VI. 

85 The 
kingdom 
of Castile 
greatly 
enlarged. 



England. 



Portugal. 

88 Henry, 
count of 
Portugal. 



2 Massacre 
of the 

Danes. 

14 Svveyn of 
Denmark. 

17 Canute. 

35 Harold 
Harefoot. 

39 Hardica- 
nute. 

41 Edward 
the Confes- 
sor. 

66 Harold II. 

— William 
the Con- 
queror. 

87 William 
II. Rufus. 

66 The Nor- 
man dynas- 
ty estab- 
lished by 
William 
the Con- 
queror. 



4 Mal- 
colm II. 
34 Duncan 
40 Mac- 
beth. 
57 Mal- 
colm III. 

93 Donald 
VII. 

94 Duncan 
11. 

— Donald 
restored. 
97 Edgar. 



Eastern 
Empire. 



25 Con- 
stantine 
IX. alone. 
20 Roma- 
nus III. 
31 Michael 
IV. [V. 
41 Michael 
54 Theodo- 
ra. 

— Con- 
stantine X 

56 Michael 
VI. 

57 Isaac I. 
59 Cons- 
tantine XI 
67 Roma- 
nus III 
Diogenes. 
71 Michael 
VII. 

— Con- 
stantino 
XII, 

78 Nice- 
phorus III. 
SlAlexiusI 
Comnenus 



Turks. 






o £ l> 
a g -1 c/> 

''^■?&- 
o'er 3 g. 

p. 

2.CJ-2. 
2-^ "■ 

■ £»■ 

^ CD 



Progress 

ofCiviliza- 

tion. 



Musical- 
notes in- 
vented. 
Tourna- 
ments le- 
gallycon- 
stituted. 
Wind- 
mills first 
used. 
Danegelt 
remitted 
in Eng- 
land. 

Doomsday 
book 
finished. 
Chival- 
rous spirit 
fostered 
by the 
Crusades 
i;iocks 
with 

wheels in- 
troduced 



CENTURY. 



SouthernItaly 



2 Roger II. of 

Naples. 
30 Roger III., 

king of Naples 

and Sicily. 
54 William I. the 

Good. 
66 William II. 

the Bad. 

19 Tancred. 
94 William III. 

The Two Sicilies 
united to the 
Empire. 



Aragon. 

4 Alphonso I. 
34 Ramirez II. 
37Petronillo and 

Raymond. 
62 Alphonso 11. 
95 Peter II. 



Castile. 

9 Alphonso VII 

22 Alphonso VIII 

57 Ferdinand II. 

58 Alphonso IX. 
the Noble. 



England and 
Scotland. 



Henry I. 
Beauclerk. 

35 Stephen of 
Blois, Usurp- 
er. 

54 Henry II. 
first of the 
Plantagenets 

89 Richard I. 
Coeur-de-Lion 

99 John Lack- 
land. 

Ireland con- 
quered by 
Henry II. 



Portugal. 
39 Alphonso I. 

Henriques 

king. 
85 Sancho I. 



Continued wars 
with the Moors. 



Scotland. 

7 Alexander I 
24 David 1. 
53 Malcolm IV 
65 William the 

Lion. 



Eastern 
Empire. 



18 John Comne- 
nus. 

43 Manuel Com- 
nenus. 

80 Alexius II. 

83 Andronicus. 

85 Isaac II. An- 
gelus. 



Kingdom of 
Jerusalem. 

1099 Godfrey of, 

Bouillon. 

1 Baldwin I. 
18 Baldwin II. 
31 Foulke. 
44 Baldwin III. 
62 Almeric. 
73 Baldwin IV. 

85 Baldwin V. 

86 Guy. 

92 Conrad. 
— Henry of 

Champagne. 

87 The kingdom 
overthrown by 
Saladin, 



Turks 

AND 

Tartars. 



CD Ct> ^ 

»-l "-1 S 

S 3 S 

< p: 3 

^&^ 

cTiS.'-^ 



pS S_£. 



3"^ 



Progress of 
Civilization. 



The cultiva- 
of the sugar- 
cane intro- 
duced into 
Sicily. 

Glass windows 
used in Eng- 
land. 



793 



TABLES OF 



THIRTEENTH 




Denmark. 
2 Waklemar II. 
42 Kric VI. 

51 Abel. 

52 Cliristopher. 
5«Eric VII. 
86Eric VIII. 



Sweden. 
10 Eric \1. 
'20 .lohn. 
123 Eric XI. 
1 50 Waldemar I. 
176 Magnus II. 
181 Birger II. 



13 .Tourje II. 

Constantine 
38 Jarolaus 11. 
5(1 Aloxanderl. 
fi:t .liirolaus III 
71 Vasili I. 
75 Demetrius I 
94 Andrew at 

Moscow. 

38 Conquered 
by the Mon- 
golian horde 



Poland. 



2 Wladislaus 
III. 

6 Lcsko V. re- 
stored. 

27 Boleslaus V 

79 I.csko VI. 

(•9 Anarchy. 

ys Przeniisla- 
us. 

96 Wladislaus 
IV. 

The conquest 
of Prussia by 
the Teutonic 
knights be- 
s;uiil'.!30, com- 
pleted 1823. 



Hungary and 

BOHCMIA. 



4 I.adislausII 
— Andrew II 
35 Hela IV. 
40 Mogul in- 
vasion. 
70 Stephen IV. 
72Ladislausin 
90 Andrew III. 



Bohemia. 
30 Wencesla- 

us III, 
53 Premislaus 

Ottoacar II. 
78 Anarchy. 
84 VVencesla- 

us IV. 



8 Otho IV. 
12 Frederic II. 
52 Conrad IV. 
51 William, 

count of Hol- 
land. 
5(i liichard, earl 

of Cornwall 
— Alphonso of 

Spain. 
T3 Hodolph of 

Ilap.'iburg. 
91 Adolplius of 

Na.ssau. 
98 Albert I. of 

Austria. 



Fbance. 



23 Louis 

VIII., the 

Lion. 
26 Louis IX. 

the Saint. 
70 IhilipIU. 

the Hardy. 
85 I'lnhp IV. 

the Fair. 



The Crusades. 

68 Capture of Antioch. 

91 and of Acre, by the Egypt- 
ian sultan. End of the Cru- 
sades. 



FOURTEENTH 



Northern 
Nations. 



Russia. 



Norway. 
15 Magnus V. 
26 Hacon lU. 
28 Magnus VI. 
58 Ilacon IV. 
75 Olaus IV. 



Denmark. 
21 Christopher II 
32 Waldemar III 
75 Margaret. 

Sweden. 

26 Magnus III. 

63 Albert of 
Mecklenburg. 

97 Nor way, Den- 
mark, and 
Sweden, joined 
by the Union of 
Caliiiar. 



The 
country 
subject 
to the 
Mongo- 
lian 
horde. 



Wences- 

laus. 
35 ('asimir 

the Great. 
70 Louis, 

king of 

Hungary. 
85 Hedwidge 

and Uladis- 

laus Jagel- 

lon. 

Prussia. 
Subject to 
the grand 
JTiaster of 
the Teuto- 
nic knights. 



Hungary and 
Bohemia. 



1 Wencesla- 
us. 

5 Otho of Ba- 
varia. 

1 3 Charles, 
Robert. 

42 Louis I. 

82 Mary -and 

86 Sigismund 



Bohemia. 

5 Wencesla- 
us V. 

6 Henry. 
lO.Iohn ofLux- 

emburg 
■iB Charles IV. 
— Joined to 

the empire. 



8 Henry Vll. 
of Luxem- 
burg. 

13 Louis of 
Bavaria, & 

— Frederic 
III., of Aus- 
tria. [IV. 

47 Charles 

78 Wences- 
laus. 

15 The inde- 
pendence 
of Switzer- 
land pro- 
claimed, & 

66 establish- 
ed by the 
battle of 
Sempach. 



14 LouisX 

15 .lohn I 

16 PhilipV 
23 Charles 

the Fair. 

28 Philip 
VI. 

50 .lohn II 

56 He is 
taken by 
the Eng- 
lish. 

64 Charles 
V. the 
Wise. 

80 Charles' 
VI. 



3 Benedict XI 
5 -Clement V. 

16 .lohn XXH. 

34 Benedict 
XII 

42 Cl^mentVI. 

52 Innocent VI 

62 Urban V. 

71 Gregory XI 

SCHISM OFTITE 
WEST. 

Popes at Rome. 
78 Urban VI. 
89 Boniface IX 
Popes at Avig- 
non. 
78 Clement 

Vll. [XIII. 
94 Benedict 



FIFTEENTH 



Denmark. 



12 Eric IX. 

41 Christo- 
pher HI. 

48 Christian 
I. 

81 John II. 

The Swedes 
engaged in 
almost in- 
cessant 
wars to re- 
cover their 
independ- 
ence from 
the Danes. 



Russia and 
Poland. 



Russia. 

25 Vasali the 
lllind. 

62 Ivan Va- 
silievitch 1 

74 Tartar 
Yoke brok- 
en. 



Poland. 
34 Wladls 

laus V. 
47 Casimir 

IV 
92 John I. 



Rupert. 

10 Jodoehus. 

11 Sigismond, king 
also of Hungary 
and Bohemia. 

3: Albert II. 

.39 Fredeiic HL 

93 Maximilian I. 

During the greater 
part of this cen- 
tury, tlie dukes 
of Burgundy ac- 
quire great politi- 
cal influence. At 
the close, their 
possessions pass 
by marriage into 
the royal family 
of Austria. 



22 Henry VI., 
of England. 

— Charles VII 
of Valois. 

61 Louis .XI. 

83CharlesVIIl 

98 Louis XII. 

Rapid increase 
of the royal 
power in 

France dur- 
ing this cen- 
tury. Wars 
in Italy at 
the close. 



4 Innocent VII. 

6 Gregory XII. 

9 Alexander V. 
10 John XXIII. 
17 Martin V. 
31 Eugenius IV. 
39 Felix V. 
47 Nicholas V. 
5,'> Calixtus III. 
58 Pius II. 
64 Paul H. 
72 Sixtus IV. 
84 Innocent VIH 
92 Alexander VI. 



Southern 
Italy. 



Sicily and Na- 
ples lose their 
political im- 
portance. 
Both merge in 
the kingdom 
of Spain : the 
former at the 
beginning, 
the latter at 
the close of 
the century. 



CENTURY. 



CONTEMPORARY DYNASTIES. 



793 



Popes. 



16 Honorius 

III. (IX. 

27 Gregory 
41 Celestine 

IV. [IV. 
43 Innocent 
54 Ale.xan- 

der IV. 
61 Urban IV. 
65 Clement 

IV. [X. 
'il Gregory 
Teinnocentv 

— Adrian V. 

— John XXI. 
77Nichol.llI 
81 MartinlV. 
85 Honorius 

IV. 
88 Nicho.IV. 
91 Celestine 

V. [VHI. 

— Boniface 



Southern 
Italy. 



52 ConradIV 
(Emperor.) 

54 Manfred. 

66 Conradin. 

—Charles of 
Anjou. 

82 Sicily 
conquered 
by the king 
of Aragon. 

85 Charles II 
in Naples. 

85 James of 
Aragon in 
Sicily. 

96 Frederic 
II. in Sicily. 



Aragon. 
13 James I. 
re Peter III. 
85 Alphonso III. 
91 James II. 



CastiJe. 
14 Henry I. 
17 Alphonso X. 
26 Ferdinand III. 
52 Alphonso XI.. 
the Wise. 
84 Sancho IV. 
95 Ferdinand IV. 



Portugal. 

12 Alphonso II , 
the Fat. 

33 Sancho II. 

46 Alphonso III. 

79 Dionysius, 
the father of 
his country. 



England & 
Scotland. 



England. 
16 Henry III 
65 House of 
Commons 
formed. 
72 Edward I. 
Wales sub- 
dued. 



Scotland, 

14 Alexan- 
der II. 

49 Alexan- 
der III. 

85 Anarchy. 

9-2 John Ba- 
liol. 

94 Anarchy 
(Sir Wm. 
Wallace.) 



Eastern 
Empjre. 



1203 Con- 
stantino- 
ple taken 
by the 
Latin Cru- 
saders, 
and the 
empire 
broken 
into frag- 
ments. It 
was par- 
tially re- 
stored in 
the mid- 
dle of the 
century by 
Michael 
Paleolo- 
gus. 



Turks and 
Tartars. 



1298 The dy- 
nasty of the 
Ottoman 
Turks is 
founded in 
Bithyniaby 
Othman I. 

The Moguls 
subdue the 
greater 
part of Asia 
and North- 
eastern Eu- 
rope, but in 
the middle 
of the cen- 
tury their 
empire is 
broken up. 



Progress of 
Civilization 



Establish- 
mentofthe 
Inquisition 

Magna 
Charta. 

Represen- 
tatives of 
the Com- 
mons in 
parliament 

Spectacles 
invented. 

Glass mir- 
rors used. 

Clocks to 
strike 
made in 
Europe. 



CENTURY. 



Southern 
Italy. 



Spain. 



England and 
Scotland. 



Eastern 
Empire. 



Ottoman 
Empire. 



Progress of 
Civilization. 



Naples. 

9 Robert I. 
43 Joan I. 
82 Charles III.; 

of Durazzo. 



Sicily. 
28 Frederic I. 
37 Peter II. 
42 Louis. 
55 Frederic II. 
67 Mary. 



Aragon. 
27 Alphonso IV. 
36 Peter IV. 
87 John I. 
95 Martin. 



Castile. 
12 Alphonso XII. 
50 Peter the Cruel. 
69 Henry II. 
79 John I. 
90 Henry HI. 



Portugal. 
25 Alphonso IV. 
57 Peter the Cruel. 
67 Ferdinand. 
85 John I., the Great. 



England. 

7 Edward II. 
27 Edward III. 
Edward claims 

the crown of 

France. 
75 Death of 

the Black 

Prince. 
77 Richard II. 
99 Henry IV. 

of Lancaster. 



Scotland. 

6 Robert 

Bruce. 
29 David II. 
70 Robert 11. , 

the first of 

the Stuarts. 
90 Robert III. 



Through- 
out this 
century 
the East- 
ern empire 
gradually 
declines, 
and at the 
close be- 
comes tri- 
butary to 
the Turks. 



26 The empire 
of the Turks, 
established 
by Othman at 
Prusa. 

25 Orkhan. 

58 Amurath I. 

89 Bayezid I. 

Timur Lenk 
subdues 
Western and 
Central Asia, 
and estab- 
lishes a migh- 
ty empire. 



Mariner's com- 
pass intro- 
duced into 
Europe. 

Paper made 
from linen 
rags. 

Gunpowder 
and cannon 
used in war. 

New Testa- 
ment trans- 
lated by 
Wickliffe. 

Pins and play- 
ing cards in- 
vented. 



CENTURY. 



England & Scotland. 



Eastern & Ottoman 
Empires. 



Progress ofCivilization 



Aragon^ 
10 Ferdinand. 
16 Alphonso V. / 
58 Jolin II. 

74 Ferdinand the Ca- 
tholic. 



Castile. 

6 John II. 
54 Henry IV. 
74 lsabella,who marries 

Ferdinand of Aragon, 

and thus unites the 

two crowns. 



Portugal. 
33 Edward. [African. 
38 Alphonso V., the 
81 John II. [tunate. 
95 Emmanuel the For- 



England, 
13 Henry V. 
22 Henry VI. 

Wars of the Roses. 
61 Edward IV. (York.) 
83 Edward V. 
— Richard IIL 
85 Henry VII., the first 
of the Tudors. 



Scotland. 
6 James I. 
37 James II. 
60 James III. 
88 James IV. 

Great civil commotions 
in Scotland. 



The Greek empire gra- 
dually sinks into ruin, 
being assailed by the 
Turkish sultans ; 
3 Soleiman. 

10 Moussa. 

13 Mohammed I. 

21 Amurath II. 

51 Mohammed II., who 

53 takes (Jonstantino- 

81 Bayezid II. [pie. 

The empire of Timur 
destroyed by the civil 
wars of his descend- 
ants, one of whom, 
Baber, founds the 
empire of Delhi, or of 
the Great Mogul, in 
India. 



Maritime enterprises 
encouraged. 

Air-gun and musket in- 
vented. 

The art of printing. 

Vatican library found- 
ed. 

Greek philosophers 
seek refuge in Italy. 

Algebra borrowed from 
the Arabs. 

Discovery of America. 

Passage round the 
the Cape of Good 
Hope discovered. 



794 



TABLES OP 



SIXTEENTH 



Denmark and 

SWKDKN. 



Denmark. 
13 C;hri.siian II. 
23 Frederic I 
34 Christian III. 
59 Frederic 1(. 
88 clnisliaii IV. 



Sweden. 

23 Gustavus Vasa 
establishes the in- 
dependence of 
Sweden. 

60 Eric XVI. 

B8 John III. 

92 Siijismund, king 
of Poland. 

99 Charles IX. 



Russia AND Poland. 



GERMANy, *c. 



Russia. 
5 Vasili Ivanovitch. 
3a IvanVasiliovitchll 
84 Feodor. 
98 Buris Gudonof. 



Poland. 
1 Alexander. 
6 Siofisrnund I. 

46 Sijjisinund II. Au- 
gustus. 

~'i Henry of Valois. 

"5 Stephen. 

87 Sigismund III. 
who also became 
king of Sweden. 



Empire. 

19 Charles V. king 
of Spain, ic. 

58 Ferdinand I. 

64 Ma.xirnillan II. 

76 Rudolph II. 

Prussia rises gradu- 
ally into import- 
ance. 

Holland rejects the 
yoke of Spain, and 

84 Maurice, prince of 
Orange, is chosen 
Stadtholder of the 
United Provinces. 



France. 



15 Francis I. 
47 Henry II. 

59 Francis II 

60 Charles IX. 
74 Henry HI. 

Wars of the 

League. 

89 Henry IV. 

of Bourbon. 



Popes. 



3 Pius 'II. 

— .lulius II. 
13 Leo X. 

22 Adrian VI. 

23 t leinent VII. 
34 Paul III. 

50 .lulius HI. 
55 Marcellus HI. 

— Paul IV. 
59 I'lus IV. 
ti6 Pius V. 

72 Gregory XIII. 
85 Si.\tus V. 

90 Urban VII. 

— Gregory XIV. 

91 Innocent IX. 

92 Clement VHI. 
40 Oiderof.lesu- 

its established. 



SEVENTEENTH 



Denmark and 
Sweden. 



Denmark. 
J8 Frederic IH. 
iO Christian V. 
J9 Frederic IV. 



Sweden. 
II Gustavus Adolphus 
the Great. 
32 Christina. 
54 Charles X. 
60 Charles XI. 
«7 Charles XII. 

Great Northern War. 



Russia and Poland. 



Russia. 

5 Demetrius 

6 Vassili Shuiski. 

13 Michael Romanof. 

45 Alexis. 

76 Feodor. 

82 Ivan and Peter. 

96 Peter alone. 



Germany, <tc. 



Poland. 
32 Wladislaus VI. 
48 John Casimir. 
69 Michael Coryleat. 
74 .John Sobieski. 
97 Frederic Augustus 
I. of Saxony. 



Empire, 

12 Matthias. 

19 Ferdinand II. 

37 Ferdinand HI. 

58 Leopold I. 

The Thirty Years'War. 

The dutchy of Prussia 
- increases in power. 

Holland takes a promi- 
nent place among the 
European States. 



10 Louis XIII. 
43 Louis XIV. 

The monarchy of 
Fiance attains the 
summit of its great- 
ness, and the ambi- 
tion of the king ex- 
cites the jealousy of 
the principal Kuro- 
pean states. 



EIGHTEENTH AND 



Denmark. 



30 Christian 

VI. 
46 Frederic 

V. 
66 Christian 

VII. 
84 Regency. 



8 Frederic 

VI. 
14 Norway 

united 

Sweden. 
39 Christian 

VIU. 



Russia and 
Poland. 



18 Ulrica Leo- 
nora. 
20 Frederic I. 

of Hesse Cas- 

sel. 
51 Adolphus 

Frederic of 

Holstein. 
7J Gustavus 

IH. 
92 Gustavus 

Adolphus II. 



9 Charles 

XIII. 
10 Bemadotte 

chosen 

Crown prince 
19 Becomes 

king, as 

Charles John. 



Russia. 

21 Peter the 
Great takes the 
title of Empe- 
ror. 

25 Catherine I. 

27 Peter II. 

30 Annelvanofna 

— Ivan, a minor. 

41 Elizabeth. 

61 Peter H. 

62 Catherine II. 
96 Paul I. 



Poland. 
Having been 

long distracted 
by civil com- 
motions, is in 
1772 dismem- 
bered by Rus- 
sia, Prussia, and 
Austria. 



Russia. 
I Alexander. 

25 Nicholas. 

31 Attempted 
Polish revolu- 
tion. 



Germany, &c. 



Empire. 

5 Joseph I. 
1 1 Charles VI. 
42 Charles VII. 

of Bavaria. 
45 Francis I. of 

Lorraine, and 

Maria Theresa. 
65 Joseph II. 
90 Leopold II. 
92 Francis II. 



Prussia. 

1 Becomes a 

kingdom. 
40 Frederick H, 

the Great. 
86 Fred.Wm. H. 
96Fred.Wm.IlI. 



Austria. 
4 Francis 
35 Ferdinand I 
Emperor of 
Austria. 



Prussia. 
40 Fred. VVrn.IV 



France. 



14 LouisXV. 

74 Louis 

XVI. 
92 Republic 

Sanguinary 

tumults 

and civil 

wars. 
99Napoleon, 

First Con- 
sul. 



4 Napoleon 
Emperor. 

14 Louis 
XVIII. 

15 Napoleon 
restored 

— Louis 
XVIII. re- 
stored. 
25 CharlesX 
30 L. Philip. 



Clement XI 
21 Innocent XIII 
24 Benedict XIII 
30 Clement XII 
40 Benedict XIV 
58 Clement XIII 
69 Clement XIV 
75 Pius VI. 
9S Roman repub- 

Uc. 



Pius VIL 

8 Pope deposed 

14 re.'itored. 

23 I.eo XII. 

31 Gregory XVI. 



Holland. 

1814 William I. 

1840 WiUiamll. 

on the abdication 

of his father. 



CENTURY. 



CONTEMPORARY DYNASTIES. 



795 



4 Ferdinand the Cath- 
olic, alone. 

— Philip I. of Austria, 

16 Charles I., or V., as 
emperor of Germany 

56 Philip II. 

98 Philip 111. 



Portugal. 
21 John III. 
57 Sebastian. 
78 Henry the Cardinal. 
80 Portugal is united to 
Spain. 



England and 
Scotland. 



England. 
9 Henry VI[[. 
47 Edward VI. 
53 Jane Grey. 
— Mary. 
58 Elizabeth. 



Scotland. 

13 James V. 

42 Mary. 

67 James VI. who, at 
the beginning of the 
next century, unites 
the kingdoms of Eng- 
land and Scotland, 
which are henceforth 
called Great Britain. 



Turks and Persians. 



Turkey. 
12 Sehm I. 
20 Soleiman II. 
66 Selim II. 
74 Amurath III. 
95 Mohammed III. 



Persia. 
I The Suffavean dy- 
nasty founded by Is- 
mael. 

25 Shah Taurasp. 

77 Mohammed. 

£4 Abbas the Great. 



Progress of Civili- 
zation. 



The Reformation. 

The Copernican sys- 
tem. 

Reformation of the 
calendar. 

Stocking-frame. 

Newspapers. 

Telescopes. 

Toleration legally es- 
tablished in France by 
the Edict of Nantes. 



CENTURY. 



5 Leo XI. 
— Paul V. 
21 Gregory XV. 
23 Urban VIII. 
44 Innocent X. 
55 Alexander 

VH. 
67 Clement IX. 
70 Clement X. 
76 Innocent XI. 
89 Alexander 

VIII. 
91 Innocent XII. 



Spain, &c. 



Spain. 
21 Philip IV. 
65 Charles II. 



Portugal. 
Separates from 

Spain under 
40 John IV. of 

Braganza. 
5fi Alphonso IV. 
68 Peter II. 



Great Britain. 



3 James VI., of 

Scotland, and I. 

of England. 
25 Charles I. 
42 Civil war. 
49 Commonwealth 
53 Cromwell, Lord 

Protector. 
58 Richard, ditto. 
60 Charles II. 
85 James II. 

88 Revolution. 

89 W^illiam HI. 
and Mary. 



Turks and 
Persians. 



Turkey. 
4 Ahmed I. 
17 Mustapha I. 
23 Amurath IV. 
40 Ibrahim. 
55 Mohammed IV. 
87 Soleiman III. 
90 Ahmed II. 
98 Mustapha 11. 



Persia. 
Declines rapidly un- 
der the later Suf- 
favean princes. 



Progress of Civili- 
zation. 



Logarithms. 

Steam-engines. 

Circulation of the 
blood. 

Regular posts. 

Thermometer and 
barometer. 

Air-pump. 

Jesuits' bark. 

Bayonets. 

Plate glass. 

Bank of England 
projected. 

National Debt be- 
gun. 



NINETEENTH CENTURIES. 



Philip V. 
of Anjou. 

24 Louis. 

25 Phihp V. 
restored. 

46 Ferdinand 
VI. 

59 CharlesIIl 
88 CharleslV 
The Spanish 
monarchy 
gradually 
dechnes, 
the court 
imbecile 
and profli- 



8 Ferdinand 
VII. 

— Joseph. 
Napoleon. 

14 Ferdinand 
VII. restor- 
ed. 

33 Isabella II 



PORTUGAL. 



6 John V. 

50 Joseph Em- 
manuel. 

77 IMary. 

96 John, Re- 
gent. 

The Portu- 
guese monar- 
chy declines 
like the Span- 
ish. 



9 Royal fami- 
ly emigrate. 

14 French ex- 
pelled. 

21 John VI. 

28 MigueL 

31 Maria da 
Gloria. 



Great Britain. 



2 Anne (Stuart). 
14 George I. of 

Hanover. 
27 George II. 
60 George IH. 
83 The American 
colonies become 
independent 
states, and about 
the same time 
the foundation 
is laid of the 
British empire in 
Hindustan. Eng- 
land during the 
close of the cen- 
tury establishes 
its naval supre- 
macy. 



11 George, 

Prince Regent. 
20 George IV. 
30 WilUam IV. 
37 Victoria. 



Belgium. 
1831 Leopold 
elected king. 



Turks and 
Persians. 



India, &c. 



Progress of 
Civilization. 



Turkey. 
3 Ahmed III. 

30 MohammedV. 

54 Ottoman III. 

57 Mustapha III. 

74 Ahmed IV. 

89 SeUm IH. 

The power of 
Turkey gradu- 
ally declines. 



Persia. 
For a while be- 
ciimes power- 
ful under Nadir 
Shah, but after 
his death it is 
again distracted 
by civil wars, & 
the sovereignty 
is seized by the 
Turkish tribe of 
the Kajars. 



Turkey. 

7 Mustapha IV. 

8 Mohammed 
VI. 

19 Abdul Medjid. 

Greece. 
31 Otho of Bava- 
ria. 



is 3 ° a.s ^ 



lUH 



. ^. pa O " 

a. ^ 



' '^ ... 



i^a 



Runjit 
Sing,ruler of 
Punjab. 

39 Shah Su- 
jah, restored 
to the throne 
of Cabul. 

40 English 
murdered in 
Cabul. Shah 
Sujah slain. 



Porcelain manu- 
factured in Eu- 
rope. 

Inoculation in- 
troduced. 

Chronometers. 

Cook's voyages. 

Colonization of 
AustraUa. 

Spinningjennies 

Galvanism. 

Planet Herschel 
discovered. 

Air balloons. 

Telegraphs. 

Steam-boats dis- 
covered, but not 
used until the 
next century. 



Steam-vessels. 
Gas-lights. 
Lithography. 
New processes 

of engraving. 
Arctic voyages. 
Railroads. 
Locomotive 

Engines. 



796 



FAMILY OF THE BOURBONS. 









O 

cq 

O 



o 
<5 

Eh 

<i 
O 
t— I 

o 
o 




■< 3 

s 



LhOID 



ROYAL FAMILY OF ENGLAND. 



797 



g 

W 

o 

t-H 

h^ 

<1 

o 

o 

< 



-a 

<U4_ 
> „ 

S c 

>* !io 

t« c 
OH 

— ^ t^ — 
-So 

^ ■ 






g 



■3« 






Li 



~ H CD 

^5 



oS 



ii M ^ 



■—-a 



^5 



-< o 



Eg 



<3.M 

rt § 

li 

U (D 









CU o 



Wo 



— c S — ••=: 



.2 3 








SO 




E^ 


ll 


(iTo 


■a Si 


§1 


^--^ 


^S. 


-S^" 


« 


feS 




«^ 








<N O 



^1 



-13 Amelia, 
1 1809. 



-12 Sophia, 
unmarried. 



-II Mary, 
dutcfaess of 
Gloacester. 



-9 Augustus, 
duke of Sussex. 



— 8 Ernest, duke I 
of Cumber- 1 
land, and king | 
of Hanover. J 



7 Elizabeth, 
princess of 
Hesse Homburg, 
1 1810. 



— 6 Augusta, 
1 1840. 



-5 Edward, 
duke of Kent, 
1 1820. 



—4 Charlotte, 

queen of Wir- 
temberg, 1 1828. 



fto- 








1" 






^ o 


3 WlLMAM IV., 

tl837. 


te Eli2 
n infai 


^05 
— <i g 




,^ — . 


"m 9 




Ot3 

1^ 


5-2 



1^ 



Ho 



-2 Frederick, 
duke of York, 
+ 1827. 



"1 George IV., 
1 1830. 



^^ 



^: 



VALUABLE HISTORICAL WORKS 

Published hy D. APPLE TON S^ CO. 
GUIZOT.-GENERAL HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION IN EUROPE, 

From the fall of the Roman Empire to the French Revolution. Translated' 
from the French of M. Guizot, Professor of History to la Faculte des Let- 
tres of Paris, and Minister of Public Instruction. Third American Edition^ 
with Notes, by C. S. Henry, D. D. One handsome volume, 12mo. ^1. 
M. Guizot in his instructive Lectures has given us an epitome of modern history, 

distino-uished by all the merit which, in another department, renders Blackstone a subject. 

of sudi pecuHar and unbounded praise— a work closely condensed, includmg nothmg 

useless, omitting nothing essential ; written with grace, and conceived and arranged 

with consummate ability.— Boston Traveller. 

BURNET.-THE HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 

Of the Church of England, by Gilbert Burnet, D. D., late Lord Bishop of 
Salisbury — with the Collection of Records, and a copious Index, revised 
and corrected, with additional Notes and a Preface, by the Rev. E. Nares, 
D. D., late Professor of Modern History in the University of Oxford. Il- 
lustrated with a Frontispiece and twenty-three engraved Portraits — forming 
four elegant 8vo. vols. $8. 

\* A cheap edition is printed, containing the History in 3 vols, without the Records — 
which form the fourth vol. of the above. Price, in boards, $2 50. 
To the student either of civil or religious history, no epoch can be of more importance 

than that of the Reformation in England. The History of Bishop Burnet is one of the 

most celebrated, and by far the most frequently quoted, of any that has been written of^ 

this great event. 

lUational Works—By Frofessor Frost, !■£. I>. 

vUst JPuoIzsJicci 

THE BOOK OP THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA ; 

Their Manners, Customs, and Present State. Compiled from the most recent 
authorities. By John Frost, LL. D., Author of the Book of the Army,. 
Book of the Navy, &tc. In one volume, 12mo., with numerous illustra- 
tions. ^1. 

The intention of this work is to furnish a correct view of the present state of the'abori- 
gines of the country, and especially of the wild Indians, who are comparatively igno- 
rant of the white man and his arts of civilization. The authorities chiefly relied on are 
Mr. Catlin, Prince Maximilian of Weed, and other recent travellers, with occasional" 
anecdotes from older writers. 

By the same Author, 4th edition, uniform, 

THE BOOK OF THE NAVY; 

Comprising a General History of the American Marine, and particular accounts 
of all the most celebrated Naval Battles, from the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence to the present time, compiled from the best authorities. Embellished 
with numerous original Engravings, and Portraits of distinguished Naval 
Commanders. One volume, 12mo. ^1. 

Nearly Ready for Publication, 

THE BOOK OF THE ARMY; 

Comprising a General Military History of the United States, from the period 
of the Revolution to the present time, with particular accounts of all the 
most celebrated Military Battles. Compiled from the best authorities. By 
John Frost, LL. D., Professor of Belles Lettres in the High School of 
Philidelphia. Embellished with numerous Engravings and steel Portraits. 

One volume, 12mo. 

This work gives a complete history of military operations, and their causes and effects, 
from the opening of the Revolution to the close of the last war, with graphic descrip- 
tions of the celebrated battles, and characters of the leading generals. 



D. Ajypleton fy Co. have 

IN COURSE OP PUBLICATION IN PARTS, PRICE 25 CENTS EACH, 

HISTORY OF FRANCE, 

FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE PRESENT TIME. 

BY M. MICHELET, 

Professeur-suppleant a la Facultii Des Lettres, Professeur k L'Ecole Normale, Chef de la Sec 

tion Ilistorique aux Archives du Royaume. 

TRANSLATED BY G. H. SMITH, F. G. S., &.c. 

The celebrity of this work on the Continent, and tiie want in English Literature of a good 

liistory of France, has induced the publishers to introduce it to the American public at a price 

within the means of all. 

^*, It is designed to publish tlie work in monthly parts, (or oftener if possible.) Two 
parts of tlie American edition containing a volume of the Paris, at one-tiiird the cost. Th© 
whole work will probably make sixteen Nos., and bind in four octavo volumes. 

OPINIONS OF HIGH CRITICAL AUTHORITIES. 

From the Foreign duarterly Review, Vol. L. No. 

"M. Michelet, whose Historical labors both on Ancient and Modern topics have long ren- 
dered liim a great favorite with the French public, is placed in one of the most enviable situa- 
tions that an historian can hold, as chief of the Historical Section in the Archives du Royaume 
— all the riches of this immense establishment are in his own keeping; and tliis circumstance, 
added to his honorable position of Professor of History for France, puts him at once at the 
head of the historical portion of his own countrymen. To the accumulated stores of a life of 
continual research he adds tiie precious acquirements of a most accomplished modern linguist, 
and a well read scholar in the tongues of classical antiquity ; he possesses unwearied powers 
of application, and is one of the most conscientious searchers of original documents that is any 
where to be met with. . . The highly poetical and religious turn of mind of this author leads 
him to place every thing in new and original points of view ; his descriptions are accurate, 
full of details, and eminently grapliic. After quoting passages from the author's work, the re 
viewer says: These passages, which we have cited at considerable length in order to make 
the reader more fully acquainted with M. Michelet's style, are too beautiful, too dramatic, to 
need much comment of our own. We need only say that the same strain of poesy pervades 
almost every page of his book; that as the reader turns over leaf after leaf he finds new views 
opening to iiis sight, new methods of treating matters of previously well known historical ce- 
lebrity, and every where the most cheering and amiable display of candor, moderation, and 
conscientious judgment. It is impossible to peruse these volumes without feeling a regard for 
the author that increases the further we advance in them." 

" Michelet's History has only to be translated to become one of the most popular books 
ever published. The author is a man of the highest genius; his erudition is wonderful, and 
he is at once philosophic and dramatic, uniting the severest judgment to the most facile and 
delicate ima'^ination. His historv is thus not only a succession of faithful pictures but a series, 
of the profoundest deductions. The modern French school of history, comprising as it does, 
amontf many illustrious names, those of Thiers, Guizot, and Thierry, is deservedly acknow- 
ledged as the first in Europe, and at the head of it we should certainly place Mons. Michelet." 
— Monthly Magazine. 

From the Edinburgh Review. 
" Whiit reason induces the educated part of our countrymen to ignore, in so determined a manner, the more solid 
productions of the most active national mind in Europe, and to limit their Frencli reading? to M. De Balzac and Eugene 
Sae tliere would he some difficulty in precisely determining. Perhaps it is the ancient dread of French frivolity and 
superficiality. If it be the former, wo can assure them that there is no longer ground for such a feeling; if the latter, 
we must be permitted to doubt that there ever was. It is unnecessary to discuss whether, as some affirra, a strong 
religious "revival" is taking place in France, and whether such a phenomenon, if real, is likely to be permanent. 
The°re is at least a decided reaction against the infidelity of the last age. The Voltarian philosophy is looked upon as 
a thin" of the past ; one of its most celebrated assailants has been heard to lament that it has no living representation 
sufficiently considerable to perform the functions of a ' constitutional' opposition against the reigning philosophic doc- 
trines. The present French thinkers, whether receivingUhristianity or not as a divine revelation, in no svay fuel them- 
selves called upon to be unjust to it as a fact in history. There are men who, not disguising their own unbelief, have 
written deeper and finer things in vindication of what religion has done for mankind, than' have sufficed to found the 
reputation of its most admired defenders. If they have any historical prejudice on the subject, it is in favor of the 
priesthood. Tliey leave the opinions of David Hume on ecclesiastical history, to the exclusive patronage (we are 
sorry to say) of Protestant writers in Great Britain. 

ci* * * M_ Michelet's are not books jto save a reader the trouble of thinking, but to make him boil over with 
chou^ht. Their effect on the mind ii not acquiescence, but stir and ferment. For his book, at least in the earlier 
/olurnes is a history of the middle ages, quite as much as of France ; and he has aimed at giving us, not the dry husk, 
)Ut the spirit of those ages. This had never been done bnfore in the same degree, not even by liis eminent precursor, 
Thierry, except for the period of [the Germanic invasions. The great value of the book is, that it does, to soma 
sxient make us understand what was really passing in the collective mind of each generation. For, in assuming 
listinctness the life of the past assumes also variety under M. -Michelet's hands. With him, each period bus a phy- 
io^nomy an'd a character of its own. It is in reading him that we are made to fel distinctly, how mmy successive 
onditions of humanity, and states of the human mind, are habitually confounded under the appellaiioii of the middle 
£69. To common perceptioji, those times are like a distant range of mountains, all melted together intone cloud- 

«< * * *l\I. Michelet is a man of deep erudition and extensive research. He has a high reputation among the 
'ranch learned for his industry; while his official position, which connects him with the archives of the kingdom, 
as given him access to a rich source of unexplored authorities, of which he has made abundant use in his early 
olumes, and which promise to be of still greater importance in those yet to come. Even in ita mere facti, therefore, 
lis history is considerably in adranc* of all previously written." 

A . A 



D. APPLETON &t COMPANY, 

Have just published, 



lthe 



LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

OF 

THOMAS ARNOLD, D. D., 

AutJior of the " History of Rome," etc., etc. 

BY REV. A. P. STANLEY, A. M. 
Two volumes of English edition in one vol., 12mo. 

The Life of Dr. Arnold, which ia now first offered to the American public, has been received with 
wonderful success in England — no Biography has been published for many years which has called 
forth 80 unanimous expression of satisfaction from all parties. 

No considerable review in England, whether representing the high or low parties in Church or 
State — no weekly or daily publication but that has been forced to express the wonderful powei and 
beauty of this volume of Biography. 

If more were wanted to call attention to the work, we may mention the fact that the third edition' 
of 1500 copies, at $7 50, which has just appeared, was subscribed for by the London trade in sis- 
hours — one firm ordering 500 copies, only 300 of which the publisher was able to deliver. 

The Life of Dr. Arnold is highly valuable to heads of colleges and seminaries of learning — 
•Indents and teachers in our public and private schools — and if the successful eiamplejwhich Dr. 
Arnold has exemplified in his life as " Head Master in Rugby School," is followed in our own country, 
B striking change will come over our public schools. 

Dr. Arnold's sound and sensible mode of action as head master over/our hundred pupils, inspired 
boys and masters alike with love, reverence, and confidence — to make them rest with implicit trust 
on his decisions. He looked to the promise, not to the performance ; to sowing the seeds, not reaping 
the fruits of his labor. 

Dr. Arnold's correspondence will prove highly important in reference to the " Oxford movement," 
as indeed his benevolent and active mind embraced every important topic of the day. 

From the Edinburgh Review. 
" When I look round, there seems to me some one point or quality which distinguishes really nobl0 
person! from ordinary ones ; it is not honesty or kindness ; but it seems to me to be moral thought- 
fulnees, which makes a man love Christ instead of being a fanatic, and love truth without being cold 
or hard." This sentence of his own, would give, indeed, a very imperfect idea of Dr. Arnold's char- 
acter, but it may express the first general view that serious and good men of every party will take of 
it, and the leason why a faithful life of him would be extensively popular. Mr. Stanley has produced 
the loving and honest picture of a most amiable and most efficient man who, in the unconscioun auto- 
biography of a large correspondence, gives us without reserve his feelings on those four or five points 
of social and theological interest of which every one now is wondering what the end will be. Tnteni* 
energy in a profession which, important as it ever was, he was the first to raise to its true dignity — 
an enthusiasm which, if sometimes restless, was never sentimental, but always practical in behalf of 
bis church and country — the gentlest and warmest affections to his friends and family — and withal as 
almost boyish playfulness and freshness lighting up and relieving the naturally stern earneatnesi of a» 
enthusiastic temperament — these are qualities which strike us at first sight,^and which (whatever wo 
may think of his opinions) ought to spur us to imitate his actions. 

From the Westminster Review. 

More interesting — more timely volumes have seldom issued from the press. They contain the 
records of a life and mind of no ordinary cast ; a life distinguished, indeed, by few remarkable events, 
but spent in the service of God and man ; and a mind singularly energetic, earnest, and sincere — ^gifted' 
with rare endowments, and sound to its very core, 

Mr. Stanley's task has been admirably executed. We never remember to have met with any 
memoirs, in which the biographer's part presents so little matter of criticism, and so much for linear* 
praise and admiration — sound judgment, delicate tact, and a thorough compreheniion of, and lympatby 
with, his lubject, are conspicuous in every line. 



D. APPLETON & COMPANY 

ARE PREPARING FOR PUBLICATION, 

A DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE: 

CONTAINING THE 

PRONUNCIATION, ETYMOLOGY AND EXPLANATION 

Of all Words authorized by eminent Writers; 

TO WHICH ARE ADDIiD, 

A VOCABULARY OF THE ROOTS OF ENGLISH WORDS 

AND AN 
ACCENTED LIST OF GREEK, LATIN, AND SCRIPTURE PROPER NAMES. 

Bv ALEXANDER REID, A.M., 

Eector of the Circus School, Edinburgh. 

One volume, 12mo., of 56-1 pages. 

In this work, to which the author has devoted the labour of many years, an attempt has been made 
to compile a Dictionary for schools and general reference, adapted to the present state of the English 
language, and to the improved method of leaching ; it contains every word which has been sanctioned 
by the use of eminent authors, except such as have bt'conie obsolete, or are merely technical. While 
the usual alphabetical arrangement is preserved, the words are at the same lime grouped in such a 
manner as to show their etymological affinity, and after tile first word of each group, is given the root 
from which they are derived. These roots are afterwards arranged into a vocabulary ; so that the 
Dictionary may be either used for reference or for teaching derivations. The pronunciation, which 
is indicated by simple notation, is that of Walker; unless where the latter deviates from prevailing 
usage or from the majority of competent authorities. The classical or scriptural proper names, are 
printed in one list, and divided into syllables, and accented as they ought to be pronounced. 

D. A. & Co , having purchased of the Glasgow publishers a duplicate cast of the stereotype plates 
of this work, will publish the same early in the coming season. As the value of a work of this class 
rests so nmeli upon the proper placing of the accents, it would have been almost impossible for any 
one but the author to read such composition and correct it properly. The American edition will thus 
Iiave all the advantages of the corrected te.xt of the author. 

JUST PUBLISHED, 

HISTORY OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION; 

ITS CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES. 

By F MACLEAN ROWAN. 

Two volumes, 18mo., price 75 cents ; or two volumes in one, price 63 cents. 

An investigation of the causes of the French Revolution, wilh a survey of its progressive mutations, 
and of its most eventful consequences, is essential to all persons who would accurately comprehend 
the almost incredible changes which within the la^t half century have passed over the principal 
States of Europe. The extent, however, of the narrative, has almost precluded many persons from 
exi)loring ihat mine of healthful instruction. Mr. Rowan, however, in this neat volume, has combined 
all ihe grand points in Ihe exciting subject, so that youth, and pfrsons of comparatively little leisure, 
may understand the principal events and actors in that wonderful European strife. We recommend 
the work as exactly adapted for its design, replete with information and interest, and it should form one 
of the volumes of all domestic and juvenile libraries. It has also been issued in two volumes, as one of 
the series of works under tlie general title of " Library for my Young Countrymen." — Courier cS- Enq. 

THE LIFEOF OLIVER CROMWELL. 

By ROBERT SOUTHEY, LL.D. 
Author of the Life of " Nelson," "Bunyan," &c. 
One neat volume, 18mo., cloth, 37i cents. 
Mr. Southey's naiTative is replete with graphic sketches and exciting incidents. It exhibits a com- 
prehensive summary of the most important events and principal actors of liis time. Few characters of 
past ages present stronger claims upon the attention of American readers than the Life of Oliver Crom.- 
well. 

INCIDENTS OF SOCIAL LIFE 

AMID THE EUROPEAN ALPS. 

TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN OF I. IlELNfRICH ZSCHOKKE, 

By LOUIS STRACK, 

One handsome volume, 12mo., $1 00. 

Thia volume includes four narratives, ihus entitled -.—I. Flori.-in, the Fugitive of the Jura.— II. Marble 

and Conrad : Mend the hole in your Sleeve. 111. Oliver Flyeln : a Fool of the Nineteenth Century.— 

IV. Hortensia, the Double-sighted: Asleep and Awake. 

The titles of the four Tales of which this volume is composed, at once attracted our attention; and 
•we concluded that it was not an ordinaiT <'phcmeral work of insipid and trifling fiction. Doubtless they 
are sketches from life, having all the verisimilitude of actual portraitures, the truthfulness of well known 
Bcenery, the tones of a lofty morality, and the attraction of the best sensibiliiies of the heart. We re- 
commend all persons who are conscious of a hole in their sleeves, to read Zschokke's book, and they 
will learn the way to mend it; and if they wish to become wise, they will take some lessons of truth 
and knowledge from the " Fool of the Nineteenth Century." — Courier Sf Enquirer. 



Appleton's Catalogue of Valuable Publications 

BURNET— THE HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 

Of the Churcli of England, by Gilbert Burnet, D. D., late Lord Bishop of 
Salisbury — with the Collection of Records and a copious Index, revised 
and corrected, with additional Notes and a Preface, by the Rev. E. 
Nares, D. D.,late Professor of Modern History in the University of Oxford. 
Illustrated with a Frontispiece and twenty-three engraved Portraits, form- 
ing four elegant 8vo. volumes. $8 00. 
A cheap edition is printed, containing the History in three vols, without the 
Records — which form the fourth vol. of the above. Price, in boards, $2 50. 
To the student either of civil or religious history, no epoch can be of more importance than 
that of the Reformation in England. Tlie History of Bishop Burnet is one of the most celebrated 
and bv far the most frequently quoted of any- that has been written of this great event. Upon the 
original publication of the tirst volume, it was received in Great Britain with the loudest and 
most extravagant encomiums. The author received the thanks of both Hoases of Parliament, 
and was requested by them to continue the work. In continuing it, he had the assistance of the 
most learned and eminent divines of his time; and he confesses his indebtedness for important 
aid to Lloyd, Tillotson,and Stilliuglieet, three of the greatest of England's Bishop-i. 

The present edition of this great work has been edited with laborious care by Ur. Nares, who 
professes to have corrected important errors into which the author fell, and to have made such 
improvements in the order of the work as will render it far more useful to the reader or historical 
student. Prelirainary explanations, full and sufficient to the clear understanding of the author, 
are given, and marginal references are made throughout the book, so as greatly to facilitate and 
lender accurate its consultation. It will of course find a place in every theologian's libraiy — and 
will, by no means, we trust, be confined to that comparatively limited sphere, — JV. Y. Tribune. 

BURNET— AN EXPOSITION OF THE XXXIX ARTICLES 

Of the Church of England. By Gilbert Burnet, D. D., late Bishop of Salisbury. 
With an Appendix, containing the Augsburg Confession, Creed of Pope 
Pius IV., &c. Revised and corrected, with copious Notes and Additional 
References, by the Rev. James R. Page, A. M. One handsome Bvo. vol- 
ume. $2 00. 
The editor has given to our clergy and our students in theology an edition ofthis-work, which 

must necessarily supersede every other, and we feel he'deserves well at the hands of the Church, 

which he has so materially served. — Church of England Quarterly Review, 

BURNS— THE COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS 

Of Robert Burns, with Explanatory and Glossarial Notes, and a Life of the 
Author, by James Currie, M. D., illustrated with six steel engravings, one 
volume, 16mo. $1 25. 

Forming one of the series of " Cabinet Edition of Standard British Poets." 

This is the most complete American edition of Burns. It contains the whole of the poetry com- 
prised in the edition lately edited by Cunningham, as well as some additional pieces ; and such 
notes have been added as are calculated to illustrate the manners and customs of Scotland, so as 
to render the whole more intelligible to the English reader. 

He owes nothing to the poetry of oiher lands — he is the offspring of the soil : he is as natural 
to Scotland as the heath is to her hills — his variety is equal to his originality ; his humour, his 
gayety, his tenderness and his pathos, come all in a breath ; they come freely, for they come of 
their own accord ; the contrast is never offensive ; the comic slides easily into the serious, tha 
serious into the tender, and the tender into the pathetic— Allan Cunningham. 

CAMERON— THE FARMER'S DAUGHTER: 

A Tale of Humble Life, by Mrs. Cameron, author of " Emma and Her Nurse," 

" the Two Mothers," etc., etc., one volume, IBmo., frontispiece. 37 1-2 cts. 

We welcome, in this little volume, a valuable addition to the excellent series of " Tales for 

the People and their Children." The story conveys high moral truths, in a most attractive form. 

— Hunt's Merchant's Mag. 

CARLYLE— ON HEROES, HERO WORSHIP, 

And the Heroic in History. Six Lectures, reported with Emendations and Ad- 
ditions, by Thomas Carlyle, author of the " French Revolution," "Sartor 
Resartus," &c. Elegantly printed in one vol. 12mo. Second edition. $1. 

CHILD'S DELIGHT; 

A Gift for the Young. Edited by a lady. One volume small 4to. Embel- 
lished with six steel Engravings coloured in the most attractive style. 

This is the gem of the season. In stylo of embellishment and originality of matter, it itandf 
iJoiie. We cordially lecommead th« volume toour juvwiile friends. — U. S, Oaiette. 

5 



Appleton's Catalogue of Valuable Publications. 

CHURTON.— THE EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH; 

Or, Christian History of Engl;iii(i in early British, Saxon, and Norman Times. 
By tiie Rev. Edward Chtirtun, M. A With a Preface by the Right Rev. 
Bisiiop Ives. One vol. IGino. $1 00. 

The following delightful pa^es place before us some of the choicest examples — both clerical 
and lay — of tlie true Ulirisiiun spirit in iht KARLY ENGLISH CHURCH. In truth, those pages 
are crowded with weighty lessons. * * * Extract from Editor's Preface. 

CLARKE.— SCRIPTURE PROMISES 

Under their proper heads, representing the Blessings Promised, the Duties to 
which Promises are made. By Samuel Clarke, D. D. Miniature size.. 
37 1-2 cents. 

In this edition every passage of Scripture has been compared and verified. The volume i> 
like an arranged museum of gems, and precious stones, and pearls of inestimable value. The 
divine promises comprehend a rich and endless vaiiety. — Dr Wardlaw. 

COOLEY— THE AMERICAN IN EGYPT. 

With Rambles through Arabia-Petrcea and the Holy Land, during the years- 
1839-40. By James Ewing Cooley. Illustrated with numerous steel En 
gravings, also Etchings and Designs by Johnston. One handsome volume,, 
octavo, of 610 pages. $2 00. 

No other volume extant gives the reader so true a picture of what he would be likely to see 
and meet in Egypt. No other book is more practical and plain in its picture of precisely what 
the traveller himself '.viU meet. Other writers have one account lo give of their journey on paper^ 
and another to relate in conversation. Mr. Cooley hai but one story for the fireside circle and 
the printed page. — Brother Jonathan. 

CHAVASSE.-ADVICE TO MOTHERS 

On the Management of their Offspring, during the periods of Infancy, Child- 
hood, and Youth, by Dr. Pye Henry Chavasse, Member of the Royal Col- 
lege of Surgeons, London, from the third English edition, one volume, 
18mo. of 180 pages. Paper 25 cents, cloth 37 1-2. 

All that I have attempted is, to have written useful advice, in a clear style, stripped of all' 
technicalities, which mothers of every station may understand. * * * I have adopted a con- 
versational form, as being more familiar, and as an easier method of making myself understood. — 
Extract from Autlwr''s Preface. 

COPLEY,— EARLY FRIENDSHIPS. . 

By Mrs. Copley. With a frontispiece. One volume, ISmo. 37-12 cents. 

A continuation of the little library of popular works for " the People and their Children." If» 
design is, by giving the boarding-school history of a young girl, whose early education had beeiv 
conducted on Christian principles, to show the pre-eminent value of those principles in moulding- 
and udorning tlie cliaracter, and enabling their possessor successfully to meet the temptatiooa 
and trials of life. It is attractively written, and full of interest. — Cum. Adv. 

COPLEY.— THE POPLAR GROVE: 

Or, little Harry and his Uncle Benjamin. By Mrs. Copley, author of "Early 
Friendships," &c., &c. One vol. ISmo. frontispiece, 37 1-2 cents. 

An excellent little story this, showing how sound sense, honest principles, and intelligent 
induntry, not only advance their possessor, but, as in the case of Uncle Boiijamin the gardener, 
enable him to become the benef.ictor, guide, and friend of relations cast down from a loftier spher* 
in life, and, but for him, without lesource. It is a tale for youth of ail classes, that cannot bft 
read without profit. — JV. Y. Aiuerican. 

CORTES.— THE ADVENTURES OF 

Hernan Cortes, the Conqueror of Mexico, by the author of " Uncle Philip'* 

Conversations," with a Portrait. One volume, IBmo. 37 1-2 cents. 
Forming one of the series of " A Library for my Young Count.-ymen." 

The story is full of interest, and is told in a captivating style. Such books add all the chamu 
of romance to the value of history. — Pruv. Journal. 

COTTON.-ELIZABETH; OR, THE EXILES OF SIBERIA. 

By JIadame Cotton. Miniature size, 31 1-4 cents. 
Forming one of the series of '< Miniature Classical Library." 
The extensive popularity o£this XiUXa tale ia well known. 

6 



Appleton's Catalogue of Valuable Publications. 

COWPER— THE COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS 

Of William Cowper, Esq., including the Hymns and Translations from Mad. 
Guion, Milton, «fcc., and Adam, a Sacred Drama, from the Italian of Bat- 
tista Andreini, with a Memoir of the Author, by the Rev. Henry Stebbing,. 
A. M. One volume, 16mo., 800 pages, $i 50, or in 2 vols. $1 75. 

Forming one of the Series of " Cabinet Edition of Standard British Poets." 

Morality never found in genius a more devoted advocate than Cowper, nor has moral wisdora, 
in its plain and severe precepts, been ever more successfully combined with the delicate spirit of 
poetry than in his works. He was endowed with all the powers which a poet could want who 
was to be the moralist of the world— the reprover, but not the satirist, of men — the teacher of 
simple truths, which were to be rendered gracious without endangering their simplicity. 

CRUDEN— CONCORDANCE OFTHE NEW TESTAMENT. 

By Alexander Cruden, M. A., with a Memoir of the Author by W. Youngman, 
Abridged from the last London Editior), by Wm. Patton, D. D. Portrait. 
One volume, 32mo., sheep, 50 cents. 
*** Contains all the words to be found in the large work relating to the New Testament. 

DE FOE.— PICTORIAL ROBINSON CRUSOE. 

The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. By Daniel De Foe. With a 
Memoir of the Author, and an Essay on his Writings, with upwards of 300 
spirited Engravings, by the celebrated French artist, Grandville, One 
elegant volume, octavo, of 500 pages. $1 75. 

Crusoe has obtained a ready passport to the mansions of the rich, and the cottages of the poor, 
and communicated equal delight to all ranks and classes of the community. Few works have 
been more generally read, or more justly admired ; few that have yielded such incessant amuse- 
ment, and, at tho same time, have developed so many lessons of practical instruction. — Sir Walter 
Scott. 

_ The Messrs. Appleton & Co., of New York, have just published a beautiful edition of "The 
Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe." Not the miserable abridgment generally circulated, 
but De Poe'a genuine work, Robinson Crusoe in full and at length, a story which never palls upon 
the reader, and never can lose its popularity while the English language endures. — Pcimnylvanian. 

D'ISRAELI.— CURIOSITIES OF LITERATURE, 

And the Literary Character illustrated, by I. Disraeli, Esq., D. C. L., F. S. A. 
First and Second Series. The Literary Character, illustrated by the Histo- 
ry of Men of Genius, drawn from their own feelings and confessions, by I. 
D'Israeli, Esq. Curiosities of American Literature, compiled, edited, and 
arranged by Rev. Rufus W. Grisvvold. The three works in one volume, 
large 8vo. Price $3 50. 

This is the double title of a large and beautifully printed octavo volume, which has just made 
itH appearance in the World of Letters. With the first part every body is already familiar. The 
deep research, the evident enthusiasm in his subject, and the light and pungent humor displayed 
by D'Israeli in it, are the delight of all classes of readers, and A-ill undoubtedly send bim down a 
cheerful journey to posterity, if only on account of the pleasant company in which he has managed 
80 agreeably to introduce himself. The other portion of this work — ihat relating to the Curiosi- 
ties of American Literature — is entirely new to the public; yet we shall be disappointed if it is 
not directly as popular as the other. Mr. Griswold has performed his task in a manner highly 
creditable to his taste, while displaying most favorably his industry, tact, and perseverance. — Jfeio 
York Tribune. 

DE LEUZE.— PRACTICAL INSTRUCTION IN ANIMAL 

Magnetism, by J. P. F. De Leuze, translated by Thomas C. Hartshorn. Re- 
vised edition, with an Appendix of Notes by the Translator, and Letters 
from v,minent Physicians and others, descriptive of cases in the U. States. 
One volume, 12mo. $1 00. 

The translator of this work has certainly presented the piofession with an uncommonly well 
digested treatise, enhanced in value by his own notes and the corroborative testimony of eminaot 
phyaiciana, — Boston Med ^ Surg. Journal. 

7 



Appleton's Catalogue of Valuable PubNeaiions. 

ELLIS.-THE DAUGHTERS OF ENGLAND; 

Their position in Society, Character, and Responsibilitiea. Bj Mrs. EUii. 
In one handsome volume, 12mo., clotii gilt. 50 cents. 

ELLIS.— THE WOMEN OF ENGLAND; 

Their Social Duties and Domestic Habits. By Mrs. Ellis. One handsome 
volume, 12mo., cloth gilt. 50 cents. 

ELLIS— THE WIVES OF ENGLAND; 

Tliuir Relative Duties, Domestic Influences, and Social Obligations. By Mrs. 
Ellis. One handsome volume, 12mo., cloth gilt. 50 cents. 

ELLIS— THE MOTHERS OF ENGLAND; 

Their Influence and Responsibility. By Mrs. Ellis. One handsome volume, 
12mo., cloth gilt. 50 cents. 
This is an appropriate anil very valuable conclusion to the series of works on the subject of 
female duties, by which Mrs. Ellis has pleased, and we doubt not profited, thousands of readers. 
Her counsels demand attention, not only by their practical, sagacious usefulness, but also by tha 
meek and modest spirit in which they are communicated. — JVatckman. 

ELLIS— THE MINISTER'S FAMILY; 

Or Hints to those who would make Home happy. By Mrs. Ellis. One vol- 
ume, 18mo. 37 1-2 cents. 

ELLIS— FIRST IMPRESSIONS; 

Or Hints to those who would make Home happy. By M/s. Ellis. One vol 
ume, ]8mo. 37 1-2 cents. 

ELLIS— DANGERS OF DINING OUT; 

Or Hints to those who would make Home happy. By Mrs. Ellis. One vol 
ume, 18mo. 37 1-2 cents. 

ELLIS— SOMERVILLE HALL; 

Or Hints to those who would make Home happy. By Mrs. Ellis. One vol- 
ume, ]8mo. 37 1-2 cents. 
The above four volumes forma portion of series of "Tales for the People and their Children." 

" To wish prosperity to such books as these, is to desire the moral and physical welfare of th« 

humun species." — Bath Chronicle. 

EVANS— EVENINGS WITH THE CHRONICLERS; 

Or Uncle Rupert's Tales of Chivalry. By R. M. Evans. With seventeen 
illustrations. One volume, 16mo., elegantly bound, 75 cents. 

This would have been a volume after our own hearts, while we were younijer, and it is 
tcarcely less so now when we are somewhat older. It discourses of those things whicli ;harmed 
all of us in early youth — the daring deeds of the Knights and Squires of feudal warfare — the true 
version of the " Chevy Chase," — the exploits of tlie stout and stalwart Warriors of England, 
Scotland, and Germany. In a word, it is an attractive book, and rendered more so to young read- 
ers by a scries of wood engravings, beautituUy executed. — Courier 4' Enquirer. 

EVANS— THE HISTORY OF JOAN OF ARC. 

By R. M. Evans, author of " Evenings with the Chroniclers," with twenty- 
four elegant illustrations. One volume, 16mo. Extra gilt. 75 cents. 
In llie work before us, we have not only a most interesting biography of this female prodigy, 
including wlMt she was anil what slie accoiniilislirfd, but also a faithful account of the relations 
that existed between En^'land and France, and of the singular state of things that marked tlie 
period when this wonderful personage appeared upon the stage. The leading incidents of hot 
hfe are related with exquisite simplicity and toucliing pathos ; and you cannot repress your admi- 
ration for her heroic qualities, or scarcely repress your tears in view of her ignominious end. To 
Xho youthful reader we heartily recommend this volume. — dlbanij Advertiser. 



A CATALOGUE OF 

IN VARIOUS DEPARTMENTS OF LITERATURE, 




PUBLISHED BY 

D. APPLETON h Co., New-York, 

AND 

GEO. S. APPLETON, Philadelphia. 
For sale hy the several Booksellers throvghout the United States. 

€lassifici) in^a'. 



AGRIOULTURE. 
Falkner on Manures. 
Smith's Prqfluctive Farming. 
Farmer's Treasure, by Falkner and Smith. 

ARTS, MAJXrUFACTtJRES, &c. 
Ewbank's Mechanics and Hydraulics. 
Hodge on the Steam-Engino. 
Lafever's Modern Architecture. 

" Stair-c;ise Construction. 
Ure's Dictionary of Arts, Manuf.,andMinei. 

BIOGRAPHY. 
Hamilton (Alex.), Life of. 
Philip's Life of Milne. 

CHEMISTRY. 
Freseniua's Chemical Analysis. 
Liebig's Chemical Letters. 
Parnell'a Applied Chemistry. 

EDUCATION. 
Kazan's Symbolical Speller. 
Keightley's Mythology of Greece and Italy. 
Taylor's Homo Education 

HISTORY. 
Frost's History of United Slates Navy, 
« " Army. 



Guizot's History of Civilization. 
L'Ardecho's History of Napoleon. 
Taylor's Natural History of Society. 

JUVENILE. 
Boone, Daniel, Adventures o£ 
Boy's Manual. 

Cameron's Farmer's Daughter. 
Child's Delight. 
Copley's Early Friendships. 
Copley's Poplar Glove. 
Cortes, Adventures of. 
De Foe's Kobinson Crusoe. 
Evans's Joan of Are. 

" Evenings with the Chronic fert. 
Guizot's Young Student. 
Girl's Manual. 
Holyday Tales. 
Howitt's Love and Money. 

" Work and Wages. 

" Little Coin, much Care. 

" Which is the Wiser? 

" Who shall be Greatest 

" Hope on, Hope ever. 

" Strive and Thrive. 

" Sowing and Reaping. 

" No Sense like Common Souse. 

" Alice Franklin. 
Jerram's Child's Story-Book. 



Appleton's Catalogue of Valuable Publications. 



Looking-Glam for the Mind. 
Lucy ami Artliur. 
JjOg Cabin, or World bcforo You. 
Murtineau's Crofton Boys. 

" Peasant and Prince. 

Mnrryal'a Masterman Ready. 
Old Oak True. 
Prize Story- Book. 
Pratt'a Dawiiings of Genius. 
Sandliam'8 Twin Siatcrs. 
Smith, Capt., Adventures oC 
Sherwood's Duty is Safety. 

" Jack the Sailor. 

" Think beforo you Act. 

Taylor's Young Fslandeis. 
Very Little Tales. 
Youth's Book of Nature. 

MEDICAL. 
Chavasse's Advice to Mothers. 
Hall's Principles of Diagnosis. 
Smith on Nervous System. 

IvnSCELLANEOUS. 

Arthur's Tired of Housekeeping. 
Austin's German Writers. 
Carlyle's Heroes, Hero Worship. 
Cotton's Exiles of Siberia. 
D'Israeli's Curiosities of Literature. 
Deleuze on Animal Magnetism. 
Ellis's Mothers of England. 

" Wives of En"land. 

" Daughters of England. 

" Women of England. 

" First Impressions. 

" Danger of Dining Out. 

" Somerville Hall. 
Embury's Nature's Gems. 
Foster's Miscellanies. 

" Christian Morals. 
Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield. 

" Essays. 

Johnson's Rasselas. 
Lover's Handy Andy. 

" £. s. d. — Treasure Trove. 
Maxwell's Hector O'Halloran. 
More's Domestic Tales. 

" Rural Tales. 
Pure Gold. 
Siuclair'i Scotland and Scotch. 

" Shetland and Shetlanders. 
St. Pierre's Paul and Virginia. 
Taylor's Physical Theory of Another Life. 
Useful Letter-Writer. 
Woman's Worth. 

POETRY. 

Bums's Poetical Works. 
Cowper's " 

Gems from American Poets. 
Hemans's Poetical Works. 

" Songs of the Affections. 
Lewis's R«>cordsof the Heart. 
Milton's Poetical Works. 
" Paradise Lost. 
" " Regained 

Moore's Lallah Rookh. 
Pollok's Course of Time. 
Scott'g Poetical Works. 
" Lady of the Lake. 
" Marmlon. 

" Lay of the Last Minstrel. 
Southey's Poetical Works. 
Thomson's S»ason3. 
Token of Affection, by various writerg 
" Friendabip. 



Token of Lovo. 

" the Heart. 

" Remembrance. 
Young's Night Thoughts. 

RELIGIOUS. 
A Kempia's Imitation of Christ. 
Antlion's Catechism on Homilies. 
Heaven's Help to Catechising. 
Bible E.xpositor. 
Book of Common Prayer. 
Burnet's Hist, of Reformation. 

" E.xposition of XXXIX. Articles. 
Bradley's Practical Sermons. 

" Sermons at Clapham and Glasburj. 
Churton's Early English Church. 
Christmas Bells. 
Cruden'a Concordance, N. T. 
Clarke's Scripture Promises. 
Evans's Rectory of Valehead. 
Faber on Election. 
Gresley on Preaching. 

" English Churchman. 
Hare's Sermons. 
Hooker's Works. 
James's True Christian. 

" Widow Directed. 

" Young Man from Home. 

" Christian Professor. 

" Anxious Jnquirer after Salvation. 

" Hnppiness, its Nature and Source*- 
Kip's Double Witness. 
Kingsley's Sacred Choir. 
Lyra Apostolica. ^ 

Magee on Atonement. 
Manning on Unity of the Church. 
Marshall's Notes on Episcopacy. 
More's Private Devotion. 

" Practical Piety. 
Maurice's Kingdom of Christ. 
Newman's Parochial Seimons. 

" Sermons on Subjects of the Day. 

Ogilby on Lay-Baptism, 

" Lectures on the Church. 
Palmer on the Church. 
Pagct's Tales of the Village. 
Pearson on the Creed. 
Philip's Devotional Guides. ■<, 

" The Hannahs. 

" The Marys. * 

" The Marthas. 

« The Lydias. 

" Love of the Spirit. 
Sherlock's Practical Christian. 
Smith on Scripture and Geology. 
Spencer's Christian Instmcted. 
Spincke's Manual of Devotion. 
Spraguo's Lectures to Young People. 

" True and False Religion. 
Sutton's Learn to Live. 

" Learn to Die. 

" On Sacrament. 
Stuart's Letters to Godchild. 
Taylor on Episcopacy. 
'" Golden Grove. 

" iSpiritual Christianity 
Wnyland's Human Responsibility 
Wilson's Sacra Privata. 
Wilberforce's Communicant's Manual. 

VOYAGES AND TRAVELS. 

Cooley's American in Egypt. 
Olmsted's Whaling Voyage. 
Silliman's Ameiican Scenery 
Soutiigate's Turkey and Persia. 



Appleton's Catalogue of Valuable Publications. 

A KEMPIS— OF THE IMITATION OF CHRIST: 

Four books by Thomas k Kempis. One elegant volume, 16mo. $1 00. 

"The author of this invaluable work was born about the year 1380, and haa always been 
■honoured by the Church for his eminent sanctity. Of the many pious worlis composed by him, 
his ' Imitation of Christ' (being collections of his devotional thoughts and meditations on impor- 
tant practical subjects, tO!;etlier witli a separate treatise on the Holy Communion) is the most 
celebrated, and haa ever been admired and valued by devout Christians of every name. It has 
passed through numerous editions and translations, tlie first of which into English is said to have 
been made by the illustrious Lady Margaret, mother of King Henry VII. Messrs. Appleton's 
Tery beautiful edition is a reprint from the last Knglish, the translation of which was chiefly 
copied from one printed at London in 1677, It deserves to be a companion of the good Uishop 
Wilson's Sacra Privata. — Banner of the Cross. 

AMERICAN POETS.— GEMS FROM AMERICAN POETS. 

One volume, 32mo., frontispiece, gilt leaves, 37 1-2 cents. 
Forming one of the series of " Miniature Classical Library." 
Contains selections from nearly one hundred writers, among which are — 
Bryant, Halleck, Longfellow, Percival, Whittier, Sprague, Brainerd, 
Dana, Willis, Pinkney, Allston, Hillhouse, Mrs. Sigourney, L. M. David- 
son, Lucy Hooper, Mrs. Embury, Mrs. Hale, etc. etc, 

ANTHON-CATECHISMS ON THE HOMILIES OF THE 

CHURCH, 

18mo. paper cover, 6 1-4 cents, $4 per hundred. 

CONTENTS. 

I. Of the Misery of Mankind. I HI. Of the Passion of Christ. 
II. Of the Nativity of Christ. | IV. Of the Resurrection of Christ. 

By HEiraY ANTHON, D. D., Rector of St. Mark's Church, New York. 

This little volume forms No. 2, of a series of " Tracts on Christian Doctrine and Practice," 
now in course of publication under the supervision of Rev. Dr. Anthon. 

AUSTIN— FRAGMENTS FROM GERMAN PROSE 
WRITERS. 

Translated by Sarah Austin, with Biographical Sketches of the Authors. 
One handsomely printed volume, 12mo. ^1 25. 

ARTHUR.— TIRED OF HOUSE-KEEPING 

By T. S. Arthur, author of "Insubordination," etc. etc. One volume, 18mo. 
frontispiece, 37 1-2 cents. 

Forming one of the series of "Tales for the People and their Children." 
Contents. — I. Going to House-keeping. — II. First Experiments. — III. 
Morning Calls. — IV. First Demonstrations. — V. Trouble with Servants. — VI. 
A New One— VII. More Trouble.— VIII. A True Friend.— IX. Another 
Powerful Demonstration. — X. Breaking up. — XI. Experiments in Boarding 
and Taking Boarder. — XII. More Sacrifices. — XIII. Extracting Good from 
Evil. — XIV. Failure of the First Experiments.— XV. The New Boarding- 
house.— XVI. Trouble in Earnest.— XVII. Sickness.— XVIII. Another 
Change. — XIX. Conclusion. 

BEAVEN.— A HELP TO CATECHISING. 

For the use of Clergymen, Schools, and Private Families. By James Bea- 
ven, D. D., Professor of Theology at King's College, Toronto. Revised 
and adapted to the use of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United 
States. By Henry Anthon, D. D., Rector of St. Mark's Church, N. Y. 
18mo., paper cover, 6 1-4 cents, $4 per hundred. 

Forming No. 1 of a series of "Tracts on Christian Doctrine and.Practice," nowin eoursaof 
publication tuider the superintendence of Rer. Dr. Anthon. 

3 



Appleton's Catalogue of Valuable Publications. 

BIBLE EXPOSITOR. 

Confirmation of the Trutli of the Holy Scriptures, from the Observations ot 
recent Travellers, illustrating the ]\Ianners, Customs, and Places referred to 
in the Bible. Published under the direction of the Society for the Promo- 
tion of Christian Knowledge, London. Illustrated with DO cuts. One 
volume, 12mo., 75 cents. 

EXTRACT FROM PREFACE. 

" The Holy Scriptures contain many pnssagee full of importance and beaut)', tjut not generally 
under8tood,becauso they contain allu^^iona 'o manners and customs, familiar indeed to tlioso to whom 
they were originally addressed, but imperfectly known to us. In oriicr to obviate this difficulty, 
this volume is now presented to the public, consisting of extracts fnun tlio narratives of travel- 
lers who have recorded the customs of the oriental nations, from whom we learn that some usages 
■were retained among them to this day, such as existed at the times when the Scriptures were 
written, and that their manners are in many instances little changed since the patriarchal times. 
The compiler of this volume trusts that it may be the means, under God's providence, of leading 
Bnlearned readers to a more general accjuaintance with Eastern customs, and assist them to a 
clearer perception of the jiropriety and beauty of the illustrations so often drawn from them in the 
Bible." 

BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER; 

And Administration of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies ot 
the Church, according to the use of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the 
United States of America, together with the Psalter or Psalms of David. 
Illustrated with six steel engravings, rubricated, 13mo. size, in "various 
bindings. 

Morocco, extra gilt leaves, $2 S25. With clasp, do., $3 00. Imitation of Morocco, gilt 
leaves, $1 50. Plain do., $1 00. Without rubrics, in Morocco, extra, §2 00. Imitation do., 
$1 25. Sheep, plain, 37 1-2 cents. It may also be had in rich silk velvet binding, mounted with 
gold, gilt borders, clasp, &c., price §8 00. 

A very superior edition, printed in large type, from the new authorized edition, is nearly 
ready. It will be embellished with choice steel engravings from designs by Overbeck. 

BOONE— ADVENTURES OF DANIEL BOONE, 

The Kentucky Rifleman. By the author of " Uncle Philip's Conversations." 
One volume, 18mo. 37 1-2 cents. 
Forming one of the series pf "A Library for my Young Countrymen." 

" It is an excellent narrative, written in a plain, familiar style, and sets forth the character and 
wild adventures of the hero of the Kentucky wilderness in a very attractive light. The boys will 
all be in an agony to read it." — Cum. Ado. 

BOYS' MANUAL. 

Comprising a Summary View of the Studies, Accomplishments, and Princi- 
ples of Conduct, best suited for pronioting Respectability and Success in 
Life. 1 vol. 18mo. 50 cents. 

BRADLEY.-FAMILY AND PARISH SERMONS. 

Preached at Clapham and Glasbury. By the Rev. Charles Bradley. From 
the seventh London edition, two volumes in one,8vo. $1 25. 



PRACTICAL SERMONS 



For every Sunday throughout the year and principal holydays. Two volume* 
of English edition in one Bvo $1 50. 

3):J" The above two volumes may be bound together in one. Price $9 50. 

The Sermons of this Divine are much admired for their plain, yet chaste and elegant style; 
they will be found admirably adapted for family reading and preaching, where no pastor is located. 
Recommendations might bo given, if space would admit, from several of our Bishops and Clergy — 
also from Ministers of various denominations. 

The following are a few of the English and American critical opinions of their merit: — 

" Bradley's style is sententious, pithy, and colloquial. He is simple without being quaint, 
and he almost holds conversation with his hearers, without descending from the dignity of the 
facred chair."— £<;/pcfic Review. 

" We earnestly desire that every pulpit may ever be the vehicle of discourses as judicious and 
practical, as scriptural and devout, as those." — Christian Observer. 

" The style is so simple thai llio most unlearned can understand them ; the matter so instrac- 
tive that the best informed can learn something ; the spirit so fervent that Uie most engaged 
Chriitian con be animated and warmed by \h%ii perusaL" — Cftrietian Wttnu^. 

4 



Appleton's Catalogue of Valuable Publications. 

EVANS— THE RECTORY OF VALEHEAD; 

Or, the Records of a Holy Home. By the Rev. R. W. Evans. From the 
twelfth English edition. One volume, 16mo. 75 cents. 
Universally and cordially do we recomnieiul this delightful volume Wo believe no person 
could read this work, and not be the better for its piou3 and touching lessons. It is a page taken 
irora the book of life, and eloquent with all the instruction of an excellent pattern ; it is a com- 
mentary on the aft'ectionato warning, " Rememher thy Creator in the days of thy youth." We 
have not for some time seen a work we could so deservedly praise, or so conscientiously recora- 
E.fcr..J — Literary Oazctte. 

EMBURY— NATURE'S GEMS," OR, AMERICAN FLOWERS 

In their Native Haunts. By Emma C. Embury. With twenty plates of Plants 
carefully colored after Nature, and landscape views of their localities, 
from drawings taken on the spot, by E. W. Whitefield. One imperial oc- 
tavo volume, printed on the finest paper, and elegantly bound. 

This beautiful work will undoubtedly form a " Gift-Book" for all seasons of the year. It is 
illustrated with twenty colored engravings of indigenous flowers, taken from drawings made oa 
the spot where they were found ; while each flower is accompanied by a view of some striking 
feature of American scenery. The literary plan of the book dilfers entirely from that of any other 
work on a similar subject which has yet appeared. Each plate has its botanical and local de- 
scription, though thechief part of tlie volume is composed of original tales and poetry, illustrative 
of the sentiments of the flowers, or associated with the landscape. No pains or expense has beea 
spared in the mi chanical execution of the volume, and the fiict thai it is purely American both 
in its graphic and literary departments, should recommend it to general notice. 

EWBANK— HYDRAULICS AND MECHANICS. 

A Descriptive and Historical Account of Hydraulic and other Machines for 
raising Water, including the Steam and Fire Engines, ancient and modern; 
with Observations on various subjects connected with the Mechanic Arts ; 
including the Progressive Development of the Steam Engine. In five 
books. Illustrated by nearly three hundred Engravings. By Thomas 
Ewbank. One handsome volume of six hundred pages. $3 50. 

This is a highly valuable production, replete with novelty and interest, and adapted to gratify 
equally the historian, the philosopher, and the mechanician, being the result of a protracted and 
extensive research among the arcana of historical and scientific literature. — JVat. Intelligencer, 

FABER— THE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION; 

Or, an Historical Inquiry into the Ideality and Causation of Scriptural Elec- 
tion, as received and maintained in the primitive Church of Christ. By 
George Stanley Faber, B. D., author of "Difficulties of Romanism,' 
"Difficulties of Infidelity," &c. Complete in one volume, octavo. $1 75. 

Mr. Faber verifies his opinion by demonstration. We cannot pay a higher respect to his work 
than by recommending it to all. — Church of England Quarterly Review. 

FALKNER— THE FARMER'S MANUAL. 

A Practical Treatise on the Nature and Value of Manures, founded from 
Experiments on various Crops, with a brief Account of the most Recent 
Discoveries in Agricultural Chemistry. By F. Falkner and the Author of 
" British Husbandry." 12mo., paper cover 31 cents, cloth 50 cents. 
It is the object of the present treatise to explain the nature and constitution of manures gene- 
rally — to point out the means of augmenting the quantity and preserving the fertilizing power of 
farm-yard manure, the various sources of mineral and other artificial manures, and the cause of 
their frequent failuies. — Author's Preface. 

FARMER'S TREASURE, THE ; 

Containing " Falkner's Farmer's Manual," and " Smith's Productive Farm- 
ing," bound together, l^mo., 75 cents. 

FOSTER— ESSAYS ON CHRISTIAN MORALS, 

Experimental and Practical. Originally delivered as Lectures at Broadmead 
Chapel, Bristol. By John Foster, author of " Essays on Decision of Char- 
acter," etc. One volume, 18mo., 50 cents. 

This volume coataina twenty-gix Essays, some of which are of the highest.order of sablimitf 
aTid excellence. 

9 



Appleton's Catalogue of Valuable Publications. 

FOSTER.-BIOG., LIT., AND PHIL. ESSAYS, 

Contributed to the Eclectic Review, by Jolin Foster, author of " Essays on De- 
cision of Human Character," etc. One volume, 12mo., $1 25. 

These contributions well deserve to class with those of Macauley, Jeffrey, and Sidney Smith, 
in the Edinburgh Review. They contain tlie productions of a more orijrinal and profound thinker 
than either, whoso master-mind has exerted a stronger inlluence upon his readers, and has left a 
deeper impr03>iion upon our literature ; and whose peculiar merit it was to present the docfrinea 
and moralities of the Christian faith, under a form and aspect which redeemed the familiar from 
triteness, and tlirew a charm and freshness about tlie severest truths. — London Patriot. 

FROST.— THE BOOK OF THE NAVY: 

Comprising a General History of the American Marine, and particular accounts 
of all the most celebrated Naval Battles, from the Declaration of Independ- 
ence to the present time, compiled from the best authorities. By John 
Frost, LL. D. With an Appendix, containing Naval Songs, Anecdotes, 
&c. Embellished with numerous original Engravings, and Portraits of 
distinguished Naval Commanders. One volume, 12mo., $1 00. 

This is the only popular and yet authentic single view which we have of the naval exploits of 
our country, arranged with good taste and set forth in "ood language. — U. S. Oazette. 

This volume is dedicated to the Secretary of the Navy, and is altogether a very faithful and 
attractive historical record. It deserves, and will doubtless have, a very extended circulation 
— J^'at. Intelligencer. 

FROST.— THE BOOK OF THE ARMY: 

Comprising a General Military History of the United States, from the period 
of the Revolution to the present time, with particular accounts of all the 
most celebrated Battles, compiled from the best authorities. By John 
Frost, LL. D. Illustrated with numerous Engravings, and portraits of 
distinguished Commanders. One volume, 12mo., $1 00. 

This work gives a complete history of military operations, and their causes and effects, from 
the opening of the Revolution to the close of the last war, with graphic descriptions of the cele- 
brated battles and characters of the leading generals. It is illustrated with numerous portraits on 
«teel, and views of battles, from original drawings by Darley and others. The importance of pop- 
ular works of the class to which this and the •' Book of the Navy " belong, must be obvious to all 
who recognize the value of national recollections in preserving a true national spirit. 

FRESENIUS.— CHEMICAL ANALYSIS. 

Elementary Instruction in Chemical Analysis. By Dr. C. Rhemigius Frese- 
nius. With a Preface by Prof Liebig. Edited by I. Lloyd Bullock. One 
neat volume, 12mo. Paper, 75 cents ; cloth, $1 00. 
This Introduction to Practical Chemistry is admitted to bo the most valuable Elementary In- 
structor in Chemical Analysis fo scientific operatives, and for pharmaceutical chemists, which has 
ever been presented to the public. 

OUIZOT.— THE YOUNG STUDENT; 

•'Or, Ralph and Victor. By Madame Guizot. From the French, by Samuel 
Jackson. One volume of 500 pages, with illustrations. Price 75 cents, or 
in three volumes, ^1 12. 

This volume of biographical incidents is a striking picture of juvenile life. To all that num- 
berless class of youth who are passing through their literary education, whether in boarding- 
schools or academics, in the collegiate course, or the preparatory studies connected with them, we 
know nothing more piecisely fitted to meliorate their character, and direct their course, subordi- 
Inate to the higher authority of Christian ethics, than this excellent delineation of " The Young 
"Student," by JIadame Guizot. * * * The French Academy were correct in their judgment, 
when they pronounced Madame Guizot's Student the best book of the year. — Courier ^ Enquirer. 

GUIZOT.-GENERAL HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION 

In Europe, from the fall of the Roman Empire to the French Revolution. 
Translated from the French of M. Guizot, Professor of History to la Facul- 
ty des Lettres of Paris, and Minister of Public Instruction. Third Ameri- 
can edition, with Notes, by C. S. Henry, D. D. One handsome volume, 
i2mo., $1 00. 

M. Guizot in his instructive Lectures has given us an epitome of modem history, distinguished 
%f all the merit which, in another department, renders Blackstone a subject of such peculiar and 
imbounded praise — a work closely condensed, including nothing useless, omitting nothing esseii 
iial : written with grace, and concoived and arranged with consummate ability. — B»sU DravtUer 

10 



Appleton's Catalogue of Valuable Publications. 

GRISWOLD— CURIOSITIES OF AMER. LITERATURE: 

"Compiled, edited, and arranged by Rev. Rufus W. Griswold. See D'Israeli, 

GIRL'S MANUAL: 

■Comprising a summary View of Female Studies, Accomplishments, and Prin 
ciples of Conduct. Frontispiece. One volume, 18mo., 50 cents. 

GOLDSMITH— PICTORIAL VICAR OF WAKEFIELD. 

The Vicar of Wakefield. By Oliver Goldsmith. Illustrated w^ith upwards of 
100 engravings on wood, making a beautiful volume, octavo, of 300 pages. 
$1 25. The same, miniature size, 37 1-2 cents. 

We love to turn back over these rich old clasaicg of our own language, and re-juvenate our- 
selves by tlie never-failing associations which a re-perusal always calls up. Let any one who hag 
not read this immortal tale for fifteen or twenty years, try the experiment, and we will warrant 
that he rises up from the taslc — the pleasure, we should have said — a happier and a better man. 
In the good old Vicar of Wakefield, all is pure gold, without dross or alloy of any kind. This 
much we have said to our last generation readers. Tiiis edition of the work, however, we take it, 
was got up for the benefit of the rising generation, and we really envy our young friends the plea- 
sure which is before such of them as will read it for the first time. — Savannah Republican. 

GOLDSMITH— ESSAYS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS, 

By Oliver Goldsmith. Miniature size, 37 1-2 cents. 

Forming one of the seiies of" Miniature Classical Library." 

GRESLEY— PORTRAIT OF A CHURCHMAN, 

By the Rev. W. Gresley, A. M. From the Seventh English edition. One 
elegant volume, 16mo., 75 cents. 
" The main part of this admirable volume is occupied upon the illustration of the practical 
workirKT of Church principles when sincerely received, setting forth their value in the commerce of 
daily lite, and how surely they conduct those who embrace them in the safe and quiet path of holy 
life." 

GRESLEY— A TREATISE ON PREACHING, 

In a Series of Letters by the Rev. W. Gresley, M. A. Revised, with Supple- 
mentary Notes, by the Rev. Benjamin I. Haight, M. A., Rector of All 
Saints' Church, New York. One volume, 12mo. $1 25. 

.Advertisement. — Tn preparing the American edition of BIr. Gresley's valuable Treatise, a few 
foot-notes have been added by the Editor, which are distinguished by brackets. Tlie more extend- 
ed notes at the end have been selected from the best works on the subject — und which, v/ith one 
or two exceptions, are not easily acces^sible to the American student, 

HAMILTON— THE LIFE OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON, 

Edited by his son, John C. Hamilton. Two volumes, 8vo., $5 00. 

We cordially recommend the perusal and diligent study of these volumes, exhibiting, as they 
do, much valuable matter relative to tbe Revolution, the establishment of the Federal Constitu- 
tion, and other important events in the annals of our country. — Y. Y. Review. 

HEMANS— THE COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS 

Of Felicia Hemans, printed from the last English edition, edited by her Sister. 

Illustrated with 6 steel Engravings. One beautifully printed and portable 

volume, 16mo., $ , or in two volumes, $ 

Of this highly accomplished poetess it has been truly said, that of all her sex " few have writ- 
ten so much and so well." Although her writings possess an energy equal to their high-toned 
beauty, yet are they so pure and so refined, that not a line of them could feeling spare or delicacy 
blot fiom her pages. Her imagination v/as rich, chaste, and glowing. Her chosen thsmes are the 
cradle, the hearth-stone, and the death-bed. In her poems of Cceur de Lion, Ferdinand of Ara- 
^on, and Bernard del Carpio,,we see beneath the glowing colors with which she clothes her ideas, 
the feelings of a woman's heart. Her earlier poems. Records of Woman and Forest Sanctuary, 
».tand unrivalled. In short, her works will ever be read by a pious and enlightened community. 

HEMANS— SONGS OF THE AFFECTIONS, fi. 

By Felicia Hemans. One volume, 32mo., gilt. 31 cents. 

Forming one of the series of" Miniature Classical Library." 

HARE— SERMONS TO A COUNTRY CONGREGATION, 

By Augustus VC''illiam Hare, A. M., late Fellow of New College, and Rector «J 
Alton Barnes. One volume, royal 8vo., $2 25. 

11 



Appli ton's Catnlo^ue of Valuable Publications. 

HALL— THE PRINCIPLES OF DIAGNOSIS, 

J{y Marslmll Hull, I\I. D., V. R. S , ttc. Second edition, with many improve* 
nicnls. Dy Dr. Joliii A. Sweet. One volume, dvo., ^2 OU. 

Tlii,-* work A'lis publislieil in acconl.inci! with tlic dpsiro of some of tiio most, cplohratoil physi- 
cians of this i.'ountry, who were anxious that it shoukl be brou2;lit within tlii' roacli of nil cluases 
of nieilic.il men, to who.^e attention it ulVers strong' claims as tlie be.-it work on tlic subject. 

HAZEN— SYMBOLICAL SPELLING-BOOK. 

The Svm!)olical Spelling-Book, in two parts. By Edward Hazen. Contain- 
ing 266 engravings. 18 3-4 cents. 

This work is used in upwards of one thousand difTeroiit schools, and pronounced to ha one of 
the best works publi-lied. 

HODGE— THE STEAM-ENGINE: 

Its Origin and gradual Improvement, from the time of Hero to the present day, 
as adapted to Manufactures, Locomotion, and Navigation. Illustrated with 
48 Plates in full detail, numerous wood cuts, &,&. By Paul it. Hodge, 
C. E. One volume folio of plates, and letter-press in 8vo. $10 00. 

This work should be placed in the '' Captain's Office " of every steamer in our country, and 
also with every engineer to whom is confided the control of the engine. From it they would de- 
rive all the information which would enable them to comprehend the cau^'^ and eti'ects of every 
ordinary accident, and also the method promptly and successfully to repair any injury, and to rem- 
edy any defect. 

HOLYDAY TALES: 

Consisting of pleasing Moral Stories for the Young. One volume, square 
16mo., with numerous illustrations. 37 1-2 cents. 

This is a most capital little book. The stories are evidently written by an able hand, and that 
too in an exceedingly i.ttractive style. — Spectator. 

HOOKER— THE COMPLETE WORKS 

Of that learned and judicious divine, Mr. Richard Hoolcer, with an account of 
liis Life and Death. By Isaac Walton. Arranged by the Rev. John Keble, 
M. A. First American from the last Oxford edition. With a complete 
general Index, and Index of the texts of Scripture, prepared expressly for 
this edition. Two elegant volumes, Svo., $4 00. 

CoNTE.NTs. — The Editor's Preface comprises a general survey of the former edition of Hooker's 
Works, with Historical Illustrations of the period. After which follows the Life of Hooker, by 
Isaac Walton. His chief work succeeds, on the " Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity." 

It commences with a lengthened Preface designed as an address "to them who seek the refor- 
mation of the Laws and Orders Ecclesiastical of the Church of England." The di.scussion is divi- 
ded intoeight books, which include an investigation of the topics. After those eight books of the 
"Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity." follow two Sermons, "The certainty and perpetuity of Faith in 
the elect; especially of ihe Prophet Habakkuk's faith ;" and "Justification, Works, and how the 
foundation of faith is overthrown." Next are introduced "A .supplication made to the Council 
by Master Walter Travers," and " Mr. Hooker's answer to the supplication that Mr Traverg 
made to the Council." Then follow two Sermons — '' On the nature of Pride," and a " Remedy 
against Sorrow and Pear." Two Sermons on part of the epistle of the Apostle Jude are next in- 
serted, with a prefatory dedication by Henry Jackson. The last article in the works of Air. Hooker 
is a Sermon on Prayer. 

The English edition in three volumes sells at $10 00. The American is an exact reprint, at 
less than half the pricp. 

HUDSON— THE ADVENTURES OF HENRY HUDSON, 

By the author of " Uncle Philip s Conversations." Frontispiece. 18mo.,.. 
cloth. 37 cents. 

Forming one of the series of" A Library for my Young Countrymen." 
This little volume furnishe* us, from authentic sources, the moH important facts in this ce'o- 
orated adventurer's life., and in a style that possesses more than ordinary interest. — Evening PouL 

HOWITT— THE CHILD'S PICTURE AND VERSE-BOOK; 

Commonly called "Otto Speckter's Fable-Book." Translated from the Ger- 
man by Mary Howitt. Illustrated with 100 engravings on wood. Square 
12mo., in ornamental binding, $ 

A celebrated German review says, " Of this production, which makes itself an epoch in the 
world of children, it is superfluous to speak. The Fable-Book is throughout all Germany in the 
haixis rfparenta and children, and will always be new, because every year fresh children are born " 



Appleton's Catalogue of Valuable Publications. 



HOWITT— LOVE AND MONEY; 

An Every-Day Tale, by Mary Howitt. 18mo., two Plates, cloth gilt, 38 cents 

LITTLE COIN, MUCH CARE; 

■ Or, How Poor People Live. By Mary Howitt. 18mo., two Plates, 38 cents. 

SOWING AND REAPING; 

Or, What will Come of It. By Mary Howitt. 18mo., two Plates, 38 cents. 

ALICE FRANKLIN; 

A Sequel to Sowing and Reaping— a Tale. By Mary Howitt. 18mo. two 

Plates, cloth gilt, 38 cents. 

WORK AND WAGES; 

Or, Life in Service— a Tale. By Mary Howitt. 18mo., two Plates, clotk 

gilt, 38 cents. 

. STRIVE AND THRIVE; 

A Tale. By Mary Howitt. 18mo., two Plates, cloth gilt, 38 cents. 

WHO SHALL BE GREATEST; 

A Tale. By Mary Howitt. 18mo., two Plates, cloth gilt, 38 cents. 

WHICH IS THE WISER; 

Or, People Abroad— a Tale. By Mary Howitt. 18mo., two Plates, 38 centi. 

. HOPE ON, HOPE EVER; 

Or, The Boyhood of Felix Law— a Tale. By Mary Howitt. 18mo., two 

'plates, cloth gilt, 38 cents. 
NO SENSE LIKE COMMON SENSE; 

A Tale. By Mary Howitt. 18mo., two Plates, cloth gilt, 38 cents. 
*.• The above ten volomes form a portion of the aeries published under the general title of 
• " Tales for the People and their Children." 

Of late vpara many writers have exerted their talents in juvenile literature, with great success. 
Miss Martineau has ^ade political economy as familiar to boys as it formerly was to statesmen. 
oirownMiss Sedgwick has produced some of the most beautiful moral stones, for the edification 
and del"eht of children, which have ever been written. The Hon. Horace Mann, m addresses to 
adults, has presented the claims of children for good education, with a power and eloquence of 
Btvle and an elevation of thought, which shows his heart is in his work. The stories of Mary 
HowitrHa riet Martineau, Mrs! Copley, and Mrs. Ellis, which form a part of" Tales for the Peo- 
ple and their Children," will be found valuable additions to juvenile literature ; at the same timo 
?hey may be ^ead with profit by parents for the good lessons they inculcate, and by all other road- 
ers for the literary excellence they display. .. • j „<• „ii ti,„ „„„.„ ;n tKn 

We wish thev could be placed in the hands and engraven on the minds of all the youin in the 
country. They manifest a nice and accurate observation of human nature, and especially the na- 
ture of children, a fine sympathy with every thing good and pure and a capability of infusing it in 
the minds of others-great beauty and simplicity of style, and a keen eye to practical hfe, with aU 
Jt<i fnnlts united with a deep love for ideal excellence. . , . . »■ 

Mpssrs Annleton & Co de.serve the highest praise for the excellent manner in which they 
have " cot up " their juvenile library, and we sincerely hope that its success will be so great as to 
induce fhem to make continual contributions to its treasures. The collection is «"« ^^ich should 
1^ owned by every parent who wishes that the moral and intellectual ■mproyementof his childrea 
shouU keeppIceVith their growth in years, and the development of their physical power..- 
.American Traveller 

JERRAM.-THE CHILD'S OWN STORY-BOOK; 

Or Tales and Dialogues for the Nursery. By Mrs. Jerram (late Jane Eliza- 
'beth Holmes). Illustrated with numerous Engravings. 50 cents. 
There are seventy stories in this volume. They are admirably adapted for the countlosg 

youth for whose edification they are narrated —Boston Gazette. 

JOHNSON.-THE HISTORY OF RASSELAS, 

Prince of Abyssinia— a Tale. By Samuel Johnsen, LL. D. 32mo., gife 
leaves, 38 cents. 

*** Formina one of the series of" Miniature ClasBieal LilwarT." 
13 



AppUton's Catalogue of Valuable Publications. 

JAMES.-THE TRUE CHRISTIAN, 

Exemplified in a Series of Addresses, by Rev. John Angell James. Onerotf. 
18nio, 38 cents. 
These addrcsiei arc amongst the choicest effusions of the admirable author. — Chr. Intell. 

THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER 

After Salvation Directed and Encourarged. By Rev. John Angell Jamea; 
One volume, IBmo., 38 cents. 

Upwards of twenty thousand copies of this excellent little volume have been sold, which fully- 
attests the high estimation the work has attained with the religious community. 

HAPPINESS, ITS NATURE AND SOURCES. 

By Rev. John Angell James. One volume, 32mo., 25 cents. 

This is written in the excellent author's best vein. A better book wc have not in a long tim»- 
• een. — Evangelist. 



THE CHRISTIAN PROFESSOR: 



Addressed in a Series of Counsels and Cautions to the Members of Christian 
Churches. By Rev. John Angell James. Second edition. One volume, 
18mo., 63 cents. 
A most excellent work from the able and prolific pen of Mr. James. — Chr. Intelligencer. 

THE YOUNG MAN FROM HOME. 

In a Series of Letters, especially directed for the Moral Advancement of 
Youth. By Rev. John Angell James. Fifth edition. One volume, 
IBmo., 38 cents. 
The work is a rich treasury of Christian counsel and instruction. — ilbany Advertiser, 

THE WIDOW DIRECTED 

To the Widow's God. By Rev. John Angell James. One volume, 18mo., 
38 cents. 
The book is worthy to be read by others besides the class for which it is especially designed; 
and we doubt not that it is destined to come as a friendly visitor to many a house of mourning, 
and as a healing balm to many a wounded heart. — V. Y. Observer 

KEIGHTLEY.— THE MYTHOLOGY OF GREECE 

And Italy, designed for the use of Schools. By Thomas Keightley. Nume-- 
rous wood-cut illustrations. One volume, 18mo., half bound, 44 cents. 

This is a neat little volume, and well adapted to the purpose for which it was prepared. It.' 
presents, in a very compendious and convenient form, every thing relating to the subject, of impor- 
tance to the young student. — L. I. Star, 

KINGSLEY.— THE SACRED CHOIR: 

A Collection of Church Music, consisting of Selections from the most distin- 
guished Authors, among whom are the names of Haydn, Mozart, Beetho- 
ven, Pergolessi, &c. &c., with several pieces of Music by the Author ; also 
a Progressive Elementary System of Instruction for Pupils. By George 
Kingsley, author of the Social Choir, &c. &c. Fourth edition. 75 cents, 

Mr. George Kingsley : Sir, — We have examinedthe " Sacred Choir " enough to lead us to ap- 
preciate the work as the best publication of Sacred Music extant. It is beautifully printed and 
ilbstantially bound, conferring credit on the publishers. We bespeak for the " Sacred Choir " an 
extensive circulation O. S. Bowdoin, 

Sinceiely yours, E. O. Goodwin 

D. InGKi.HA.li, 

KIP.-THE DOUBLE WITNESS OF THE CHURCH, 

By Rev. Wm. Ingraham Kip, author of" Lenten Fast." One volume, 12mo. - 
Second edition. Boards 75 cents, cloth $1 00. 

This is a sound, clear, and able production — a book much wanted for these times, and one that 
■we feel per.'uaded will prove eminently useful. It is ahappy delineation of that doubls wiTWBSt 
which the Church bears against Romanism and ultra-Protestantism, and points out her middl*^ 
path as the only one of truth and safety. — Banner of the Cross. 

14 



Apphton's Catalogue of Valuable Publications. 



LAFEVER— BEAUTIES OF MODERN AROHITECTUREi; 

Consisting of forty-eight Plates of Original Designs, with Plans, Elevations, 
and Sections, also a Dictionary of Technical Terms ; the whole forming a 
complete Manual for the Practical Builder. By M. Lafever, Architect. 
One volume, large 8vo., half bound, $6 00. ' 

STAIR-CASE AND HAND-RAIL 

Construction. The Modern Practice of Stair-case and Hand-rail Construction, 
practically explained, in a Series of Designs. By M. Lafever, Architect 
With Plans and Elevations for Ornamental Villas. Fifteen Plates. Onft 
volume, large 8vo., $3 00. . ; 

Mr Lafever*s " Beauties of Architecture," and his "Practice of Stair-case and Hand-rail coij- 
•truction " constitute two volumes rich in instruction in those departments of busmess. They 
are a necessary acquisition not only to the operative workman, but to all landlords and proprietors 
of houses who would combine both the ornamental and useful in their family dwellings, and also 
understand the most economical and profitable modes by which their edifices can be erected and; 
repaired. 

LEWIS— RECORDS OF THE HEART, 

By Sarah Anna Lewis. One volume, 12mo., $1 00. ; 

We have read some of the pieces with much pleasure. They indicate poetic genius of no^o»- 
dinary kind, and are imbued with much feeling and pathos. We welcome the volume as a credit- 
able accession to the poetic literature of the country.— SosJon Traveller. 

LIEBIG.-FAMILIAR LETTERS ON CHEMISTRY, 

And its relation to Commerce, Physiology, and Agriculture. By Justus Lie- 
big, M. D. Edited by John Gardner, M. D. One volume. 13 cents> 
in paper, 25 cents bound. ' 

The Letters contained in this little volume embrace some of the most important points of the- 

Science of Chemistry, in their application to Natural Philosophy, Physiology, Agriculture, and' 

Commerce. 

LETTER-WRITER, 

The Useful Letter- Writer, comprising a succinct Treatise on the Epistolary 
Art, and Forms of Letters for all ordinary Occasions of Life. Compiled 
from the best authorities. Frontispiece. 32mo., gilt leaves, 38 cents. 
Forming one of the series of " Miniature Classical Library." 

LOOKING-GLASS FOR THE MIND; 

Or, Intellectual Mirror. Being an elegant Collection of the most delightful' 
little Stories and interesting Tales ; chiefly translated from that much a6- 
mired work, L'ami des Enfans. Illustrated with numerous wood-cuts-. 
From the twentieth London edition. One volume, 18mo., 50 cents. 
Forming one of the series of " Tales for the People and their Children." 

LOG CABIN: 

Or, The World before You. By the author of " Three Experiments of Liv- 
'ing," " The Huguenots in France and America," etc. One volume, 18mo:y 

50 cents. . , , , 

Every person who takes up this volume will read it with interest. It is truly what the writer 
intended it should be—" A Gaide to Usefulness and Happiness." 

LOVER -HANDY ANDY: 

A Tale of Irish Life, by Samuel Lover. Illustrated with twenty-three char- 
acteristic steel Engravings. One volume, Svo., cloth $1 25, boards $1 00> 
Cheap edition, two Plates, paper, 50 cents. 
This boy Handy will be the death of us. What is the police force about to allow the uttering; 

of a publication that has already brought us to the brink of apoplexy fifty times >— Sport. RemetO. , 

L. S. D.~TREASURE TROVE : 

A Tale, by Samuel Lover. One volume, 8vo., with two steel Engravings. 

Paper cover, 25 cents. 

This is a capital thing. The gay and the grave, the " lively and severe." are unived with ft 
rtilful hand, and there is a latent tone of sound morality running through "L. B. U. wmcJi ytiii 
jive a lasting value to iii pages. — Commercial .Advertiser, 

15 



Appleton's Catalogue of Valuable Publications. 

LUCY AND ARTHUR; 

A Book for Oiildren. Illustrated with numerous engravings, elegantly bound 
m cloth. 50 cents. 

Lucy nivl Arthur is a chnrminsf story of the nuruork, prepared oy an experienced author. Se- 
cure it for the family. — American Traveller, 

LYRA APOSTOLICA. 

From the Fifth English edition. One elegantly printed volume, 75 cents. 

In this elogant volume there are forty-five sections, and one hundred and seventy-nine Ijrric 
poems, uU short, and many of them sweet. — JV"eu> York Jimerican. 

MAGEE— ON ATONEMENT AND SACRIFICE: 

Discourses and Dissertations on the Scriptural Doctrines of Atonement and 
Sacrifice, and on the Principal Arguments advanced, and the Mode of 
Reasoning employed, by the Opponents of those Doctrines, as held by the 
Established Church. By the late Most Rev. William M'Gee, D. D., Arch- 
bishop of Dublin. Two volumes, 8vo., $5 00 
This is one of the ablest critical and polemical works of modern times. The profound biblical 

information on a variety of topics which the Archbishop brings forward, must endear bis name to 

all lovers of Christianity. — Orme, 

MANNING— THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH, 

By the Rev. Henry Edward Manning, M. A., Archdeacon of Chichester. One 
volume, 16mo., $1 00. 

Part I. The Histoty and Exposition of the Doctrine of Catholic Unity. Part 11, The Moral 
Design of Catholic Unity. Part lit. The Doctrine of Catholic Unity applied to the Actual State 
of Christendom. 

We commend it earnestly to the devout and serious perusal of all Churchmen, and particularly 
of all clergymen, as the ablest discussion we ever met with of a deeply and vitally important sub- 
ject. — Churchman. 

MARRYAT— MASTERMAN READY; 

Or, The Wreck of the Pacific. Written for Young Persons, by Capt. Marry- 
at. Complete in 3 vols., 18mo., with Frontispiece, cloth gilt, $1 25. 
Forming a portion of the series of" Tales for the People and their Children." 

We have never seen any thing from the same pen we like as well as this. It is the moden 
Crusoe, and is entitled to take rank with that charming romance. — Commercial Advertiser. 

MARSHALL— NOTES ON THE EPISCOPAL POLITY 

Of the Holy Catholic Church, with some account of the Developments of Mo 
dern Religious Systems, by Thomas William Marshall, B. A., of the Dio 
cese of Salisbury. Edited by Jonathan M. Wainwright, D. D. With a 
new and complete Index of the Subjects and of the Texts of Scripture 
One volume, 12mo., $1 25. 

I. Introduction. II. Scripture Evidence. III. Evidence of Antiquity. IV. Admission ot 
Adversaries. V. Development of Modern Religious Systems. 

A more important work than this has not been issued for a long time. We earnestly recom 
mend it to the attention of every Churchman. — Banner of the Cross. 

MARTINEAU— THE CROFTON BOYS; 

A Tale for Youth, by Harriet Martineau. One volume, ]3mo.. Frontispiece. 
Cloth gilt, 33 cents. 

Forming one of the series of" Tales for the People and their Children." 

It abounds in interest, and is told with the characteristic ability and spirit of the distinguished 
author. — Evmin^ Post. 



THE PEASANT AND THE PRINCE 



A Tale of the French Revolution, by Harriet 5Iartineau. One volume, ISma. 
Frontispiece. Cloth gilt, 38 cents. 

Forming one of the series of "Tales for the People and their Children.' 

This is a most inviting little history of Louis the Sixternth and his family. Here, in a styla 
OTCn more familiar than Scott's Tales of a Grandfather, wu have a s.'raphic epitome of many faet* 
connected with the days of the " Eevolutioji." — Courier (}■ r.nquircr. 

16 



Appleton's Catalogue of Valuable Publications. 



MAURICE— THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST; 

Or, Hints respecting the Principles, Constitution, and Ordinances of the Cath- 
olic Church. By Rev. Frederick Denison Maurice, M. A. London. One 
volume, 8vo., 600 pages, $2 50. 
On tho theory of the Church of Christ, all should consult the work of Mr. Maurice, the moit 

philosophical writer of the day.— Pro/. Garbett's Bampton Lectures, 1842 

MILTON— THE COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS 

Ol John Milton, with Explanatory Notes and a Life of the Author, by the Rev. 
Henry Stebbing, A. M. Illustrated with six steel Engravings. One vol- 
ume, 16mo.,^$l 25. 
Forming one of the series of " Cabinet Edition of Standard Poets." *** The Latin and Italian 
Poems are included in this edition. 
Mr. Stebbing's Notes will be found very useful in elucidating the learned allusions with which 
the text abounds, and they are also valuable for the correct appreciation with which the writer di- 
rects attention to the beauties of the author. 

PARADISE LOST, 

By John Milton. With Notes, by Rev. H. Stebbing. One volume, 18mo., 
cloth 38 cents, gilt leaves 50 cents. 

PARADISE REGAINED, 

By John Milton. With Notes, by Rev. H. Stebbing. One volume, 18mo., 

cloth 25 cents, gilt leaves 38 cents. 
MAXWELL-FORTUNES OF HECTOR O'HALLORAN 

And his man Mark Antony O'Toole, by W. H. Maxwell. One volume, Bvo., 
two plates, paper, 50 cents, twenty-four plates, boards, $1 00, cloth, $1 25 
It is one of the best of all the Irish stories, full of spirit, fun, drollery, and wit.— Cour. S( JEnj, 

MOORE.-LALLAH ROOKH ; 

An Oriental Romance, by Thomas Moore. One volume, 32mo., frontispiece, 
cloth gilt, 38 cents. 

Forming a portion of the series of" Miniature Classical Library." 
This exquisite Poem has long been the admiration of readers of all classes. 

MORE-PRACTICAL PIETY, 

By Hannah More. One volume, 32mo., frontispiece, 38 cents. 
Forming one of the series of" Miniature Classical Library." 
"Practical Piety " has always bee deemed the most attractive and eloquent of all Hannak 
More's works. 

PRIVATE DEVOTION: 

A Series of Prayers and Meditations, with an Introductory Essay on Prayer, 
chiefly from the writings of Hannah More. From the twenty-fifth London 
edition. One volume, 32mo., Frontispiece, cloth gilt, 31 cents. 

Forming one of the series of" Miniature Classical Library." 
Upwards of fifty thousand copies of this admirable manual have been sold in the U. States. 

DOMESTIC TALES 

And Allegories, illustrating Human Life. By Hannah More. One volume, 
18mo., 38 cents. 

Contents.— I. Shepherd of Salisbury Plain. II. Mr. Fantom the Philosopher. III. Two 
Shoemakers. IV. Giles the Poacher. V. Servant turned Soldier. VI. GenoralJ ail Delivery. 

RURAL TALES, 

By Hannah More. One volume, 18mo., 38 cents. 

Contents.— I. Parley the Porter. II. All for the Best. III. Two Wealthy Farmers. IV, 
Tom White. V. Pilgrims. Vt. Valley of Teais. 

Forming a portion of tho series of" Tales for the People and their Children " 
These two volumes comprise that portion of Hannah More's Repository Tales which Rie 
adapted to general iisbfulneas in this country. 

17 



Apphton's Catalogue of Valuable Publications. 

NAPOLEON— PICTORIAL HISTORY 

Of Napoleon Bonaparte, translated from tlie French of M. Laurent de L'At* 
deche, with Five Hundred spirited Illustrations, after designs by Horaco 
Vernet, and twenty Original Portraits engraved in the best style. Com- 
plete in two handsome volumes, 8vo., about 500 pages each, $3 50 ; cheap 
edition, paper cover, four parts, $2 00. 

Tho work is superior to the Ion"', verbose productions of Pcott anri Bourienne — not in style 
alone, but in truth — being written to please neither Charles X. nor the English aristocracy, but for 
the cause of freedom. It has advantages over every other memoir extant American TVaneller. 

NEWMAN— PAROCHIAL SERMONS, 

By John Henry Newman, B. D. Six volumes of the English*edition in two 

volumes, 8vo., $5 00. 

SERMONS BEARING ON SUBJECTS 

Of the Day, by John Henry Newman, B. D. One volume, 12mo., $1 25. 

As a compendium of Christian duty, these Sermons will be read by people of all denomina- 
tions ; as models of style, they will be valued by writers in every department of literature. — United 
Slates Oazctte. 

OGILBY.-ON LAY-BAPTISM: 

An Outline of the Argument against the Validity of Lay-Baptism. By John 
D. Ogilby, D. D., Professor of Eccles. History. One vol., 12mo., 75 cents. 

From a cursory inspection of it, we take it to be a thorough, fearless, and able discussion of the 
Bubject which it proposes — aiming less to excite inquiry, than to satisfy by learned an-i in^enioua 
argument inquiries already excited. — Churchman. 

CATHOLIC CHURCH IN ENGLAND 

And America. Three Lectures — L The Church in England and Anaerica 
Apostolic and Catholic. H. The Causes of the English Reformation. IH 
Its Character and Results. By John D. Ogilby, D. D. One vol., 16mo.y 
75 cents. 

" I believe in one Catholic and Apostolic Church." J^icene Creed 
Prof. Ogilby has furnished the Church, in this little volume, with a most valuable aid. W« 
think it is designed to become a text-book oli the subject of which it treats. — Trut Catholic, 

OLD OAK TREE: 

Illustrated with numerous wood-cuts. One volume, 18mo., 38 cents. 

The precepts conveyed are altogether unexceptionable, and the volume is well calculated to 
prove attractive with children. — Saturday Chronicle. 

OLMSTED— INCIDENTS OF A WHALING VOYAGE: 

To which is added, Observations on the Scenery, Manners, and Customs, and 
Missionary Stations of the Sandwich and Society Islands, accompanied by 
numerous Plates. By Francis Allyn Olmsted. One vol., 12mo., $1 50. 
The work embodies a mass of intelligence interesting to the ordinary reader as well as to tha 

philosophical inquirer. — Courier S( Enquirer 

PAGET— TALES OF THE VILLAGE, 

By the Rev. Francis E. Paget, M. A. Three elegant volumes, 18mo., $1 7» 

The first series, or volume, presents a popular view of the contrast in opinions and modes of 
thought between Churchmen and Romanists ; the second sets forth Church principles, as opposed 
to what, in England, is termed Dissent; and the third places in contrast the chaiacter of the 
Churchman and the Infidel. At any time these volumes would be valuable, especially to the 
young. At present, when men's minds are much turned to such subjects, they cannot fail of being 
eagerly sought for. — JVew-York American. 

PALMER— A TREATISE ON THE CHURCH 

Of Christ. Designed chiefly for the use of Students in Theology. By the 
Rev. William Palmer, M. A., of Worcester College, O.xford. Edited, with 
Notes, by the Right Rev. W. R. Whittingham, D. D., Bishop of the Prot. 
Epis. Church in the Diocese of Maryland. Two volumes, 8vo., $5 00. 
The chief design of this work is to supply some answer to the assertion so frequently made, 
that individuals are not bound to submit to any ecclesiastical authority whatever : or that, if they 
•re, they must, in consistency, accept Romanism with all its claims and errors. — Preface. 

18 



Appleton's Catalogue of Valuable Publications. 

PARNELL— APPLIED CHEMISTRY, 

In Manufactures, Arts, and Domestic Economy. Edited by E. A. ParnelL 
Illustrated with numerous wood Engravings, and specimens of Dyed and 
Printed Cottons. Paper cover 75 cents, cloth $1 00. 

The Editor's aim is to divest the work, as far as practicable, of all technical terms, 80 as to 
adapt it to the requirements of the general reader. 

The above form.s the first division of the work. It is the author's intention to continue it from 
time to time, so as to form a complete Practical Encyclopedia of Chemistry applied to the Arti. 
The subjects to immediately follow will be, Manufacture of Glass, Indigo, Sulphuric Acid Zinc, 
Potash, Coffee, Tea, Chocolate, &c. 

PEARSON— AN EXPOSITION OF THE CREED, 

By John Pearson, D. D., late Bishop of Chester. With an Appendix, contain^ 
ing the principal Greek and Latin Creeds. Revised and corrected by the 
Rev. W. S. Dobson, M. A., Peterhouse, Cambridge. One vol., 8vo., $2 00. 

The following may be stated as the advantages of this edition over all others .• 
First — Great care has been taken to correct the numerous errors in the references to the texts 
of Scripture, which had crept in by reason of the repeated editions through which this admirable 
work has passed, and many references, as will be seen on turning to the Index of Texts, hava 
been added. 

Secondly — The Quotations in the Notes have been almost universally identified and the refer- 
ence to them adjoined. 

Lastly — The principal Symbola or Creeds, of which the particular Articles have been cited by 
the Autlior, have been annexed ; and wherevei the original writers have given the Symbola in a 
scattered and disjointed manner, the detached parts have been brought into a successive and con- 
nected point of view. These have been added in Chronological order, in the form of an Appea- 
dix. — Vide Editor 

PHILIP— THE LIFE AND OPINIONS 

Of Dr. Milne, Missionary to China. Illustrated by Biographical Annals of 

Asiatic Missions, from Primitive Protestant Times : intended as a Guide 

to Missionary Spirit. By Rev. Robert Philip. One vol., 12mo., 50 cents. 

The work is executed with great skill, and embodies a vast amount of valuable missionary 

inteligence, besides a rich variety of personal incidents, adapted to gratify notonly the missionary 

or the Christian, but the more general reader. — Observer. 

YOUNG MAN'S CLOSET LIBRARY, 

By Robert Philip. With an Introductory Essay, by Rev. Albert Barnes. One- 
volume, .12mo., $1 00. 

LOVE OF THE SPIRIT, 

Traced in His Work : a Companion to the Experimental Guides. By Robert 
Philip. One volume, 18mo., 50 cents. 

DEVOTIONAL AND EXPERIMENTAL 

Guides. By Robert Philip. With an Introductory Essay by Rev. Albert 
Barnes. Two volumes, 12mo., $1 75. Containing Guide to the Per- 
plexed, Guide to the Devotional, Guide to the Thoughtful, Guide to the 
Doubting, Guide to the Conscientious, Guide to Redemption. 

LADY'S CLOSET LIBRARY: 

The Marys, i>r Beauty of Female Holiness ; The Marthas, or Varieties of Fe- 
male Piety ; The Lydias, or Development of Female Character. By Rob- 
ert Philip. Each volume, 18mo., 50 cents 

The MATERNAL scries of the above popular Library is now ready, entitled 

The Hannahs ; or. Maternal Influence of Sons. By Robert Philip. One 
volume, IBmo., 50 cents. 

The author of this excellent work is known to the public as one of the most prolific writers of 
the day, and scarcely any writer in the department which he occupies has acquired so extensive 
and well-merited a popala.tity.— Evangelist, 

POLLOK— THE COURSE OF TIME, 

By Robert Pollok. With a Life of the Author, and complete Analytical In- 
dex, prepared expressly for this edition. 32mo., frontispiece, 38 cents. 

Forming one of the series of " Miniature Classical Library." 
Few modem Poems exist which at once attained such acceptance and celebrity ai thif. 

19 



Applcton's Catalogxu of Valuable Publications. 

PRATT.-DAWNINGS OF GENIUS; 

Or, the Early Lives ol'soiiie Emiueiit Persons of the last Century. By Anns 
Pratt. One volume, 18nio., trontispiece, 38 cents. 

Forming one of the scries of" A Lihniry for my Voung Countrymen." 
Contents. — Sir liuini)lirey Davy — Rev. Gpor?e Criilibe — Baron Cuvier — Sir Joshua Reynoldi 
— Liiidley Murray — Sir James Mackintosli — Dr. Adam Clarke. 

PRIZE STORY-BOOK: 

Consisting chiefly of Tales, translated from the Germin, French, and Italian, 
together with Select Tales from the English. Illustrated with numerous 
Engravings from new designs. One thick volume, l6mo., cloth gilt. 

PURE GOLD FROM THE RIVERS OF WISDOM: 

A Collection of Short Extracts from the most Eminent Writers — Bishop Hall, 
Jeremy Taylor, Barrow, Hooker, Bacon, Leighton, Addison, Wilberforce, 
Johnson, Young, Southey, Lady Montague, Hannah More, etc. One 
volume, 32mo., frontispiece, cloth gilt, 31 cents. 

Forming one of tlie series of " Miniature Classical Library." 

PUSS IN BOOTS: 

A pure Translation in Prose, from the original German. Illustrated with 12 
original Designs, suitable for the Tastes of the Young or Old, by the cele- 
brated artist, Otto Speckter. One vol., square 12mo., cloth gilt. 

SAINT PIERRE-PAUL AND VIRGINIA: 

A Tale, by J. B. H. De Saint Pierre. One volume, 32mo., frontispiece, cloth 
gilt, 31 cents. 

Forming one of the series of" Miniature Classical Library." 

SANDHAM— THE TWIN SISTERS: 

A Tale for Youth, by Mrs. Sandham. From the twentieth London edition. 
One volume, 18mo., frontispiece, cloth gilt, 38 cents. 

Forming a portion of the series of " Tales for the People and their Children," 
The moral is excellent throughout. Its merit renders it a pleasi.nt book for even grown-up 
children. — Boston Post. 

SCOTT— THE POETICAL WORKS 

Of Sir Walter Scott, Bart. Containing Lay of the Last Minstrel, Marmion, 
Lady of the Lake, Don Roderick, Rokeby, Ballads, Lyrics, and Songs, 
with a Life of the Author. Illustrated with six steel Engravings. One 
volume, 16mo., $1 25. 

LADY OF THE LAKE : 

A Poem, by Sir Walter Scott. One volume, IBmo., frontispiece, cloth 25 

cepts, gilt edges 38 cents. 
MARMION: 

A Tale of Flodden Field, by Sir Walter Scott. One volume, ISmo., frontis- 
piece, cloth 25 cents, gilt edges 38 cents. 
LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL: 

A Poem, by Sir Walter Scott. One volume, 18mo., frcntispiece, cloth 25 

cents, gilt edges 38 cents. 
Walter Scott is the most popular of all the poets of the present day, and deservedly so. Ila 
describes that whicii is most easily and generally understood with mure vivacity and etfect than 
any other writer. His style is clear, flowing, and transparent ; his sentiments, of which his style 
ia an easy and natural medium, are common to him with his readers. — Hazlitt. 

SPINCKES— MANUAL OF PRIVATE DEVOTIONS: 

(Complete,) collected from the writings of Archbishop Laud, Bishop Andrews, 
Bishop Ken, Dr. Hickes, Mr. Kettlewell, Mr. Spinckes, and other eminent 
old English divines. With a Preface by tlie Rev. JMr. Spinckes. Edited 
by Francis E. Paget, M. A. One elegant volume, 16rao., $1 00. 
Ai a manual of private devotions, it will be found nrost valuable. — JVew- York American. 

20 



Applefon's Catalogue of Vahiable PubRcations^ 



SPENCER.-THE CHRISTIAN INSTRUCTED 

In the Ways of the Gospel and the Cliurch, in a series of Discourses delivered 
at St. James's Church, Goshen, New-York. By the Rev. J. A. Spencer, 
M. A., late Rector. One volume, 16mo., $1 25. 

This is a very useful volume of Sermons : respectable in style, sound in doctrine, and affec- 
tionate in tone, they are we.U adapted for reading in the family circle, or placing on the family 
bookshelf * * * We think it a work of which the circulation is likely to promote true rPli- 
-ion and -enuine niety. It is enriched with a body of excellent notes selected troni the writings 
Sf the dead and living ornaments of the Church in England and this country .— ^rue CatUoUc. 

SPRAGUE— TRUE AND FALSE RELIGION. 

Lectures illustrating the Contrast between true Christianity and various other 
Systems. By William B. Sprague, D. D. One volume, 12mo., $1 00. 

LECTURES TO YOUNG PEOPLE, 

By W. B. Sprague, D. D. With an Introductory Address, by Samuel Miller, 
D. D. Fourth edition. One volume, 12mo., 83 cents. 

SUTTON— MEDITATIONS ON THE SACRAMENT. 

Godly Meditations upon the most Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. By 
Christopher Sutton, D. D., late Prebend of Westminster. One volume, 
royal 16mo., elegantly ornamented, $1 00. 
We announced in our last number the republication in this country of Sutton's "Meditations 

on the Lord's Supper." and. having since read the work, are prepared to recommend it warmly and 

•without qualification to the perusal of our readers.— fiffijmer oftke Cross. 

DISCE MORI— LEARN TO DIE: 

A Religious Discourse, moving every Christian man to enter into a Serious 
Remembrance of his End. By Christopher Sutton, D. D. One volume, 
16mo., $1 00. 
Of the three works of this excellent author lately reprinted, the "DisceMori" is, m our judg- 
ment, decidedly the best. We do not believe that a single journal or clergyman in the Uhurctt 
■will be found to say a word in its disparagement.— CAarcAman. 

. DISCE VIVERE— LEARN TO LIVE: 

Wherein is shown that the Life of Christ is and ought to be an Express Pat- 
tern for Imitation unto the Life of a Christian. By Christopher Sutton, 
D. D. One volume, 16mo., $1 00. 

In the " Disce Vivere," the author moulded his materials, after the manner of a^Kempis, into 
an " Imitatio Christi ;" each chapter inculcating some duty, upon the pattern of Him who gave 
Himself to be the beginning and the end of all perfection.— £ditor's Preface. 

SWART.-LETTERS TO MY GODCHILD, 

By the Rev. J. Swart, A. M., of the Diocese of Western New- York. ' One 

volume, 32mo., cloth, gilt leaves, 38 cents. 

The desi-n of this little work, as expressed by the author in the preface, is, tlw discharging of 
Sponsorial obligations. We have read it with interest and pleasure, and deem it well btted to se- 
cure its end. — Primitive Standard. 

SHERLOCK.-THE PRACTICAL CHRISTIAN; 

Or the Devout Penitent ; a Book of Devotion, containing the Whole Duty of 
'a Christian in all Occasions and Necessities, fitted to the main use of a holy 
Life By R. Sherlock, D D. With a Life of the Author, by the Right 
Rev. Bishop Wilson, Author of "Sacra Privata," &c. One elegant vol- 
ume, 16mo., $1 00. 

Considered as a manual of private devotion, and a means of practical preparation for the Holy 
Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ, this book is among the best, if not the best, ever 
commended to the members of our Church.— C/iurcAman. 

SILLIMAN.— A GALLOP AMONG AMERICAN SCENERY; 

Or, Sketches of American Scenes and Military Adventure. By Augustus L. 
Silliman One volume, 16mo., 75 cents. 

21 



Appleton's Catalogue of Valuable Publications. 

SHERWOOD— DUTY IS SAFETY; 

Or, Troublesome Tom, by Mrs. Slierwood. One volume, small 4to., illustra* 
ted witli woodcuts, cloth, 25 cents. 

THINK BEFORE YOU ACT, 

By Mrs. Sherwood. One volume, small 4to., wood cuts, cloth, 25 cents. 

JACK THE SAILOR-BOY, 

Qy Mrs. Sherwood. One volume, small 4to., wood cuts, cloth, 25 cents. 

Mrs. Sherwood's stories carry with them always such an excellent moral, that no child can read 
them without becoiping belter. — Philadelphia Enquirer. 

SINCLAIR-SCOTLAND AND THE SCOTCH; 

Or, tiie Western Circuit. By Catharine Sinclair, author of Modern Accom 
plishments. Modern Society, &c. &c. One volume, 12mo., 75 cents. 

SHETLAND AND THE SHETLANDERS; 

Or, the Northern Circuit. By Catharine Sinclair, author of Scotland and the 
Scotch, Holiday House, &c. t&c. One volume, 12mo., 88 cents. 
The author has proved herself to be a lady of high talent and rich cultivated mind. — JV. T. Am. 

SMITH— SCRIPTURE AND GEOLOGY; 

On the Relation between the Holy Scriptures and some parts of Geological 
Science. Eight Lectures. By John Pye Smith, D. D., author of the 
Scripture Testimony of the Messiah, &c. &c. One vol., 12mo., $1 25. 

ADVENTURES OF CAPT. JOHN SMITH, 

The Fonnder of the Colony of Virginia. By the author of Uncle Philip's 
Conversations. One volume, ISmo., frontispiece, 38 cents. 

Forming one of the series of" Library for my Young Countrymen." 
It will be read by youth with all the interest of a novel, and certainly with much more profit. 

DISCOURSES ON THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 

Select Discourses on the Functions of the Nervous System, in opposition to 
Phrenology, Materialism, and Atheism ; to which is prefixed a Lecture on 
the Diversities of the Human Character, arising from Physiological Pecu- 
liarities. By John Augustine Smith, M. D. One vol., 12mo., 75 cents. 

PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

A Familiar Digest of the Blost Recent Discoveries of Liebig, Davy, Johnston, 
and, other celebrated Writers on Vegetable Chemistry, showing how the 
results of Tillage might be greatly augmented. By Joseph A. Smith. One 
volume, 12mo., paper cover 31 cents, cloth 50 cents. 

SOUTHGATE.— TOUR THROUGH TURKEY 

And Persia. Narrative of a Tour through Armenia, Kurdistan, Persia, and 
Mesopotamia, with an Introduction and Occasional Observations upon the 
Condition of Mohammedanism and Cliristianity in those countries. By 
the Rev. Horatio Southgate, Missionary of the American Episcopal Church. 
Two volumes, 12mo., plates, $2 00. 

SOUTHEY.— THE COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS 

Of Robert Southey, Esq., LL. D. The ten volume London edition in one ele- 
gant volume, royal 8vo., with a fine portrait and vignette, $3 50. 

At the age of si.Tty-three I have undertaken to collect and edit my poetical works, with the last 
corrections that I can expect to bestow upon them. They have obtiined a reputation equal to 
Tny wishes. * * Thus to collect and revise them is a duty which I owe to that part of the pub- 
lic by whom they have been auspiciously received, and to tliose who will take a lively concern in 
my good name when I shall have departed. — Extract from Author^ s Preface. 

The beauties of Mr. Southey'" poetry arc such, that this edition can hardly fail to find aplaCO 
in the library of every man fond of elegant literature. — Eclectic Reoieio 

22 



Appleton's Catalogue of Valuable Publications. 

TAYLOR— THE SACRED ORDER AND OFFICES 

Of Episcopacy Asserted and Maintained ; to which is added, Clerus Domini, 
a Discourse on the Office Ministerial, by the Right Rev. Bishop Jeremj 
Taylor, D. D. One volume, 16mo., $1 00. 

The reprint in a portable form of this eminent divine's masterly defence of Episcopacy, cannot 
fail of being welcomed by every Churchman. 

The publishers have presented this jewel in a fitting casket. — JV. Y.American. 



THE GOLDEN GROVE: 



A choice Manual, containing what is to be Believed, Practised, and Desired, 
or prayed for ; the Prayers being fitted for the several Days of the Week. 
To which is added, a Guide for the Penitent, or a Model drawn up for the 
Help of Devout Souls wounded with Sin. Also, Festival Hymns, &c. By 
the Right Rev. Bishop Jeremy Taylor. One volume, 16mo., 50 cents. 

THE YOUNG ISLANDERS: 

A Tale of the Last Century, by Jefferys Taylor. One volume, 16mo., beauti- 
fully illustrated, 75 cents. 

This fascinating and elegantly illustrated volume for the young is pronounced to equal in inte- 
rest De Foe's immortal work, Kobinson Crusoe. 

HOME EDUCATION, 

By Isaac Taylor, author of" Natural History of Enthusiasm," &c. &c. Sec- 
ond edition. One volume, 12mo., $1 00. 
Avery enlightened, just, and Christiau vievy of a most important subject. — Am. Bib. Repos. 

PHYSICAL THEORY 

Of another Life, by Isaac Taylor. Third edition. One vol., 12mo., 88 cents. 
One of the most learned and extraordinary works of modern times. 

SPIRITUAL CHRISTIANITY. 

Lectures on Spiritual Christianity, by Isaac Taylor. One vol., 12mo., 75 cents 

The view which this volume gives of Christianity, both as a system of truth and a system of 
duty, is in the highest degree instructive. — Albany Evening Journal. 



NATURAL HISTORY OF SOCIETY 



In the Barbarous and Civilized State. An Essay towards Discovering the 
Origin and Course of Human Improvement, by W. Cooke Taylor, LL. D., 
«&c., of Trinity College, Dublin. Handsomely printed on fine paper. Two 
volumes, 12mo., $2 25. 

THOUGHTS IN PAST YEARS: 

A collection of Poetry, chiefly Devotional, by the author of The CathedraL 
One volume, 16mo., elegantly printed, $1 25. 

TOKEN OF AFFECTION. 

One volume, 32rao., frontispiece, cloth, gilt leaves, 31 cents. 

FRIENDSHIP. 

One volume, 32mo., frontispiece, cloth, gilt leaves, 31 cents. 

LOVE. 

One volume, 32mo., frontispiece, cloth, gilt leaves, 31 cents. 

REMEMBRANCE. 

One volume, 32mo., frontispiece, cloth, gilt leaves, 31 cents. 

THE HEART. 

One volume, 32mo., frontispiece, cloth, gilt leaves, 31 cents. 

Forming a portion of the scries of" Miniature Classical Library." 
Each volume consists of nearly one hundred appropriate extracts fiom the best writers of Eng- 
land and America, 

33 



Appleton's Catalogue of Valuable Publications. 

THOMSON— THE SEASONS, 

A Poem, by James Thomson. One vol., 32mo., cloth, gilt leaves, 38 cento. 

Forming one ot'the scries of" Miniature Classical liilirary." 
Place " The Seasons " in any.Hglit, and the poem appears faultless. — S. C. Hall. 

URE— DICTIONARY OF ARTS, 

Manuflictiires, and fllines, containing a clear Exposition of their Principles and 
Practice. By Andrew Ure, M. D., F. R. S., »S:c. Illustrated with 1240 
Engravings on wood. One tiiick volume of 1340 pages, bound in leather, 
$5 00, or in two volumes, ^5 50. 

In every point of view, a work like the present can but he regarded as a benefit done to theoret- 
ical and practical science, to commerce and industry, and an important addition to a species o( 
litor.iture the exclusive production of the present century, and the present state of peace and civi- 
lization — dthciiwuin. 

Dr. Ure's Dictionary, of which the American edition is now completed, is a stupendous proof 
of persevering assiduity, combined with genius and taste. For all the benefit of individual enter- 
prise in the practical arts and manufictures, and for the enhancement of general prosperity through 
the extension of accurate knowledge of political economy, we have not any work worthy to bo 
compared witli this important volume. We are convinced that manufacturers, mprchants, trades- 
men, students of natural and experimental philosophy, inventive mechanics, men of opulence, 
members of legislatures, and all who desire to comprehend something of the rapidly accelerating 
progress of those discoveries which facilitate the supply of human wants, and the augmentation 
of social comforts with the national weal, will find this invaluable Dictionary a perennial source 
of salutary instruction and edifying enjoyment. — JVational Intelligencer. 

VERY LITTLE TALES, 

For Very Little Children, in single Syllables of three and four Letters — first 
series. One volume, square 18mo., numerous illustrations, cloth, 38 cents. 
Second Series, in single Syllables of four and five Letters. One volume, 
square IBmo., numerous illustrations — to match first series — 38 cents. 

WAYLAND— LIMITATIONS OF HUMAN 

Responsibility. By Francis Wayland, D. D. One volume, IBmo., 38 cents. 
CoNTE.nTS. — I. The Nature of the Subject. II. Individual Responsibility. III. Individual 
Responsibility (continued). IV. Persecution on account of Religious Opinions. V. Propagation 
of Truth. VI. Voluntary Associations. VII. Ecclesiastical Associations. VIII. Official Respon 
sibility. IX. The Slavery Question. 

WILBERFORCE— MANUAL FOR COMMUNICANTS; 

Or, The Order for administering the Holy Communion ; conveniently arrang- 
ed with Meditations and Prayers from old English divines : being the Eu- 
charistica of Samuel Wilberforce, M. A., Archdeacon of Surrey, (adapted 
to the American service.) 38 cents, gilt leaves 50 cents. 
We most earnestly commend the work. — Churchman. 

WILSON— SACRA PRIVATA. 

The Private Meditations, Devotions, and Prayers of the Right Rev. T. Wil- 
son, D. D., Lord Bishop of Soder and Man. First complete edition. One 
volume, 16mo., elegantly ornamented, $1 00. 

The reprint is an honor to the American press. The work itself is, perhaps, on the whole, the 
best devotional treatise in the language. It has never before in this country been printed entire. 
— Churchman. 

A neat miniature edition, abridged for popular use, is also published. Price 31 cents. 

WOMAN'S WORTH; 

Or, Hints to Raise the Female Character. First American from the last Eng 
lish edition, with a Recommendatory Notice, by Emily Marshall. On© 
neat volume, 18mo., cloth gilt 38 cents, paper cover 25 cents. 
The sentiments and principles enforced in this book may be safely commended to the atten- 
tion of women of all ranks. — London Atlas. 

YOUTH'S BOOK OF NATURE; 

Or, The Four Seasons Illustrated, being Familiar Descriptions of Natural His- 
tory, made during Walks in the Country, by Rev. H. B. Draper. Illustra- 
ted with upwards of 50 wood Engravings. One vol., square 16mo., 75 cents. 
On« of the most faultless Tolum«i for the young that has «v«r b«en issusd. — Chr. K^fiector, 

24 



V^f 88 



